The door they assassinated Fred Hampton through wasn’t the first Black Panther door the heat shot through in 1969. In October, during the trial of Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale and seven others for conspiring to incite anti-Vietnam riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention, the FBI and Chicago PD raided Black Panthers’ Chicago headquarters, blasting through the steel door with shotguns, and then arresting six people inside for attempted murder, which, does that just mean they shot back?
Anyway. Thanks to a bluesky post by postcard-past.com, I just learned that this door not only survives, it is on exhibit at the DuSable Black History Museum. And it is on loan from Kerry James Marshall.
Dana Chandler made a painting of Fred Hampton’s bullet-ridden door, but this is next-level. If I learn something more Black Historic than this this month, I will be truly surprised.