The Life and Legacy of Mark Clark
The Life and Legacy of Mark Clark
Mark Clark’s Early Years
Black Panther Party Leader Mark Clark was born June 28, 1947. He was the ninth child out of Elder William and Fannie Clark’s seventeen children. Mark, was their seventh son. As a child Mark Clark spent a lot of time at his fathers church where he was active in the Sunshine Band. Mark attended Lincoln Elementary School and Roosevelt Junior High School in Peoria Illinois. He joined the Peoria Chapter of the NAACP in his early teens where he displayed leadership abilities with the youth. According to NAACP chapter President John Gwyn “Mark could call youth to order when adults could not”
Mark Joins The Black Panther Party
Mark Clark had the tenacity to engage in a revolutionary struggle for justice and liberation. He joined the Black Panther Party, organizing the Peoria Branch in early 1969. Black Panther Party Leader Clark motivated inner-city youth to dedicate themselves to the Black Panther Party Ten-Point Program, platform, and initiatives. Mark Clark routinely required the Peoria Black Panther Party recruits to participate in marching exercises designed to help achieve greater discipline and unity. Peoria recruits monitored the neighborhood and sold the Black Panther Party Newspapers which highlighted Party initiatives and exposed police fascism and brutality.
Police and FBI Target BPP / Assassinate Fred and Mark
Fearing the unification of Black leadership and the success of the Black Panthers Free Breakfast Program, Free People's Medical Clinic, and Political Education classes; FBI officials deemed The Black Panther Party to be the number one threat to the security of the nation. FBI set up a special task force to focus on eliminating the Black Panthers. Members of the Black Panther Party were maliciously charged with serious crimes; Some were given lengthy prison sentences. Other Black Panthers were killed by police in cities and towns throughout the nation.
Defense Captain Mark Clark was in the front living room in a chair, when police forcibly kicked the door open and began shooting without warning. Mark Clark was shot twice, once in the heart and once in the lung; and was killed instantly.
Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. was asleep in the back bedroom with his pregnant fiancée when he was shot in the shoulder from the submachine gunfire that penetrated through the wall. His pregnant fiancée, unable to wake him, was hurried out of the back bedroom into the kitchen. Several policemen enter the bedroom where they shot Chairman Fred several more times. Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. was shot a total of four times; twice in the head at point blank range. An officer was heard to have said "He's good and dead now". Police continued to spray the apartment. There were 99 submachine gun shots fired by police resulting in the assassinations and serious injury of several other Black Panther Party members.
Mark Clark’s Funeral and Burial In Peoria
Mark Clark's family learned of his death from news reports but were never officially notified by authorities. When family members arrived in Chicago to claim his body, they found Mark listed as an unknown person, even though FBI and police knew his identity.
13 Years Of Trials & Appeals
It would take 13 years of trials and appeals going all the way up to the U.S. Supreme court before the families of Mark Clark and Fred Hampton were awarded a civil judgment. In 1983 a settlement of $1.85 million was reached, most of which went to attorneys fees . no police or FBI operatives was held criminally responsible as the government gave FBI operatives qualified immunity..
Letter To A Panther
By Matthew Clark