The Legacy of Fred Hampton

History is full of many influential Black people whose accomplishments you won’t learn in school books. Whether they made an impact in their own communities or worldwide we can’t let them be forgotten. If we ourselves don’t write their stories then who will keep the legacy alive. In today’s small history lesson, we will learn about Fred Hampton.

Frederick Allen Hampton

He was known as Fred Hampton was Born August 30, 1948, until December 4, 1969, an American born activist and revolutionary socialist. It wasn’t always Fred’s Plan to become an activist, as a bright young child in school and athletic, his dream was to become a center field for the New York Yankees.

When enrolled at Triton Junior college as a pre-law major and decided to become more aware of the legal system to use it as a defense against the police. Which led him to become active for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He immediately took leadership of the Western Suburban Branch Youth Council. At this time in the black community of Maywood, he created more and much better recreational centers as well as the improvement of educational resources.

At the same time, the NAACP was rising with Fred; another organization was taking a step forward to accomplish big things. The Black Panther Party (BPP) was going national and got the attention of Fred Hampton and decided to move to Chicago. He rose up the ranks of BPP chairman of Illinois Chapter and the deputy chairman of the national BPP.

He even founded the Rainbow Coalition, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and created an alliance with the major street gangs in Chicago and help with social change. With all his work and dedication to helping the Black community, it also caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Fred’s great leadership was found as a threat to the FBI chief of investigation J. Edgar Hoover. All of these groups such as BPP and NAACP amongst the others was believed by Edgar Hoover to be a racial national revolution threat to the US government society.