SameOldShawn: The idea of revolution - that seemed imminent, right? That seemed like something that might actually happen

Umar Bin Hassan: Listen, Shawn, we had the powers that be on their heels for a minute. And we all knew that. It wasn't just the Nation of Islam; it wasn't just the Black Panthers or The Last Poets or the Republic of Afrika, but the white kids too. The SDS, the Weather Underground - especially the Weather Underground, them boys, they blew up, they weren't playin'. Matter of fact some of them sometimes, they would be on the run, if two or three was in town, they'd be sneaking into our concerts two or three at a time. They'd say, "We love you guys, we love what you're doing." We said, "We love what y'all doing too man, keep it up." So you know, and it was deep, man

Matter of fact, the brother of this guy in Chicago... Hampton, his sons. They have a meeting every December, to go to the place where he was killed, and about three years ago we went to one and some of the cats from the white people and Indian movement were there. We were all there; some of us cried to see that some of us were still living. It's a deep thing. But yeah, man, we had 'em on their heels for a minute

But then, COINTELPRO came in. They came in during the 60s for a little, doing the Black Panthers thing. But COINTELPRO had been in operation since 1944. Edgar Hoover had already had it in place to use it for other things. But they just heightened it, cleaned it up, enhanced it... Next thing you know, cause I was a Muslim at the time, brothers got driven for making Muslim, and say "As-salam alaykum" was a police, the brother you had been in a shootout with was a police, you don't know who to trust anymore. A lot of people became disappointed and disillusioned. A lot of people went back to drugs, like myself and Afeni. And Afeni, was one of the most brilliant legal minds of the time. You know, she won her case! We used to go down there during the Panther trial; a lot of the Panthers would go down and support and sit in the courtroom. Matter of fact, the judge told her to her face, if you wasn't such an embittered and angry black woman, you'd be one hell of a lawyer or legal mind