Black History Month 2024
'chicago' - 9 results
Chicago, Illinois - A white male stoned a Black American child, who was on a raft. The boy drowned at 13 years of age. It started a week of racial violence that left many Black Americans dead.
Source:
The 1919 Chicago Race Riots
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Money, Mississippi - Two white males, Roy Bryant (middle) and J. W. Milam (right) murdered 14 year-old Emmett Till. Roy's wife, Carolyn, lied about Till. That led to Till's murder.
Till was from Chicago, Illinois. He visited relatives, in Money, Mississippi. Till visited a local store, and spoke with Carolyn. Days later, Roy and Milam kidnapped Till, from Till's great-uncle's house. Milam was Roy's half-brother.
Roy and Milam beat and mutilated Till. Then, they shot Till in the head. Finally, Till's body was sunk in the Tallahatchie River. Three (3) days later, Till's body was found.
In September 1955, Roy and Milam faced trial. The jury was all-white. The prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge were white. Roy and Milam were found not guilty.
On January 24th, 1956, Roy and Milam confessed, in a Look magazine article. Milam said he had no plan to murder Till. But, Till showed no fear. Milam murdered Till for that.
Till's murder inspired Rosa Parks. It led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott made Martin Luther King, Jr. a national figure.
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- 1969
- December
- death
- Black Panthers
- massacre
- killed by police
- killed
- COINTELPRO
- Chicago
- Illinois
- Lyndon B. Johnson
Chicago, Illinois - Fred Hampton was killed, in bed, in his apartment. Chicago police workers killed him. Hampton was unarmed and asleep, and in bed.
On Wednesday, December 3rd, Fred Hampton taught a political education course. It was at a local church. Members of the Black Panther Party attended. This was the night before his death.
After the class, several Black Panthers went to his Monroe Street apartment to spend the night. This was routine after a course.
Besides Hampton, the group included Deborah Johnson, Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald 'Doc' Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris, and Mark Clark.
William O'Neal waited for them, when they arrived. O'Neal was chief of security. There, the group ate a late meal, prepared by O'Neal. The time was around midnight.
O'Neal slipped drugs into Hampton's drink. It was the barbiturate sleep agent secobarbitol. Hampton consumed the drink during the dinner.
The drug sedated Hampton. It kept him asleep, during the police raid. O'Neal left at this point.
At about 1:30 a.m., December 4th, Hampton was on the phone with his mother. He fell asleep, mid-sentence.
At 4:00 a.m., a heavily armed tactical unit, of white males, went to Hampton's apartment. They were sent by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. They were joined by the Chicago Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
At 4:45 a.m., the tactical unit and Chicago Police shot first. They shot 90 times into Hampton's apartment. Only Mark Clark fired a shot, after being shot first.
Hampton survived the barrage. He was still breathing. The Chicago Police executed him. A point-blank shot was fired, that killed Hampton.
This was part of the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO).
William O'Neal committed suicide on January 15th, 1990 (Martin Luther King Day). O'Neal ran into oncoming traffic on a Chicago expressway. An automobile hit and killed O'Neal.
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Chicago, Illinois - The phrase 'Welfare Queen' was used for the first time, in print. The story was by George Bliss, in the Chicago Tribune. It was about Linda Taylor.
Taylor was a career criminal and con-artist. She was charged with many crimes and welfare fraud. Despite welfare being one of many crimes she was alleged to have committed, Bliss used the term 'Welfare Queen' to describe her.
Ronald Reagan used the story in his 1976 Presidential campaign. He argued that poor women used welfare to get over on the system. He used the story of Linda Taylor, as his example.
There were many doubts that the story was true, as told by Reagan. Yet, Reagan used the con-artist as a basis to push his welfare reform policy of the 1980s. Those reforms limited access to welfare to Black American women and children. Black men were already blocked from welfare, except in special cases.
Source:
Welfare Queen
Linda Taylor
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Chicago, Illinois - Elijah Muhammad died. He was born Elijah Robert Poole. Muhammad led the Nation of Islam, for more than 30 years. This period covered the most expansive and dominant period of the Nation of Islam.
Muhammad led the group into the Black Rights movement (later called Civil Rights). This continued through the Black Power movement, and into the integration era. At one time, under his leadership, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and Muhammad Ali were all followers.
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Chicago, Illionis - The first use of the phrase, 'Black-on-Black Crime' in national print media, was in the August, 1979 special issue of Ebony Magazine.
Since the early 1960s, whites tried to tie Black Americans to crime. Barry Goldwater tried it in the 1964 election for President. It did not work.
Once the 1965 Watts Riot ended, new calls were made for law and order. Yet, they still were not strong enough to join race with crime. That slowly changed as riots increased through 1967 and 1968.
By 1969, Richard Nixon ran for President as a law and order choice. The tactic of tying Black Americans to crime worked and Nixon was elected.
The term 'Black-on-Black Crime' was still limited in use in the early 1970s. Over the course of Nixon's time in office, the term became more widely used. Yet, by the late 1970s, it was still not a commonly used term in public. Ebony Magazine changed that with its special issue on the phrase.
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Chicago, Illinois - Chicago Police worker, Jason Van Dyke, shot Laquan McDonald, sixteen (16) times. Van Dyke was a white male. McDonald was a Black American male, and 17 years of age.
A report of property damage on cars was the reason the Chicago police came to the area. McDonald was seen and the police used their vehicles to block him. He got around the vehicles.
Van Dyke arrived, exited his car, and opened fire on McDonald. He was re-loading his gun as he was told to stop firing at McDonald. McDonald was walking away when Van Dyke shot him to death.
It took a year before Van Dyke was charged with the death of McDonald. The Chicago Police Department and Chicago prosecutor withheld video evidence that showed the shooting.
On October 5, 2018, for the first time in fifty (50) years, a Chicago police worker was convicted of murder. Van Dyke got six (6) years and nine (9) months in prison.
Source:
Jason Van Dyke Killed Laquan McDonald
Van Dyke Charged More than 1 Year later
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Chicago, Illinois - A jury convicted Chicago police worker, Jason Van Dyke. He was on trial for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
White police worker, Van Dyke was found guilty of second (2nd) degree murder. The jury found him guilty of 16 counts of aggravated battery. Each count was for a bullet he shot at Laquan McDonald.
McDonald was a Black American male. He was 17 years of age when Van Dyke killed him.
Source:
Van Dyke Convicted of Murder
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