Scott Braley - Hampton-Clark Murders

Hampton-Clark Murders

Government surveillance and violence against civil rights leaders served to strengthen Scott Braley's political resolve. Fred Hampton was an activist and the leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers. Considered by Weather members to be a comrade in the struggle for black rights, Hampton criticized Weatherman actions, especially those used in the Days of Rage, calling the group opportunistic and chauvinistic. Two months after the Days of Rage in 1969, Hampton was found murdered in his apartment, along with fellow Black Panther Mark Clark. When the murder was linked to the FBI, Braley was quoted as saying that the murders proved that “the stakes really were what we thought they were.”