Lessons from the P.O.C.C. & Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.

by Davey D

For those who don’t know, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. became known to many within the Hip Hop community when dead prez did a song called ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ a few years back. Here they talked about his incarceration and the controversial case surrounding him. many felt the charges levied on him were trumped up and a result of his political activism.

Chairman Fred is the son of Fred Hampton Sr. who headed up the largest Black Panther chapter in America. His dad made major inroads by doing what was seemingly the impossible. He politicized many of Chicago’s notorious gangs and then laid groundwork to establish what many consider the first Rainbow Coalition. Hampton had reached out and brought to the table various Black and Latino organizations and gangs along with the white Patriots and folks from the Native American movement to organize and combat various political and economic oppressive conditions impacting People of color and poor communities.

Because Hampton had been so successful in politicizing the gangs (street tribes), the Chicago police became increasingly threatened. On December 4th 1969, they raided his home and shot him and another Panther named Mark Clark while they slept. Fred Hampton Jr. was still inside his mother’s womb when this happened, but as an unborn he wasn’t spared the brutality and terrorism of the police. They placed a gun on the stomach of his mom who was pregnant at the time. It is with this backdrop that Fred Hampton Jr, came into the world, grew up and continued the political and organizing work of his slain father.

We recently sat down with Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. who heads up the POCC, the recovery of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina of the POCC sponsored Black Cross, the African Anti-Terrorism Bill, the case involving political prisoner Aaron Patterson and the renaming of a Chicago Street after his father Fred Hampton Sr. We also talked at length about two important topics impacting the Black community, the immigration debate and Black Brown unity.

We also spoke at length about celebrity culture and how many of the people and communities that need to be reached are addicted to it. For many people, if the message doesn’t show up on MTV, BET or the local radio station via popular artists then it doesn’t exist at all. We talked about the POCC’s code of culture and how they have attempted to combat that phenomenon and why they have been successful in engaging artists to help get their message and work across to the people. For example, during Immortal Technique’s sold out show in Oakland, Chairman Fred was invited onto the stage to address the crowd and introduce Technique. He was invited to speak before the sold out crowd of the We The People Show in Los Angeles as well as a televised TV concert that will soon air on Starz for dead prez.

The following day Chairman Fred and Technique along with author Adisa Banjoko hooked up with the Brown Berets in Watsonville, California for a Hip Hop festival that had Black and Brown unity as the main focus. Hampton was very adamant about the importance for the Black community to be in support and alongside those who are involved in the immigration struggle. During our interview he went into great detail about the legacy of the immigration struggle and how the land that we live on was obtained by our government in the first place. He talked about genocide and un-honored treaties and other atrocities waged upon Indigenous People.

During his remarks at Immortal technique’s concert , he likened those Blacks who have been siding with the government in this immigration debate to be no different then Buffalo Soldiers who ran around killing native people’s on behalf of white power structure in America’s government during the push out west. Chairman Fred continued on by talking about how various communities should be uniting around sets of principals and establishing mutual respect.

In our interview Chairman Fred talked about the big battle in Chicago around the renaming of Monroe street to Fred Hampton Sr Way. There has been major opposition from Chicago mayor Daly and his co-horts who apparently understand the important symbolism behind naming a street after a Black Panther. People in the Chicago area are encouraged to come out City Hall 121 North La sale Street by 10am on April 26 when a vote will be taken on this matter. Later that day Hampton will be teaming up with comedian Dave Chappelle to do a Fred Hampton block party.

You can peep the interview on Breakdown FM: odeo.com/audio/1051579/view