CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Congressman Bobby Rush, a founding member of the Black Panther Party, has introduced legislation requiring the release of information regarding the 1969 killing of the party’s leader, Fred Hampton.
Before filing a bill mandating disclosure of secret FBI files, on March 31, Rush sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting “that you release unclassified and unredacted versions of any files or papers in the possession of the U.S. Department of Justice or the FBI pertaining to this assassination.”
Many had considered Fred Hampton's death an assassination, including Congressman Bobby Rush.
The FBI has admitted it had been spying on the Black Panther Party.
And on Dec. 4, 1969, about 100 bullets were fired into a West Side apartment building during a pre-dawn raid by the FBI, Chicago police, and agents from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Hampton and Clark died and their deaths would later be ruled justifiable homicide.
Rush's letter to the Attorney General went on to say, “We believe that it is past time that our country fully knows and understands its dark past and the release, and study, of this information is an important step on this journey.”
In a statement Tuesday, Rush said in regards to his bill, “It is high time that the American people know about the odious and inhumane legacy of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO operation and its assault on our nation’s civil liberties.
“...COINTELPRO was spying on American citizens. Anyone who took a political position against the status quo, anyone who wanted to make America better was subject to being penalized, investigated — and in the case of my friend Fred Hampton, assassinated — by the official legal arm of the federal government.
“As a victim of COINTELPRO, I want to know, with honesty, with clarity, and with no redactions, the full extent of the FBI’s nefarious operations. I want to know the breadth and depth of the conspiracy to assassinate Fred Hampton and how taxpayer dollars were spent on his assassination. I want to know why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a focus of the FBI, why Billie Holiday was a focus of the FBI — I want to know why so many young activists were harassed by the FBI. What was the justification for the impact that it had on their lives?" the statement read.
“Finally, it is beyond time for J. Edgar Hoover, who has a clear legacy as the number one assailant on America’s constitutional guarantees for its citizens, to have his name is removed from the FBI headquarters. I want to shine a bright light on this dark chapter of our nation’s history. And I think it is very timely and very important that we do it at this moment,” Rush concluded the statement.
The bill would require government agencies to disclose all files relating to the FBI’s now disbanded counterintelligence programs, including the counterintelligence program known as COINTELPRO.
Rush has no co-sponsors yet on his legislation.
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