No./12
IN THE ELECTRIFYING first Judas And The Black Messiah trailer, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) first introduces himself to a viewer peering through a narrow window. But Hampton’s vision of liberation was anything but narrow. The Rainbow Coalition, the multicultural movement he founded in 1969, was built on the premise that equity is a birthright; one that should be given to the people. And his legacy as a Black Panther further reinforced a central belief: where there’s people, there’s power.
Born in 1948, in the suburbs of Chicago, Hampton’s ability to assemble a group of people to action became clear in his early work as a NAACP youth organiser. This skill was further displayed when he quickly rose up the ranks of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. As a leader, Hampton’s gravitas sourced from his effortless oration and his passion for the work. As an organiser, Hampton was instrumental in programmes such as Free Breakfast for children and the Chicago gang neutrality pact, which spun off to become the Rainbow Coalition. Ultimately, his life was cut short, when the FBI — tipped off by undercover operative William O’neal (played in the film by Lakeith Stanfield) — raided Hampton’s apartment and killed him in 1969, aged just 21.
Hampton’s revolution, and the ideals he fought and died for, are the same ideals that activists are fighting for today. The realisation that the Black Panther Party’s demands — centred around abolishing police brutality and gaining fair housing, wages and rights for Black citizens — have still not been answered, exposes the limits of our progress. Hampton’s son, Fred Hampton Jr, who served as a consultant on the film, has said: “There was an incorrect narrative that many people thought the Black Panther Party was just fighting against racism. But the reality was they were fighting for power: power over our lives, the fight for selfdetermination.” The ability to live and breathe in peace was not afforded to Black Chicagoians in the 1960s, equally as they weren’t afforded to George Floyd. Or Breonna Taylor. Or Tony Mcdade. Or Stephen Lawrence.
It’s taken nearly half a century for Hampton’s story to earn a big-screen treatment; time will tell if the film lives up to the subject. But in one of the trailer’s most defining shots, when Hampton yells, “I am a revolutionary!” to the crowd, the crowd responds with equal fervour. The fighting cry bellowing from organisers-past is calling people to action. This cinematic account of the past mirrors the reality of today’s BLM movement. It’s up to all of us to unlock the revolutionary within.