Black History Month 2024
1968 1969-1974 1975
36 Lyndon B. Johnson | 37 Richard M. Nixon | 38 Gerald Ford
Black Power Affirmative Action Mass Incarceration
Youngest American Killed in Vietnam War
West of Hội An, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam - Dan Bullock was the youngest soldier to die in the Vietnam War. He was a Black American teenager, and only 15 years of age. His rank was private first class in the United States Marines.
Bullock was born December 21, 1953, in Goldsboro, North Carolina. His mother died when he was 12 years of age. He moved to Brooklyn to live with his father. Due to his life in Brooklyn, he joined the military.
On December 10, 1968, Bullock finished army basic training (boot camp). He was 14 years of age.
On May 18, 1969, he was sent to Vietnam. In three (3) weeks, he was killed, while on night watch duty.
Until 2000, there was no marker for his grave. His name appeared on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was placed on Panel 23W, Row 96.
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Fred Hampton Killed By Police
- 1969
- December
- death
- Black Panthers
- massacre
- killed by police
- killed
- COINTELPRO
- Chicago
- Illinois
- Lyndon B. Johnson
Chicago, Illinois - Fred Hampton was killed, in bed, in his apartment. Chicago police workers killed him. Hampton was unarmed and asleep, and in bed.
On Wednesday, December 3rd, Fred Hampton taught a political education course. It was at a local church. Members of the Black Panther Party attended. This was the night before his death.
After the class, several Black Panthers went to his Monroe Street apartment to spend the night. This was routine after a course.
Besides Hampton, the group included Deborah Johnson, Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald 'Doc' Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris, and Mark Clark.
William O'Neal waited for them, when they arrived. O'Neal was chief of security. There, the group ate a late meal, prepared by O'Neal. The time was around midnight.
O'Neal slipped drugs into Hampton's drink. It was the barbiturate sleep agent secobarbitol. Hampton consumed the drink during the dinner.
The drug sedated Hampton. It kept him asleep, during the police raid. O'Neal left at this point.
At about 1:30 a.m., December 4th, Hampton was on the phone with his mother. He fell asleep, mid-sentence.
At 4:00 a.m., a heavily armed tactical unit, of white males, went to Hampton's apartment. They were sent by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. They were joined by the Chicago Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
At 4:45 a.m., the tactical unit and Chicago Police shot first. They shot 90 times into Hampton's apartment. Only Mark Clark fired a shot, after being shot first.
Hampton survived the barrage. He was still breathing. The Chicago Police executed him. A point-blank shot was fired, that killed Hampton.
This was part of the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO).
William O'Neal committed suicide on January 15th, 1990 (Martin Luther King Day). O'Neal ran into oncoming traffic on a Chicago expressway. An automobile hit and killed O'Neal.
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Nixon Began HMOs
Washington, D. C. - President Richard Nixon announced the health maintenance organization (HMO). These schemes were used to limit access to health care to Black Americans. As HMOs spread and grew in size, health care access in the United States declined.
50 years later, the United States had one of the least effective and most expensive health care systems in the world. Many Americans went broke from unpaid medical bills.
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COINTELPRO Made Public
Media, Pennsylvania - Documents were stolen that exposed COINTELPRO. They were taken, at night, in a break-in, from a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) field office.
COINTELPRO stood for COunter-INTELligence PROgram. It was a years-long government effort to disrupt, confuse, and spy on Black Americans and groups. It began at the start of the Black (later Civil) Rights movement, in 1956.
The break-in happened during the 'Fight of the Century' the same day. It was hoped the spectacle of the fight was enough to divert attention from the break-in. The plan was carried out by the Citizen’s Commission. They were never caught. Their names were not known until 2014.
Targets of COINTELPRO were Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, The Nation of Islam, The Black Panther Party, and Fred Hampton, to name just a few victims.
The FBI claimed COINTELPRO ended, in 1971.
