What I'm Listening To

Just like with Goodfellas, Malcolm X and countless others, I'd seen the EXCELLENT movie, Judas and the Black Massiah, too many times to count. LaKeith Stansfield and Jesse Plemons are two of my favorite actors and there are some historical events that fascinate me when I first learn of them. After seeing Judas and the Black Massiah when it was released on what was called HBO Max a few years back, I became really interested in Fred Hampton's assassination. Oh and this movie was also the first movie I ever saw Dominique Fishback in. What's haaaappenin' Ms 'Nique. Ok, focus my man!

​

Just like with the book, I can't watch Judas without getting pissed off in real life. And the movie started off and ended with an interview of the real Bill O'Neal. So I was already familiar, at least in part, with what happened. I liked reading the first perspective because it made sense to me that the whole conspiracy wasn't known at that point. I think they purposely only mentioned Bill once in the first part, because that was how he wanted himself to be known in Fred's world. A dude in the background that no one paid particularly close attention to

​

But with the author being a lawyer, we get a lot of the legal bullshit that went on back then too. The whole thing is enough to piss most people off reading it

​

One thing I found very interesting that I alluded to earlier, was that the author mentions that Dr King "didn't have nearly as much success in Chicago (where Hampton was from and died) as he did in Birmingham". In his book, Dr King did mention spending some time fighting for civil rights in Chicago, but he conveniently left that part out of his book. The reason he didn't have as much success is because he couldn't get those radical Panthers in Chicago to conform to his non-violent approach, which was very very important to Dr King. That's one area, coincidentally, where I was critical of Dr King in his book. His non-violent approach wasn't something that was up for discussion. It was very much a "my way or the highway" kinda thing, and I really hate that type of shit; especially within the realm of religion. The implication is always that your way is the only correct way. I didn't go along with all of his rhetoric, so I know there had to be people back then that didn't go along with it either. But Dr King chose to omit that from his book, which in my opinion, places him in the same fake ass category as my mother, at least in that regard. I understand the totality of Dr King's story, so I still have waaaay more respect for him than I do my mother. I just disagree with certain things

​​

Anyway, in this book, I'm just at the point where the author begins to question to one of his colleagues if Bill O'Neal could be an FBI Informant and begin to fight to get the files unblocked and get the government to charge the local police with murder. The movie didn't have the time or the ability to delve into just how deep of a conspiracy this shit was. Fuck Hoover, fuck O'Neal, fuck (I think his name is spelled) Hanrahan, triple MOTHER FUCK Judge Perry, and anybody else I haven't gotten to in the book yet. But super major shoutout to Judge Swaggert. I'm telling y'all, this is an emotional ass fucking book

​

I plan to finish this book this week and I'm fully prepared for me to get so pissed off that my blood pressure raises. I mean, that's the sign of a great ass story right there, am I right?

​

Updated 3/9/2025

​

All done. Wow, what a great book. It's one of those books that kinda sticks with you for a few days after you're done reading it. Some of y'all know what I'm talking about. Since it was written from the lawyer's perspective, we didn't really get a lot of the specifics with Bill O'Neal. And I think I know why

​

​As I mentioned, the author only had limited interactions with Fred. And I will give him all credit where it's due, he took absolutely fucking amazing notes. I swear I needed this dude in my college classes taking my notes for me. He takes impeccable notes. Not only recording verbatim what was said but also even managing to capture the vibe in the room. Every conversation was thorough. So if the writer didn't have a lot of interactions with Fred, he wouldn't have had much interaction with O'Neal either

Instead, he let us in to other areas we would have never been able to go in otherwise, like the judge's chambers when they were pulled inside for a secret council, or in the courtroom when the jurors were temporarily dismissed. The author -Jeff Haas is his name, btw, no idea why I haven't said it yet - figured that the particulars about O'Neal would come out eventually. His focus, and ultimately the focus of his book, is about their multi-year fight in courtrooms just to get justice for Hammond, Mark Clark, their families and the survivors of the raid

There was one thing I noticed that I just fell in love with. See, it took me a while to realize that the majority of my family members (to be fair I'm talking about most of the elder so-called leaders) are fucking idiots, right? So, for decades, all those dumb ass mentalities were all I was surrounded by, giving me a false impression that there are very few intelligent people on this planet. The truth is there are some absolutely brilliant people who have walked and are currently walking this planet. Yeah, you've got your Einsteins, Degrasse-Tysons, and such. But the majority of the most brilliant people walking this planet may not be famous. Or at least not world famous. Some of the smartest people are people you dismiss daily  

​

The 60's were a time in history that will live forever. Soooo much shit happened in that decade alone in our country's history. I have the luxury of reading about it decades later, when things are SLIGHTLY better than then. The people who lived through it were the right people for the job and I will always respect each and every one of them, even if I didn't agree with their whatever. I also have the advantage of living in an era with so much technology, these muthafuckas are legit tryna replace us with AI. There were some super brilliant people who lived in that time, but they didn't have the benefit of having this technology at their hands. In reading this, there were many people of both colors who were brilliant. I was so glad to read about so many intelligent black people

​

Like one of the Panthers right after the raid, as he was giving his recollection of events to Haas, who angrily (and almost casually) made an intelligent observation immediately after the raid based on information he received. As I said earlier, the first part of the book was actually gathering the testimonies of the survivors to find out exactly what happened, and it was only an hour or so after the attack. Keep in mind, when it first happened nothing was really known immediately. Everything was speculation and it was the cops' word against the Panthers. Each Panther to a tee described the amount of shooting with their own words, but with all words meaning the same thing; powerful

​

So when Fred's second in command (I forgot his name, apologies sir, no disrespect intended), who ran into the room to try to wake him, and is the one who got the cops to stop shooting by shouting there was a pregnant sister back there (Deborah Johnson, Fred's girlfriend who was pregnant with his baby when he died) spoke to Haas, one of the first things he wanted to know was if Fred was alright. Jeff told him they'd been told he was dead and may have been shot up close. Fred's second in command after getting worked up calmed himself down and said something along the lines of, "Yeah, that makes sense. Almost all of the bullets they fired were aimed in Fred's direction"

​​

Again, keep in mind this right after the attack. The cops left after doing their dirt leaving Panthers like him to do some looking around. He was able to determine that doing what couldn't have been much more than a preliminary search around the apartment. And he would go on to be huge in helping expose that Fred was murdered and that he never shot back as the police claimed. I believe it was this same guy who decided to open up the apartment to the public for viewings to show the police lied about everything (if it wasn't him, it was a different Panther, further proving my point here). These people were brilliant. Fred was brilliant. And the government not only really hated that, they also feared it immensely

​

​There was also Mark Clark's (another victim of the raid that killed Fred, played by Jermaine Fowler in the movie) mother who figured out that the governor or police chief or some HWMIC tried to trick her into signing something saying her son was an FBI informant

​

"That man tried to trick us into signing something fraudulent, but I refused to sign it, and it caused him to give us cab fare and kick us out"

​

Seriously, brilliant people. And an absolutely fantastic read. I highly recommend