WEBVTT

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Good afternoon.

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

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I've been known as a son, a brother,
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 
of circumstances.

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I was teaching at a university 
in Mississippi at the time,

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teaching the History 
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
and drive the car back.

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

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

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but people wanted the books, 
so they gave me cash, 


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and wrote me checks, and said,

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"The next time you come through town
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 
this car back from Iowa,

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I was going to have to
pass through this town,

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so, I took the books with me.

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I packed my stuff up, 
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 
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, 
and there's this bevy of airport police

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and TSA agents surrounding my bag, 
just hovering over my bag.

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

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And the book has 
this picture on the cover.

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It's a book about 
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, 
he's got a one-way ticket to Iowa,

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no clothes, no toiletries, 
and all these books.

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And so they said, "Well, 
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 
in situations like this."

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

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And the FBI came to the airport.

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

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

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but he had this book.

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

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he'd look in the book 
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 
to say, "Am I under arrest?"

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

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

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

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I left. I found another flight. 
I went to Des Moines.

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I bought the car and drove it back 
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,
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 
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,
what kind of problem do we have?"

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

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

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A felon?! Wait a minute.

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This is a classic 
WTF moment for me, right?

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(Laughter)

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I don't know what's going on 
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, 
tell them who I am and why I'm calling,

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and they look me up on their system 
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?" 
She said, "I don't know."

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

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

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In fact I don't have 
any more information.

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

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they can give you more information.

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She gave me the number 
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,
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, 
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 
that the felony was on my record

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

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

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

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that started in 1966
in Oakland, California,

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

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But it also organized 
around a range of other issues

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that were affecting the black community, 
like healthcare, and housing,

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and full employment,
and fairness in the courts.

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They wanted blacks to be tried 
by juries of their peers

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

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While they were organizing 
around these issues,

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the press was vilifying them 
and demonizing them

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and telling lies about them.

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

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who wanted to go out 
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 
is the Black Panther Party,

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the majority of the people 
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
of the Black Panther Party were women.

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So, It just wasn't true 
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 
about this organization

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is it was racist and anti-white,

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

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

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The Panthers would find out 
what the problems were

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in their communities
and attempt to solve them.

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

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and they weren't learning 
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 
before school,

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so they created 
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 
in their communities,

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

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and eggs, and meat, and cereal, 
other things people eat for breakfast,

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and these store owners said yes, 
and they donated these items.

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

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of the Black Panther Party, 
- 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 
white business owners would donate

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to the Black Panther Party 
if they were actually racist.

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Another thing they did in the community 
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 
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, 
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 
to hospitals and medical schools

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and asked the doctors and medical students

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whether they would come 
to the black community

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and deal with some 
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
set up chapters,

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there were these free health clinics;

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although they were being run 
by the Black Panther Party,

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they were peopled by white people,

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

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if their signature programs
were actually being supported

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by fairly wealthy and often 
middle class white people.

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

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

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Fred Hampton was the leader 
of the Chicago Chapter

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of the Black Panther Party.

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He was a very eloquent speaker. 
He was very persuasive.

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Fred Hampton could persuade people 
that there was actual injustice.

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More importantly than that, 
he could persuade people

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that they should do something 
to combat that injustice.

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So in addition to going 
to these hospitals, and grocery stores,

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and getting the things
they needed for their programs,

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Fred Hampton also worked 
with other groups and organizations

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

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who had moved up from the South 
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
in their communities.

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They were very successful at this,

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

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so in addition to vilifying 
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, 
to kill its members.

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And thats exactly what happened 
to Fred Hampton.

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On December 4th, 1969,

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the Chicago Police Department, 
the Illinois State Attorney's Office,

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

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while he and everyone else 
in there were asleep,

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and just began spraying 
the place with bullets.

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It wounded several people.

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There was a person guarding the door
named Mark Clark.

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

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

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find him there, he's asleep, 
because he's been drugged,

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

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

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at point blank range twice, 
killing him instantly.

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That's the end of Fred Hampton.

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

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

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

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can be stopped in an airport, 
detained for hours, questioned,

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

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

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around issues, that everybody --

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there's nothing wrong with feeing kids,
and taking care of sick people.

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There's nothing wrong with not wanting 
to be killed by the police.

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So we have to ask ourselves, 
what is it about this organization?

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And I'll tell you.

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The thing about this organization 
is that it was actually anti-racist,

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and it made a point to work 
with all people whether it was

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upper and middle class whites, 
lower class whites, Asians,

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latinos, Native Americans.

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Anybody who wanted to help 
solve these problems,

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this organization was willing 
to work with them,

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and that was the problem.

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If this interracial organization 
was not effective,

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people would not have been 
so dead set against it.

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So it wasn't just Fred Hampton 
who had to pay.

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It wasn't just me who had to pay 
with being labeled a felon.

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You probably saw this a few weeks ago.

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Beyonce performed at the Super Bowl, 
at the halftime show,

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and she and the women 
who were dancing with her,

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dressed up in these black leather outfits,
these black berets,

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and they were dressed that way 
to pay homage to the Black Panther Party.

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2016 marks the 50th anniversary 
of the founding of the Black Panther Party

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and they were trying to honor 
this community service organization.

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But what they got in return 
was a ton of hate mail.

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People all over the country are saying 
they are racist and anti-white,

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they are cop haters.

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Police officers has said 
that they don't want to give her

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the security she needs at her concerts.

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Mayors have said
they don't want her in their town.

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Beyonce is racist. Beyonce.

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I mean, racy maybe? But not racist.

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(Laughter)

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So, we just have to keep asking ourselves

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why are we told these stories
about the Black Panther Party,

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and who benefits 
from us knowing these lies.

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I want to encourage you 
to do your own research about the party,

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but be careful 
when you're doing your research

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because I've been studying 
this subject for 25 years now,

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and what I've discovered is that 73%
of all the newspaper articles

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written about the Black Panther Party,

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were written by the FBI, 
or people the FBI recruited.

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So there is all this villainy 
and misinformation.

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And we spoke about 
Fred Hampton a second ago,

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and I just want to tell you 
that Fred Hampton and Mark Clark's family

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actually sued the city of Chicago, 
the State Attorney's Office,

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a jury found them guilty,

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and they paid them
almost two million dollars.

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But that doesn't bring Fred back, 
and that doesn't stop the villainy.

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We have to find out the truth 
about this organization for ourselves,

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and I encourage you to do that.

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I also encourage you to question 
your own biases about what you know

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about American history.

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And finally, I want to encourage you

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to reach out across 
racial lines and ethnic lines,

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and do your part in solving the problems 
that face our country today,

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because black people can't solve
these problems on their own.

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White people can't solve them 
on their own.

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Latino people can't solve them 
on their own.

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Unless all of us come together as a people
and solve these problems,

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they will never be solved.

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So I say to you: power to the people.

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(Applause)