Judas and the Black Messiah stars Daniel Kaluuya in tragic tale of FBI-orchestrated killing of civil rights leader Fred Hampton

In March of 1968, J. Edgar Hoover issued a memorandum to the agents of COINTELPRO, a covert — and illegal — series of counterintelligence operations: “Prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement.”

Hoover’s directive went on to caution that Martin Luther King Jr “could be a very real contender for this position”.

King had in fact been the subject of surveillance and discreditation campaigns by COINTELPRO since 1963 — their shady efforts detailed in Sam Pollard’s 2020 documentary MLK/FBI.

Shaka King’s stirring and distressingly relevant docudrama Judas and the Black Messiah depicts the rise and FBI-orchestrated fall of another, lesser-known Black civil rights leader.

Fred Hampton…