0:00:11.705,0:00:13.156
Good afternoon.

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I've been known as many things [br]over the course of my life.

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I've been known as a son, a brother,[br]a husband, an educator.

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But in 2008, I became known as a felon.

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And I became known as a felon

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through a very curious set [br]of circumstances.

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I was teaching at a university [br]in Mississippi at the time,

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teaching the History [br]of the Civil Rights Movement,

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and I needed a car.

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So, I did what most people would do.

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I went on the Internet and I found a car.

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This car I found was in Des Moines, Iowa.

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So I was going to fly to Des Moines[br]and drive the car back.

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A few weeks before that, [br]I'd had a book signing,

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and I actually ran out of books [br]at this book signing,

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but people wanted the books, [br]so they gave me cash, [br]

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and wrote me checks, and said,

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"The next time you come through town[br]just bring the books with you."

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And I said, "OK." I'd do that.

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I knew that when I was driving [br]this car back from Iowa,

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I was going to have to[br]pass through this town,

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so, I took the books with me.

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I packed my stuff up, [br]went to the airport,

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checked in, made my way through security.

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And then I hear my name over the intercom.

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"Curtis Austin, return [br]to the check-in counter."

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And so I do.

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I get back to the check-in counter, [br]and there's this bevy of airport police

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and TSA agents surrounding my bag, [br]just hovering over my bag.

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And they've got these books, [br]and they're looking at these books.

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And the book has [br]this picture on the cover.

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It's a book about [br]the Black Panther Party.

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And they're flummoxed.

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They're taken aback, you know?

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They've got this black man, [br]he's got a one-way ticket to Iowa,

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no clothes, no toiletries, [br]and all these books.

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And so they said, "Well, [br]we're going to have to call the FBI."

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I said, "Whoa! The FBI? Why?"

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He says, "Well, that's what we do [br]in situations like this."

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And that's what they did.[br]They called the FBI.

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And the FBI came to the airport.

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TSA and airport security [br]escorted me upstairs, put me in a room,

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and this FBI agent came in the room [br]and began to interrogate me,

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but he had this book.

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He was going through this book,[br]and then he'd ask me questions,

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he'd look in the book [br]and ask me more questions,

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and this interrogation went on for hours.

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And I finally worked up the nerve [br]to say, "Am I under arrest?"

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And he said, "No, we're just [br]asking questions here."

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And I said, "Well, [br]does that mean I can leave?"

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And he said, "Yeah, you can leave."[br]So that's what I did.

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I left. I found another flight. [br]I went to Des Moines.

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I bought the car and drove it back [br]and dropped the books off

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and went back to work.

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I didn't think much more about it.

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I mean, I thought it was bizarre,[br]but I grew up black in Mississippi

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and so you get used to the bizarre.

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(Laughter)

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And I don't think about it anymore [br]until one day I'm talking with my boss,

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and she says, "Curtis, we have a problem."

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And I said, "OK,[br]what kind of problem do we have?"

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She said, "Well, it's come to my attention[br]that you're a felon,

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and we can't allow felons [br]to teach at the University."

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A felon?! Wait a minute.

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This is a classic [br]WTF moment for me, right?

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(Laughter)

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I don't know what's going on [br]and she doesn't either, but she says,

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"I think you should call the FBI."

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That's what I do. I call the FBI, [br]tell them who I am and why I'm calling,

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and they look me up on their system [br]and the woman I'm talking to says,

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"Yeah, it says you're a felon."

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I said, "Well, what did I do?" [br]She said, "I don't know."

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I said, "When did I do it?"[br]She said, "I don't know."

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I said, "Where did I do it?" [br]She said, "I don't know.

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In fact I don't have [br]any more information.

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Maybe, if you call the [br]U.S. Attorney's office,

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they can give you more information.

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She gave me the number [br]for the U.S. Attorney's office.

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I called them.

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They looked me up in their system,[br]and the person I spoke with said,

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"Yes, It says here you're a felon."

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And I asked the same set of questions, [br]and got the same exact set of answers.

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"I don't know."

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It literally takes me more than two years

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to get this felony removed from my record.

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I came to understand [br]that the felony was on my record

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because I had written a book [br]about the Black Panther Party.

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Some of you may be familiar [br]with the Black Panther Party.

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For those of you who are not, [br]it was an organization

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that started in 1966[br]in Oakland, California,

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as an effort to prevent the police[br]brutality and murder of black people.

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But it also organized [br]around a range of other issues

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that were affecting the black community, [br]like healthcare, and housing,

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and full employment,[br]and fairness in the courts.

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They wanted blacks to be tried [br]by juries of their peers

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because to that point [br]they were being tried by all whites.

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While they were organizing [br]around these issues,

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the press was vilifying them [br]and demonizing them

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and telling lies about them.

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In fact, one of the lies [br]is that it was this group of black men

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who wanted to go out [br]and kill white people.

