The work prepared him for his role as chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his efforts in creating the Rainbow Coalition, a diverse group comprised of members of the Latinx Young Lords, the white Young Patriots, the Red Guard Party, the American Indian Movement, the Brown Berets, and more, which tackled issues of poverty, anti-racism, corruption, police brutality, and housing in Chicago. Among his work as a budding activist and gifted speaker in his hometown of Maywood, Illinois, Hampton advocated for a community pool decades later, the town named it after him. In high school he led his school’s Interracial Committee and became active in the NAACP, leading the West Suburban Branch’s Youth Council. Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya) was only alive for 21 years, but he lived a full life in that time. Photo-Illustration: by Vulture Photos by Warner Bros. To guide you through that history, we’ve compiled a list of the major characters featured in Judas and the Black Messiah, whether they appear onscreen or only in dialogue: For every pulse-pounding, fictionalized scene of O’Neal wrestling with his conscience, there’s a quietly moving moment based on a kernel of American history. Along with reckoning with the horrific assassination of party chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) by Chicago Police, the FBI, and the State’s Attorney’s Office, the film also celebrates Hampton’s power as an orator and man of the people, as well as the impact of his organization on the city of Chicago: the breakfast programs, the free health care, the Rainbow Coalition, and more. In its true story of how informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) infiltrated the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, director Shaka King’s film highlights historical details and lives that have rarely been given mainstream focus. Judas and the Black Messiah has all the trappings of a genre movie - it’s a gritty crime thriller that unfolds on the tense stage of an anti-police revolution - but it shouldn’t be underestimated as a history lesson.
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