Also American

Person · 1948–1969

Fred Hampton

The charismatic young Chicago Black Panther leader killed in a police-FBI raid at age 21.

A martyr of the [[black-power]] era.

Fred Hampton rose quickly to lead the Illinois Black Panther Party, where he built free breakfast programs and brokered a "Rainbow Coalition" across racial and class lines among Chicago's poor.

In the pre-dawn hours of December 4, 1969, he was killed in his bed during a raid coordinated by the Chicago police and the FBI's COINTELPRO program — a killing later ruled to have violated his rights.

Black Power

On the timeline

  1. October 15, 1966
    The Black Panther Party is founded

    Huey Newton and Bobby Seale form the party for self-defense and community programs.

  2. December 4, 1969
    COINTELPRO and the killing of Fred Hampton

    Chicago police, acting on FBI COINTELPRO intelligence, kill the 21-year-old Black Panther leader in his bed.

Resources

The web

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.