Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Daniel Kaluuya: Fred Hampton

Photos 

Quotes 

• Fred Hampton : Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed

• Fred Hampton : America's on fire right now and until the fire is extinguished don't nothin' else mean a goddamn thing.

• Fred Hampton : I am a revolutionary!

• Fred Hampton : Anywhere there is people, there is power.

• Fred Hampton : Reform - it's just the masters teaching the slaves how to be better slaves.

• Deborah Johnson : I did not expect you to be shy.

  Fred Hampton : I'm not shy.

  Deborah Johnson : [Scoffs]  Okay.

• Fred Hampton : Housing, justice, peace... Life, liberty, happiness. I mean, it's all right there in the Declaration of Independence. But when poor people demand it, it's a contradiction -- it's not Democracy, it's Socialism.

• Fred Hampton : It's not a question of violence or non-violence. It's a question of resistance to fascism or non-existence within fascism! You can murder a liberator, but you can't murder liberation. You can murder a revolutionary, but you can't murder a revolution. And you can murder a freedom fighter but you can't murder freedom! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary!

  [pause] 

  Fred Hampton : I don't believe I'm gonna die in no car wreck! I don't believe I'm gonna die slippin' on no ice! I don't believe I'm gonna die 'cause I got a bad heart! I believe I'm gonna die doing what I was born for! I believe I'm gonna die high off the people! I'm gonna die for the people, 'cause I live for the people! I live for the people, 'cause I love the people!

• Fred Hampton : Malcolm X College, I can dig it. Dr. Charles Hurst, direct from Howard. Right on. So, what? You think the students over there gonna be free now? Oh, they'll let you change the name of your college, or your own name, throw on a dashiki. 'Cause guess what? They still gonna drag your Black ass to Vietnam to shoot a poor rice farmer or get shot your damn self. That's the difference between revolution and the candy-coated facade of gradual reform. Reform is just the masters teaching the slaves how to be better slaves. Under reform, you could take the motherfucking masters out, and the slaves still be doin' all the work for 'em. There's a man called a capitalist. Don't matter what color he is, black, white, brown, red, don't matter. Because the capitalist has one goal. And that is to exploit the people. He can have on a three-piece suit or a dashiki, 'cause political power doesn't flow from the sleeve of a dashiki. Political power flows from the barrel of a gun. We in the Black Panther Party don't believe in no culture except revolutionary culture. What we mean by that is a culture that will free you! Don't give me no five-and-dime costume of a medicine man or a witch doctor, or whatever you think the motherland look like. Give me the righteous threads of a Mozambican FRELIMO fighter.

• Deborah Johnson : [In bed]  Uh, your feet's cold. Why your feet so cold? No, get 'em off of me!

  Fred Hampton : My feet cold, your feet cold.

  Deborah Johnson : No, unless you... They're like...

  Fred Hampton : But that's Socialism, man. Well, you gotta warm 'em up, though. How you think Mao did the Long March, huh? The Chinese would warm these feet left and right.

  Deborah Johnson : You saying I'm a Foot Capitalist? You really gonna' call me a Foot Capitalist, Chairman?

• Fred Hampton : That flag is some motherfuckin' bullshit.

  Bobby Rush : Comrade. Take it easy, comrade.

  Fesperman : It's just up there to remind us of our Southern heritage.

  Fred Hampton : When I look at that, I don't see no flag hanging. I see my uncle hanging from a tree. And a bunch of white devils like y'all, smiling around his body.

• Fred Hampton : Drummer, lemme hear the people beat! This is what we call the people beat. Started in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. It's the beat that manifests in you, the people. They can't never stop the party, unless they stop the people!

• Fred Hampton : There's strength in numbers. Power anywhere there's people.

• Fred Hampton : You don't fight racism with racism. We gonna fight with solidarity.

• Fred Hampton : Would you say we at war with the pigs, Comrade Palmer?

  Jimmy Palmer : Chairman, I'd take it a step further and say that every ghetto across the nation should be considered occupied territory.

• Fred Hampton : We ain't gonna fight capitalism with Black capitalism, we gonna fight capitalism with socialism.

• Fred Hampton : So, if you were asked to make a commitment at age 20, and you said, 'I'm too young to die,' then you're dead already! If you dare to struggle, you dare to win! If you dare not struggle, then, God damn it, you don't deserve to win!

• Fred Hampton : We don't fight fire with fire, we fight fire with water.

• Fred Hampton : The pigs do everything in their power to keep us isolated. Because they know, the day we get organized, it's over for their asses.

• Fred Hampton : O'Neal, stand up. What is the party line in regards to our sisters, comrade?

  Bill O'Neal : Um...

  Fred Hampton : Anybody?

  Doc Satchel : Do not take liberties with women.

  Bill O'Neal : Oh, come on now. I ain't takin' no goddamn...

  Fred Hampton : These aren't just your sisters. They're your sisters-in-arms. Act like it.

• Fred Hampton : What if the overseer had banded with the slaves and cut the master's throat? What then, comrade? We might not be in this funky-ass ghetto right now.

• Fred Hampton : Our job as the Black Panther Party is to heighten the contradictions.

• Fred Hampton : The poet. What a pleasant surprise.

  Deborah Johnson : I saw your ad in the paper, lookin' for a new speechwriter. I figured I'd better come lend a hand.

  Fred Hampton : Well, that must have been a misprint. See, I don't write speeches, sister. I just get up on stage and speak truth to the people.

  Deborah Johnson : Oh, it shows. The lack of preparation, that is.

  Fred Hampton : It got you here.

• Fred Hampton : A dashiki ain't gonna help you when they come up in here with them tanks, like they did in Henry Horner.

• Fred Hampton : Put a fist in the air for Comrade Jimmy Palmer. Jimmy Palmer died a revolutionary death. He stood face-to-face and toe-to-toe with pig Daley's henchmen, and made the greatest sacrifice one could ever make.

• Deborah Johnson : Thought your speech was... was really interesting.

  Fred Hampton : Well, thank you, sister.

  Deborah Johnson : Do you like poetry?

  Fred Hampton : I mean, it's cool, but as Che Guevara said... 'Words are beautiful, but action is supreme,' you dig?

  Deborah Johnson : I dig. Right on. But you were up on that stage using words, so... Maybe next time, choose 'em a bit more carefully, instead of tearin' down the folk who you call yourself recruitin', just because they demonstrate a little Black pride. But just so you know, you are a poet.