Movie review of story of Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panthers

Called Judas and the Black Messiah



https://thetriibe.com/2021/02/judas-and-the-black-messiah-is-a-well-crafted-crime-thriller-but-chicago-is-missing/

Reviewed by The TRiiBE
The TRiiBE is a digital media platform showcasing innovative content to reshape the narrative of Black Chicago.

‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ is a well-crafted crime thriller, but Chicago is missing
By Danielle A. Scruggs, Feb 02 2021

Judas and the Black Messiah is a muscular crime thriller based on the true story of William O’Neal, the man who worked as an FBI informant for years and betrayed Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who was killed by Chicago police officers during a raid on his home on a bitterly cold December night in 1969.

Although the trailer hinted at Judas and the Black Messiah being a biopic of Hampton’s ascension within the Black Panther Party, it’s actually an examination of O’Neal, the one who gave the police the floor plans to Hampton’s apartment, where he was shot while he slept with his pregnant partner Deborah Johnson (now known as Akua Njeri) lying by his side.

Even though some crucial historical context around Chicago is missing, Judas and the Black Messiah is a well-crafted film that illuminates Hampton’s extraordinary and too-brief life. And despite its flaws, it doesn’t shy away from how deeply entrenched anti-Black racism is within American society, and shows what happens when, perhaps, that racism becomes internalized within oppressed people.

It also highlights the danger that comes from the state being able to manipulate Black people into turning on one another and weaponizing that desperation for its own benefit. It’s only a theory. We will never truly know what was happening internally with O’Neal — he died by suicide after running into traffic on the Eisenhower Expressway in 1990—which makes some of the last words spoken in the film, from the real O’Neal in archival footage from the documentary Eyes on the Prize, all the more haunting: “I think I’ll let history speak for me.”



https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-last-hours-of-william-oneal/Content?oid=875101

The Last Hours of William O'Neal

He was the informant who gave the FBI the floor plan of Fred Hampton's apartment.

At 2:30 AM the 40-year-old O'Neal ran out of his uncle's apartment, across the westbound lanes of the Eisenhower Expressway, and was struck by a car and killed. His death was ruled a suicide.


In our first episode of 2021, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., son of slain Illinois Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton joins Rome J. to talk about a new film Judas, and the Black Messiah, which will be in theaters next Friday.