A blackboard filled with nearly 20 names — those who were murdered in the South during the fight for civil rights — began the presentation.

Milton McGriff, a graduate student in English, asked the audience members how many of the names they recognized. Only a few of the more than 100 participants raised their hands.

“I consider them a bridge that carried us across. We need to learn and study these people,” McGriff said of the names.

His presentation, “Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party: Originators of the Rainbow Coalition,” was a historical account of parts of the Civil Rights Movement.

He began with a timeline of events, beginning in 1955 with Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. It ended with the death of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in 1969.

“I’m going to try to undemonize the Black Panther Party today,” McGriff said as he recounted the events that lead to Hampton’s murder.

McGriff was a member of the Black Panther Party for a short period of time in the 1960s.

In the beginning, whites and blacks began working together on the Civil Rights Movement, he said.

It wasn’t until resentment formed toward some of the white people who were in leadership roles that a clash began between the races.

McGriff said groups like the Panthers were then formed. Contrary to popular belief, he said, the Panthers were not anti-white.

“The Panthers said the country isn’t ready for integration,” he said.

The group formed in California to combat police brutality, he said. Originally known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, members began patrolling the police and informing citizens about their rights.

Panthers often carried guns, and wore black berets and leather jackets that scared the nation, McGriff said.

The downfall of the Panthers, organized in 1966, began with the death of their leader, he said.

On Dec. 4, 1969, representatives from the Chicago State Attorney’s Office and police entered Hampton’s apartment where he and several other Panthers were sleeping. Hampton was shot to death before he even got out of bed, McGriff said.

McGriff cited Chicago Tribune articles which called the surprise shooting a “fierce shoot-out.”

Police were quoted as saying the Panthers initiated the attack, “leaving no choice but to defend ourselves. We had to do what we had to do.”

The following day, Black Panthers opened the apartment to the news media, McGriff said. The media found that there were 94 shots going into the apartment and only 1 bullet going out.

“I don’t want to demonize the police anymore. I’m beyond that. This was called a justifiable homicide,” McGriff said.

“I will never stop saying that’s wrong.”

McGriff said today’s Rainbow Coalition, founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, grew from the ideas of Hampton.

Now, the issue of race is once again a big factor in our society, McGriff said.

“We’ve got unfinished business from the ’60s. Race has just again become an issue,” he said. “What we’ve done and what we will continue to do is get people to talk about race on campus. The name on that building [Catt Hall] is a political issue.”