Summary of Jeffrey Haas's The Assassination of Fred Hampton

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, spoke at a church in Chicago in August 1969. He said, I’m free. I went down to the prison in Menard, thinking we were the vanguard, but down there I got down on my knees and listened and learned from the people. I went down to the valley and picked up the beat of the people.

#2 I was eventually asked to be a part of the movement, and I obliged. I became a lawyer for the movement, and I loved it. I was speaking in a quieter voice: I believe I was born not to die in a car wreck or slipping on a piece of ice, but I’m going to be able to die doing the things I was born for.

#3 I was born in 1942, in Atlanta. My father, Joseph Haas, was the attorney for the Southern Regional Council, a civic organization concerned with racial inequalities in the South. He worked with civil rights organizers to implement the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

#4 I was raised by blacks, as my mother worked with the Atlanta Committee for International Visitors to host African delegations. I learned how to plow behind our mule, Boley, and address her with the commands gee and haw to get her to turn right or left.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822511750

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Insights on Jeffrey Haas's The Assassination of Fred Hampton

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, spoke at a church in Chicago in August 1969. He said, I’m free. I went down to the prison in Menard, thinking we were the vanguard, but down there I got down on my knees and listened and learned from the people. I went down to the valley and picked up the beat of the people.

#2

I was eventually asked to be a part of the movement, and I obliged. I became a lawyer for the movement, and I loved it. I was speaking in a quieter voice: I believe I was born not to die in a car wreck or slipping on a piece of ice, but I’m going to be able to die doing the things I was born for.

#3

I was born in 1942, in Atlanta. My father, Joseph Haas, was the attorney for the Southern Regional Council, a civic organization concerned with racial inequalities in the South. He worked with civil rights organizers to implement the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

#4

I was raised by blacks, as my mother worked with the Atlanta Committee for International Visitors to host African delegations. I learned how to plow behind our mule, Boley, and address her with the commands gee and haw to get her to turn right or left.

#5

I emulated Walter and took great pride in showing me what he knew. I was his Jim, and he was my Huck. But unlike our predecessors, the traveling Walter and I did was to baseball games.

#6

I was the first Jewish kid to go to Liberty Gwinn, a county elementary school near my house. The kids there would call me Jewish horn-head because of my horns, but they never called me names for being black.

#7

In 1960, I was a high school senior in Atlanta, and I frequented the Royal Peacock Social Club, which was a integrated nightclub. I was half-pint bottles of bourbon or Seagram’s Seven, and I poured generous amounts into the paper cups of Coke I bought for mixers.

#8

I wanted to prove to myself that I could survive in a setting without relying on my privilege or my family’s money. I enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1963, and was sent to Fort Jackson, near Columbia, South Carolina. Three days later, President Kennedy was assassinated.

#9

Iberia and Fred’s son, Francis, was born on August 30, 1948, in Argo, a suburb on the southwestern side of Chicago. His parents grew up outside the small town of Haynesville in northern Louisiana. In 1958, when Fred was ten, his family moved to Maywood, a working-class suburb.

#10

Fred was a smart boy, but his grades didn’t reflect his smartness. He loved to