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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
New York City, New York - Gil Scott-Heron released the song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It was recorded at the RCA Studios. The song was sold on the Flying Dutchman label.
It was a popular phrase from the Black Power movement, of the 1960s.
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What's Going On? Album Released
Detroit, Michigan - Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? album was released. It was one of the most important and timeless recording albums of the Vietnam War era.
Motown founder, Berry Gordy feared the lyrics were too honest. Gaye said the album was a hit. Gordy released the full album on Motown's sub-label, Tamla.
1.'What's Going On' 3:53 (Marvin Gaye, Al Cleveland, Renaldo 'Obie' Benson)
2. 'What's Happening Brother' 2:43 (Gaye, James Nyx Jr.)
3. 'Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)' 3:49 (Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Elgie Stover)
4. 'Save the Children' 4:03 (Gaye, Cleveland Benson)
5. 'God Is Love' 1:41 (Gaye, A. Gaye, Stover Nyx)
6. 'Mercy Mercy Me' (The Ecology) 3:16 (Gaye)
Side two
1. 'Right On' 7:31 (Gaye, Earl DeRouen)
2. 'Wholy Holy' 3:08 (Gaye, Benson Cleveland)
3. 'Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)' 5:26 (Gaye, Nyx)
The single, What's Going On?, was released January 20, 1971.
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'War on Drugs' Announced
Washington, D. C. - At a press conference, President Richard Nixon spoke on what became the 'War on Drugs.' The phrase was not used during the speech. It was created in news media reports later. Nixon said drug use was 'public enemy number one.'
A member of the Nixon White House said who the 'War' was really to defeat. John Ehrlichman was the White House Domestic Affairs Advisor. He came after Daniel P. Moynihan, of the Moynihan Report. In his role, Ehrlichman helped Nixon deal with the Black American problem, as they saw it.
Ehrlichman made these statements. 'The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.'
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'War On Crime' Began
Washington, D. C. - Nixon's Attorney General, John Mitchell, gave a speech that announced the 'War on Crime.' This was the last piece in Nixon's plan to attack Black Americans in the United States. The first was the HMO, to limit access to health care. The second was the 'War on Drugs.'
The speech that started the 'War on Crime' was given at the Conference on Crime Reduction. It used Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) crime statistics. FBI crime counting often under-reported crime in white areas and over-reported it in Black American areas. This data was used to add funding for police and other punitive acts against Black Americans.
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Tuskegee Experiment Exposed
Washington, D. C. - A 40 year-long syphilis experiment on Black American men was exposed. The Washington Star reported the story. The United States government used Black American men as test subjects, without their consent.
600 Black American men were used. They were rural farmers. They were never told they had the disease. A cure was known, but the Federal government never treated the men.
The experiment ended only because it was exposed. No one was punished.
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The Spook Who Sat By The Door
New York, New York - 'The Spook Who Sat By The Door' movie was shown for the first time. It told the story of a Black American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee.
The CIA used him to showcase racial inclusion. He was put in a useless job, that made the CIA look good. He had other ideas and quit. With his training, he helped Black Americans wage a race war.
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The 'Welfare Queen' Was Invented
Chicago, Illinois - The phrase 'Welfare Queen' was used for the first time, in print. The story was by George Bliss, in the Chicago Tribune. It was about Linda Taylor.
Taylor was a career criminal and con-artist. She was charged with many crimes and welfare fraud. Despite welfare being one of many crimes she was alleged to have committed, Bliss used the term 'Welfare Queen' to describe her.
Ronald Reagan used the story in his 1976 Presidential campaign. He argued that poor women used welfare to get over on the system. He used the story of Linda Taylor, as his example.
There were many doubts that the story was true, as told by Reagan. Yet, Reagan used the con-artist as a basis to push his welfare reform policy of the 1980s. Those reforms limited access to welfare to Black American women and children. Black men were already blocked from welfare, except in special cases.
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