Loaded Images: Dead heroes, living lessons, Black Panthers, and The Murder of Fred Hampton
By J.H. Tompkins
I DEEPLY ADMIRED Fred Hampton during the late 1960s, when he was a charismatic Black Panther leader from Chicago. A brilliant speaker, he could transform an unruly crowd into a rapt congregation with the turn of a phrase. Or so it was said; I never met him, but he was my age, and from the sound of things, as streetwise and tough as I was not. The 2,000 miles between Oakland and Chicago only enhanced a presence I'd fashioned from news clippings, photos, rumors, and stories. When the Chicago police murdered Hampton years before the Panthers self-destructed, they spared him and me the complications of the future – dead heroes won't let you down. [more]
We are pleased to welcome J.H.Tompkins to our ever-growing, ever-outstanding list of Samizdat Harbingers.
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