Buried Treasure: COINTELPRO (Part 2: Hampton, Hoover, and the Black Messiah)

Fred Hampton was only 21 years old when he, the charismatic and captivating chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was murdered by officers of the Illinois State's Attorney's office and the Chicago P.D. on December 4, 1969. But, long before then, he was the target of a secret FBI surveillance program, designed to sow discord, paranoia, and destruction into the ranks of New Left and Black organizations, and whose orders came from the very top of the Bureau — J. Edgar Hoover. In this second installment of "Buried Treasure: COINTELPRO", Michael Isikoff and Dan Klaidman sit down with Shaka King, director of the critically acclaimed film Judas and the Black Messiah, to talk about Hampton's legacy, and the long reach of the FBI that continues today. Then, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) joins the show to talk about his proposed bill to strip J. Edgar Hoover's name from the FBI Headquarters in Washington.

Be sure you caught Part 1 of this series, featuring an interview with Keith Forsyth, one of the burglars who, in 1971, broke into an FBI office in Media, PA to expose COINTELPRO, and Betty Medsger, the investigative journalist who publicized the findings from those documents in The Washington Post.

GUESTS:

• Shaka King, director, Judas and the Black Messiah
• Rep. Steve Cohen (@RepCohen), U.S. Congressman (D-TN)

HOSTS:

• Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
• Dan Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

RESOURCES:

• Trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah directed by Shaka King (2021). Available on HBO Max through Mar. 14
• "Shaka King Grapples with Hollywood and History" by Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker (Feb. 25, 2021)
• "'Judas and the Black Messiah' and the Klan Act" by Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker (Feb. 21, 2021)
• "Congressman Cohen and Colleagues Introduce Bill to Strip the Name of J. Edgar Hoover from FBI Headquarters in Washington" (Feb. 26, 2021)

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