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That's what they were about.

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Nothing could be further from the truth.

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The fact of the matter [br]is the Black Panther Party,

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the majority of the people [br]in the Black Panther Party were not men,

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they were women.

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And a few years after their party started,

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the majority of the leadership[br]of the Black Panther Party were women.

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So, It just wasn't true [br]that there's this group of black men

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going around and killing white people.

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Another lie that has been told [br]about this organization

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is it was racist and anti-white,

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and they just didn't like [br]white people at all.

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Well, also not true, [br]and I'll prove that to you.

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The Panthers would find out [br]what the problems were

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in their communities[br]and attempt to solve them.

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For example, they realized that children [br]weren't learning in school,

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and they weren't learning [br]because they were hungry.

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So they decided to feed the children.

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They were going to feed them [br]before school,

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so they created [br]these free breakfast programs.

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And the way they created these programs

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was to go to the grocery stores [br]in their communities,

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ask the grocery store owners [br]if they would donate milk, and bread,

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and eggs, and meat, and cereal, [br]other things people eat for breakfast,

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and these store owners said yes, [br]and they donated these items.

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All over the country, in every city [br]where there was a chapter

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of the Black Panther Party, [br]- and there were about 40 -

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there was a free breakfast program.

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It's not likely that these [br]white business owners would donate

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to the Black Panther Party [br]if they were actually racist.

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Another thing they did in the community [br]to serve the people

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was they created free health clinics.

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Again, they went around and found out [br]there were a range of health problems

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that needed to be attended to.

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Black people were rather poor, [br]so they couldn't afford to go to doctors,

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couldn't afford to go to hospitals.

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So the Panthers went [br]to hospitals and medical schools

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and asked the doctors and medical students

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whether they would come [br]to the black community

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and deal with some [br]of these medical issues.

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Overwhelmingly, they said yes.

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Again, all over the country,

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in cities wherever the Black Panther Party[br]set up chapters,

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there were these free health clinics;

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although they were being run [br]by the Black Panther Party,

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they were peopled by white people,

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so I don't know [br]how they could be racist and anti-white

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if their signature programs[br]were actually being supported

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by fairly wealthy and often [br]middle class white people.

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One of the people who was very, very good[br]at pulling individuals, white and others,

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into the Black Panther Party orbit, [br]was a guy by the name of Fred Hampton.

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Fred Hampton was the leader [br]of the Chicago Chapter

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of the Black Panther Party.

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He was a very eloquent speaker. [br]He was very persuasive.

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Fred Hampton could persuade people [br]that there was actual injustice.

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More importantly than that, [br]he could persuade people

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that they should do something [br]to combat that injustice.

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So in addition to going [br]to these hospitals, and grocery stores,

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and getting the things[br]they needed for their programs,

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Fred Hampton also worked [br]with other groups and organizations

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who were Latino, Asian, Native American,[br]even large groups of poor whites

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who had moved up from the South [br]or into Chicago from Appalachia.

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They would work with these organizations

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and set up the same kinds of programs[br]in their communities.

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They were very successful at this,

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but the government [br]didn't like what they were doing,

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so in addition to vilifying [br]and discrediting them in the press,

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they began to arrest its members

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and in very extreme cases, [br]to kill its members.

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And thats exactly what happened [br]to Fred Hampton.

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On December 4th, 1969,

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the Chicago Police Department, [br]the Illinois State Attorney's Office,

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burst into Fred Hampton's apartment[br]at 4:30 in the morning,

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while he and everyone else [br]in there were asleep,

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and just began spraying [br]the place with bullets.

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It wounded several people.

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There was a person guarding the door[br]named Mark Clark.

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They shot him straight through the heart, [br]and he died immediately.

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They make their way through the house [br]to Fred Hampton's bedroom,

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find him there, he's asleep, [br]because he's been drugged,

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but he's asleep next to his girlfriend [br]who's eight and a half months pregnant,

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and they grab Fred Hampton by his hair [br]and shoot him in the back of the head

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at point blank range twice, [br]killing him instantly.

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That's the end of Fred Hampton.

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So we have to ask ourselves, [br]what is it about this organization

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that prompt's such an irrational, [br]over the top, and extreme response,

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that 40 years after the organization [br]has died, a lowly professor like myself

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can be stopped in an airport, [br]detained for hours, questioned,

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then labeled a felon for simply [br]writing a book about the organization?

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Why does Fred Hampton have to pay [br]with his life for simply organizing

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around issues, that everybody --

0:10:01.629,0:10:05.289
there's nothing wrong with feeing kids,[br]and taking care of sick people.

0:10:05.289,0:10:08.608
There's nothing wrong with not wanting [br]to be killed by the police.

0:10:08.608,0:10:11.688
So we have to ask ourselves, [br]what is it about this organization?

0:10:11.688,0:10:13.017
And I'll tell you.

