On this day, 23 November 1969, leading Black Panther Fred Hampton spoke at a meeting organised by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom at the University of Illinois. Among those in attendance was Luis Kutner, a lawyer and co-founder of Amnesty International. Unknown to Hampton, Kutner was an informant for the FBI, who reported on the meeting to his handler, and claimed that Hampton was “ranting and raving” and said that President Nixon was “a member of the ‘capitalistic establishment’” and that “Nixon must die”. Kutner said that he was telling the FBI this because of “its possible violation of Federal law”. A few days later, the FBI had Hampton, aged just 21, drugged and murdered in his sleep.
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