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My Contribution- When Fred Hampton was killed in a 1969 raid on the headquarters of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Part, in what was believed to be an assanisation orchestrated by Federal agents and city leaders, who feared that Hampton's influence could lead to an armed uprising by the city's most disenfranchised residents. ^[1] The Weather Underground Organization, which was an outgrowth of Students for a Democratic Society [SDS], the largest U.S. organization of radical students in the 1960's Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page)., took the death of Fred Hampton very seriously. His brutal murder left Weather more convinced than ever that the U.S. governemnt was at war against its own people and that they needed to fight back. ^[2]

The members of the Weather Underground Organization had seen and experienced police brutality, not only in Chicago but elsewhere. However, Fred Hampton's murder was signifcant. According to David Gilbert, a WUO member, "It was the murder of Fred Hampton more than any other factor that compelled us to feel [that] we had to take up armed struggle."Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). His murder signaled a time to on to other forms of struggleCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page)., and provided one more reason to pursue a revolutionary agenda.^[3] In March 1970, Weather issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, using the first time its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO). [Assuming fake identities, and pledging to pursue covert activities.] The Weather Underground went on to claim...

In response to the death of Black Panther member Fred Hampton in December, 1969 during a police raid, on May 21, 1970 the Weather Underground issued a "Declaration of War against the United States government, using for the first time its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO), adopting fake identities, and pursuing covert activities only. Bernardine Dohrn subsequently stated that it was Fred Hampton's death that prompted the Weather Underground to declare war on the US government.

We felt that the murder of Fred required us to be more grave, more serious, more determined to raise the stakes and not just be the white people who wrung their hands when black people were being murdered. —Bernardine Dohrn[6] In December 1969, the Chicago Police Department, in conjunction with the FBI, conducted a raid on the home of Black Panther Fred Hampton, in which he and Mark Clark were killed, with four of the seven other people in the apartment wounded. The survivors of the raid were all charged with assault and attempted murder. The police claimed they shot in self-defense, although a controversy arose when the Panthers and other activists presented what was alleged to be evidence suggesting that the sleeping Panthers were not resisting arrest. The charges were later dropped, and the families of the dead won a $1.8 million settlement from the government. It was discovered in 1971 that Hampton had been targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO.[67][68]

Investigators search for clues after the May 19, 1972 Weatherman bombing of the PentagonOn May 21, 1970, a communiqué from the Weather Underground was issued promising to attack a "symbol or institution of American injustice" within two weeks.[69] The communiqué included taunts towards the FBI, daring them to try and find the group, whose members were spread throughout the United States.[70] Many leftist organizations showed curiosity in the communiqué, and waited to see if the act would in fact occur. However, two weeks would pass without any occurrence.[71] Then on June 9, 1970, their first publicly acknowledged bombing occurred at a New York City police station,[72] saying it was "in outraged response to the assassination of the Soledad Brother George Jackson,"[6] who had recently been killed by prison guards in an escape attempt. The FBI placed the Weather Underground organization on the ten most-wanted list by the end of 1970.[17]