fred hampton

The son of parents who had moved to Chicago from Louisiana during the Great Migration, Fred Hampton was a good student and talented athlete who, like many young African Americans in the major cities, encountered police harassment and brutality. Shaped by this experience, and driven by leftwing political convictions, Hampton joined the Black Panther Party.

A self described revolutionary socialist organization, the party was founded in Oakland, California in 1966, largely due to what it regarded as racist policing methods in that city. It quickly gained a foothold in many black neighborhoods across America, including in Chicago. There, Hampton quickly rose to prominence, becoming the leader of the Illinois branch and deputy chairman of the party by the time he was 20 years old.

The Panthers were one of the main targets of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s notorious COINTELPRO, a series of operations that were often illegal, aimed at weakening, discrediting, and even destroying political and social movements deemed subversive. Hampton himself came under close surveillance, while the Chicago branch of the party was infiltrated by at least one FBI asset.

Just as Hampton looked set to become the national leader of the Black Panthers, his apartment was raided by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI. He was shot to death as he lay in his bed with his girlfriend.

Attribution for music used in this episode:

Assassinations Podcast Theme Music (Intro, Outro, and Transitions) written and performed by Graeme Ronald

“Purple Planet Music - Faded Grandeur (3_38) 110bpm” by Purple Planet is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work