0:10:13.017,0:10:17.348
The thing about this organization [br]is that it was actually anti-racist,

0:10:17.348,0:10:21.130
and it made a point to work [br]with all people whether it was

0:10:21.130,0:10:25.625
upper and middle class whites, [br]lower class whites, Asians,

0:10:25.625,0:10:27.609
latinos, Native Americans.

0:10:27.609,0:10:30.619
Anybody who wanted to help [br]solve these problems,

0:10:30.619,0:10:33.319
this organization was willing [br]to work with them,

0:10:33.319,0:10:34.539
and that was the problem.

0:10:34.539,0:10:37.488
If this interracial organization [br]was not effective,

0:10:37.488,0:10:40.309
people would not have been [br]so dead set against it.

0:10:40.309,0:10:44.629
So it wasn't just Fred Hampton [br]who had to pay.

0:10:44.629,0:10:47.728
It wasn't just me who had to pay [br]with being labeled a felon.

0:10:47.728,0:10:51.085
You probably saw this a few weeks ago.

0:10:51.085,0:10:55.369
Beyonce performed at the Super Bowl, [br]at the halftime show,

0:10:55.369,0:10:58.278
and she and the women [br]who were dancing with her,

0:10:58.278,0:11:02.120
dressed up in these black leather outfits,[br]these black berets,

0:11:02.120,0:11:05.579
and they were dressed that way [br]to pay homage to the Black Panther Party.

0:11:05.579,0:11:10.208
2016 marks the 50th anniversary [br]of the founding of the Black Panther Party

0:11:10.208,0:11:14.668
and they were trying to honor [br]this community service organization.

0:11:14.668,0:11:18.198
But what they got in return [br]was a ton of hate mail.

0:11:18.198,0:11:22.874
People all over the country are saying [br]they are racist and anti-white,

0:11:22.874,0:11:24.151
they are cop haters.

0:11:24.151,0:11:28.169
Police officers has said [br]that they don't want to give her

0:11:28.169,0:11:31.179
the security she needs at her concerts.

0:11:31.179,0:11:34.130
Mayors have said[br]they don't want her in their town.

0:11:34.130,0:11:37.180
Beyonce is racist. Beyonce.

0:11:38.340,0:11:42.970
I mean, racy maybe? But not racist.

0:11:42.970,0:11:44.530
(Laughter)

0:11:44.530,0:11:46.769
So, we just have to keep asking ourselves

0:11:46.769,0:11:49.630
why are we told these stories[br]about the Black Panther Party,

0:11:49.630,0:11:53.056
and who benefits [br]from us knowing these lies.

0:11:53.056,0:11:56.370
I want to encourage you [br]to do your own research about the party,

0:11:56.370,0:11:58.661
but be careful [br]when you're doing your research

0:11:58.661,0:12:02.070
because I've been studying [br]this subject for 25 years now,

0:12:02.070,0:12:07.289
and what I've discovered is that 73%[br]of all the newspaper articles

0:12:07.289,0:12:10.461
written about the Black Panther Party,

0:12:10.461,0:12:15.160
were written by the FBI, [br]or people the FBI recruited.

0:12:15.950,0:12:18.816
So there is all this villainy [br]and misinformation.

0:12:18.816,0:12:21.819
And we spoke about [br]Fred Hampton a second ago,

0:12:21.819,0:12:25.210
and I just want to tell you [br]that Fred Hampton and Mark Clark's family

0:12:25.210,0:12:28.329
actually sued the city of Chicago, [br]the State Attorney's Office,

0:12:28.329,0:12:30.111
a jury found them guilty,

0:12:30.111,0:12:33.341
and they paid them[br]almost two million dollars.

0:12:34.181,0:12:37.481
But that doesn't bring Fred back, [br]and that doesn't stop the villainy.

0:12:37.481,0:12:41.130
We have to find out the truth [br]about this organization for ourselves,

0:12:41.130,0:12:42.628
and I encourage you to do that.

0:12:42.628,0:12:46.530
I also encourage you to question [br]your own biases about what you know

0:12:46.530,0:12:48.610
about American history.

0:12:48.610,0:12:50.670
And finally, I want to encourage you

0:12:50.670,0:12:54.120
to reach out across [br]racial lines and ethnic lines,

0:12:54.120,0:12:58.480
and do your part in solving the problems [br]that face our country today,

0:12:58.480,0:13:01.491
because black people can't solve[br]these problems on their own.

0:13:01.491,0:13:03.551
White people can't solve them [br]on their own.

0:13:03.551,0:13:05.645
Latino people can't solve them [br]on their own.

0:13:05.645,0:13:11.412
Unless all of us come together as a people[br]and solve these problems,

0:13:11.412,0:13:13.697
they will never be solved.

0:13:13.697,0:13:17.527
So I say to you: power to the people.

0:13:17.527,0:13:19.116
(Applause)