Hampton, Fred (1948-1969), was an African American civil rights activist and a leader of the Black Panther Party. This radical organization endorsed militant tactics to protect Black Americans from brutal treatment at the hands of police officers and others. The group also came to embrace Marxist socialism, because it considered the mistreatment of Black people to be inseparably linked to capitalism. Hampton was killed in a police raid at the age of 21.
Frederick Allen Hampton was born in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 30, 1948. He grew up in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. He graduated from Proviso East High School in 1966. In high school, Hampton showed a talent for leadership and community organization. He led the school’s interracial council and protested the exclusion of Black candidates for homecoming queen. He persuaded Proviso East to hire more Black administrators and teachers. He also pushed Maywood to reform unjust policing practices and to establish a racially integrated swimming pool and recreation center. Hampton studied law at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois.
Hampton founded a local youth section of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Although Hampton respected the work of the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., he rejected King’s nonviolent philosophy. Instead, he favored the armed self-defense promoted by the American civil rights leader Malcolm X and others.
In 1968, Hampton and the American activist Bobby Rush founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Hampton became chairman of the group. The group advocated violent resistance against racism, police brutality, and capitalism. Under Hampton’s leadership, the chapter established a free medical clinic and a breakfast program for schoolchildren. Hampton also negotiated a ceasefire among Black, Latino, and white street gangs. However, the Black Panthers’ embrace of socialism and violent confrontations with the police attracted the attention of law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). William O’Neal, an FBI informant, infiltrated the chapter and became Hampton’s chief of security.
On Dec. 4, 1969, police officers raided the headquarters of the Illinois Black Panthers. Hampton and the American activist Mark Clark were shot and killed in the raid. Officials initially claimed that the deaths occurred in a lengthy gun battle between the Panthers and the police. However, ballistics (bullet) evidence recovered at the scene revealed that the police had fired nearly 100 shots, and the Panthers had fired just one. Charges of attempted murder against several Panthers arrested in the raid were dropped. Later evidence showed that Hampton personally had been targeted, probably with O’Neal’s assistance. The raid’s planners had a detailed map of the headquarters that showed where Hampton slept. Hampton was shot in bed, and there was evidence that he had been drugged. His story was dramatized in the motion picture Judas and the Black Messiah (2021).
