History Connects Obama, Rainbow Coalition

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 6, 2010) -  When Chicago Black Panther Fred Hampton was killed by the FBI and Chicago police over 40 years ago, the emergence of Barack Obama as president of the United States was a pipe dream.
 
University of Kentucky history professor Jakobi Williams will correct widely held misconceptions about the Black Panthers and connect Hampton's death with Obama's presidency in a lecture titled "President Barack Obama: An Unintended Consequence of the Illinois Black Panther Party’s Rainbow Coalition" from 4:30 to 6 p.m. April 7 in 211 Student Center.
 
Williams, who was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, is a part of the African American Studies and Research Program's Carter G. Woodson Lecture Series this year.
 
The author and professor is currently finalizing a book manuscript tentatively titled, "Fred Hampton to Barack Obama: the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Origin of the Rainbow Coalition, and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago."
 
"My lecture will trace racial coalition politics in Chicago by highlighting how the ILBPP's Rainbow Coalition created in 1968 would lead to Obama being elected president 40 years later," said Williams, whose research interests include African-American history, 20th century United States history, the Black Panther Party and the Black Power/Civil Rights movements.

"The Rainbow Coalition title would later be appropriated by Jesse Jackson due to its success in the Chicago political arena, which is why most people identify Jackson with the group when the Rainbow Coalition is mentioned," he explained.
 
The Carter G. Woodson Lecture Series, sponsored each year by AASRP, is named in honor of the noted African American history scholar and is meant to enrich the campus and community's intellectual understanding of various topics and themes relating to issues of race and culture.
 
For more information, contact the AASRP at 257-3593.