This event will take place virtually at 4:30pm PST/6:30pm CST. Not in CST or PST? Check your time zone.
Join Dr. Chris Stacey for a presentation on the creation of the Black Panther Party in Chicago, Fred Hampton’s Role in the BPP, and the events leading to his death on December 4, 1969 at the age of twenty-one. In Part One, we’ll seek to gain an understanding of the factors involved behind the Black Panther Party’s emergence in the political and community life of Chicagoans in the late 1960s. We’ll start by looking at the wave of white mob violence against African Americans at Airport Homes, Fernwood Park, Park Manor, Englewood, and Trumbull Park in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Central to this narrative is the role the Chicago Police Department played in policing these large scale riots and the 1952 anti-police brutality campaign. Then, we’ll examine the changes in CPD policies under Mayor Daley in the 1950s and 60s. We’ll discuss the historically traditional role armed self-defense played in Chicago’s African-American community prior to the founding of Chicago’s Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in late 1968. We’ll explore why the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed self-defense group and political force in the South, did not succeed when they formed a revolutionary Chicago chapter in 1966 and how this influenced the Chicago BPP.
Register for event access information.
2022 History of Chicago Series
- Mar 30: History of Chicago Series. The Black Panthers and the Murder of Fred Hampton. Part 2: Murder and Legacy
- April 27: Puerto Rican Immigration and the Division Street Riots, 1946-1966
- May 25: The Rise of Chicago Blues and R & B: Vee-Jay, Chess Records, and the City’s Musical Pioneers, 1947-1960
- June 29: Korean Immigration: Struggles and Social Influences, 1948-1992
- July 27: Chicago Shapes the American Diet, Part 2: Sugar
- Aug 31: Chicago Gospel Music, Part 3: Rise to World Prominence, 1950s-1960s
- Sept 28: Chicago Transportation, Part 2: Cable Car City and Elevated Trains, 1882-1924
- Nov 30: Chicago Shapes the American Diet, Part 3: Meat
- Dec 28: Religion in Chicago, Part 1: World's Parliament of Religions of 1893