Photo courtesy Warner Bros.
In 1969, Fred Hampton, a young Black Panther Party leader, was shot dead in his bed by Chicago police in a pre-dawn robbery. The raid was facilitated by an informant, a teenager named William O’Neal. The pursuit of justice by activists, lawyers, and Hampton’s family in half a century has exposed the extent of the FBI’s role in what happened, right down to J. Edgar Hoover trying to prevent the rise of a so-called “messiah” who could unite the black community? Daniel Kaluuya, the British actor best known for “Get Out” and “Black Panther”, plays Hampton in the new film “Judas and the Black Messiah”. The film follows Hampton in the last year of his life as he works to create the Rainbow Coalition, a movement that brings blacks, Latinos, and working-class whites together. Kaluuya spoke to Kai Wright, the host of WNYCs “The United States of Fear, “About how the FBI and many White Hamptons saw affirmation of blacks as synonymous with terrorism.
