Former Illinois Black Panther Party HQ on Near West Side honored with plaque to preserve history

Dozens gathered Saturday morning as the since-demolished Illinois Black Panther Party headquarters was honored with a plaque in the sidewalk where it once stood on the Near West Side.

It was one of 12 plaques to be placed around Chicago — as well as another in Peoria — denoting historic sites of the Black Panther Party in Illinois; the full set will be permanently placed before Oct. 15, said Leila Wills, executive director of the Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. They were first revealed last October after a fight over how the organization’s legacy would be preserved.

Billy Ché Brooks, former deputy minister of education for the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, said it was important for the party to tell its history through its members instead of letting others do it, and possibly distort it.

“It’s important that young people have the opportunity to look, see and feel the essence of our struggle as an inspiration to them,” Brooks said. “These monuments are a reminder of what was done and what can be done. … The conditions that existed at the start of the Black Panther Party are the conditions that exist today.”

Featured speaker Bobby Rush, a former member of Congress and co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party, said his “heart was full” seeing the plaque and crowd around it.

“I never would have even imagined that I would be here with each of you today back in 1968,” Rush said in his remarks to the crowd. This is "about those who dedicated their lives, their futures and their families to making the dream of the Black Panther Party a reality.”

Other locations soon to be added to the trail: 1512 S. Pulaski Road, where the group’s free breakfast program was started; 2337 W. Monroe St., the apartment building where Fred Hampton and other party members were assassinated during a 1969 raid led by Chicago police and orchestrated by the FBI; and 3850 W. 16th St., where the chapter’s free medical center once stood.

The event featured several speakers, including Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps, Alds. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) and Desmon Yancy (5th) and Fredrika Newton, the widow of party founder Huey P. Newton.

The Black Panther Party, founded in the 1960s, grew out of the Black Power movement and provided services like free breakfast and health care around the country. The FBI deemed it a violent organization and launched a counterintelligence program against it, ultimately gunning down several members — including Mark Clark and Hampton, the local chair at the time.

Fred Hampton Jr., son of the late leader, at one point appeared at Saturday's event to voice his displeasure and accuse the organizers of being controlled by the government, though he walked off shortly after to calls of “We love you, Fred” started by Rush.

Joan McCarty joined the Panthers in 1969 after her sister’s boyfriend was killed by Chicago police officers. She worked with the prison bus program that helped families visit their loved ones who were incarcerated.

McCarty had first met Hampton on the sidewalk where she stood with her daughter Saturday watching the plaque be unveiled.

“You grow up in Chicago, you experience racism and all sorts of things, but that made me know I needed to do something more,” McCarty said. “It was one of my proudest moments."

She now teaches a class on the Black Panther Party and is putting together an oral history through surviving members, which she sees as a parallel to the plaques, and the importance of keeping that history alive.

“It’s so important for people to understand the party when we’re facing fascism,” she said. “We’re going to have to struggle. We’re going to have to have the spirit of the party and embrace freedom for all oppressed working people. … Don’t rest on your laurels. There’s more work to be done.”

Rush agreed with his former comrade, and urged the crowd into action against President Donald Trump and others carrying out the administration's agenda, which has targeted immigration and slashed funding for programs that help low-income families such as food assistance and Medicaid.

“If we don’t resist them with everything we have, they will be successful, so don’t give up on the movement,” Rush said. “Come up out of that rocking chair, off that sofa, and get involved. The world still needs what you have to offer. Now more than ever, the spirit of Fred Hampton lives.”

And it seems that spirit is alive in the youth who were in attendance Saturday.

Inazir Flax, 10, watched the unveiling with his grandmother, Vertie Bracy, 76. He said it was “better than learning in school” since he got to see it firsthand, even taking pictures with some of those honored.

“History is so realistic when you can see it in real life,” Inazir said. “You don’t even have to go to school to learn it. You have all the important stuff in your face.”