Editing Weather Underground (section)

===Declaration of war===
In response to the death of Black Panther members [[Fred Hampton]] and [[Mark Clark (Black Panther)|Mark Clark]] in December 1969 during a police raid, and the [[Kent State shootings|Kent State Shootings]] 5 months later, 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alimi |first=Eitan Y. |date=January 2011 |title=Relational dynamics in factional adoption of terrorist tactics: a comparative perspective |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41475683 |journal=[[Theory and Society]] |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=95–118 |doi=10.1007/s11186-010-9137-x |jstor=41475683 }}</ref> These initially included preparations for a bombing of a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at [[Fort Dix]], New Jersey, in what [[Brian Flanagan]] said had been intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/21/1441247|title=Ex-Weather Underground Member Kathy Boudin Granted Parole|work=Democracy Now!|access-date=February 15, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114020010/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F08%2F21%2F1441247|archive-date=November 14, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

{{blockquote|We've known that our job is to lead white kids into armed revolution. We never intended to spend the next five to twenty-five years of our lives in jail. Ever since SDS became revolutionary, we've been trying to show how it is possible to overcome frustration and impotence that comes from trying to reform this system. Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution is touching all of our lives. Tens of thousands have learned that protest and marches don't do it. Revolutionary violence is the only way.|[[Bernardine Dohrn]]<ref>[[s:Weather Underground Declaration of a State of War|Weather Underground Declaration of a State of War]]</ref>}}

Bernardine Dohrn subsequently stated that it was [[Fred Hampton]]'s death that prompted the Weather Underground to declare war on the U.S. government.

{{blockquote|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<ref name="The Weather Underground"/>}}

In December 1969, the Chicago Police Department, in conjunction with the FBI, conducted a raid on the home of [[Black Panther Party|Black Panther]] Fred Hampton, in which he and [[Mark Clark (Black Panther)|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, other activists and a Chicago newspaper reporter presented visual evidence, as well as the testimony of an FBI ballistics expert, showing that the sleeping Panthers were not [[resisting arrest]] and fired only one shot, as opposed to the more than one hundred the police fired into the apartment. 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/people/people_other.html|title=A Huey P. Newton Story – People – Other Players |publisher=Pbs.org|access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/17_panthers.html|title=American Experience|publisher=Pbs.org|access-date=February 15, 2015|archive-date=March 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301134853/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/17_panthers.html}}</ref> True to Dohrn's words, this single event, in the continuing string of public killings of black leaders of any political stripe, was the trigger that pushed a large number of Weatherman and other students who had just attended the last SDS national convention months earlier to go underground and develop its logistical support network nationally.

On May 21, 1970, a communiqué from the Weather Underground was issued promising to attack a "symbol or institution of American injustice" within two weeks.{{sfn|Sale|1974|p=661}} The communiqué included taunts towards the FBI, daring them to try to find the group, whose members were spread throughout the United States.<ref>Harold Jacobs ed., ''Weatherman'', (Ramparts Press, 1970), 508–511.</ref> 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.<ref>Harold Jacobs ed., ''Weatherman'', (Ramparts Press, 1970), 374.</ref> Then on June 9, 1970, their first publicly acknowledged bombing occurred at a [[New York City]] police station.{{sfn|Sale|1974|p=648}} The FBI placed the Weather Underground organization on the ten most-wanted list by the end of 1970.{{sfn|Jacobs|1997}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}