Notes from America with Kai Wright

On December 4th of 1969, Fred Hampton -- the 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party -- was shot dead in his sleep during a raid by Chicago police, but decades of investigation into his death revealed an even more insidious plot. 

Actor Daniel Kaluuya -- known for his roles inGet Out and Queen & Slim -- portrays Hampton in the new film, Judas and the Black Messiah, which follows Hampton’s meteoric rise through the party, a multiracial class movement and the series of betrayals that led to his untimely fall.

Weeks before he won the Golden Globe award for“Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture,” Kaluuya joined Kai to talk about preparing for the role, the legacy of the Black Panther Party and how Hampton’s revolutionary love for his community positioned him as "an enemy of the state."

A special thanks to our friends at The New Yorker Radio Hour, and particularly KalaLea, who produced the initial version of this conversation. We also recommend checking out, The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution by Bryan Shih and Yohuru Williams for more on the Black Panthers.

Companion listening for this episode:

“How Politics Turns Violent” (5/30/2017)
In this episode we look at the culture wars of the Boomer generation from another vantage point. Instead of focusing on the debates themselves, we ask the question: How do people move from radical politics to political violence?

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