Fred Hampton was born on August 30, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois. Gifted both academically and athletically, young Hampton cultivated a desire to eventually play baseball with the New York Yankees. The desire to be a professional athlete, however, soon gave way to activism. Hampton joined the NAACP as a youth organizer and worked to improve impoverished and marginalized black communities.
By the late 1960s Hampton had left the mainstream NAACP and instead joined the more radical Black Panther Party. While with the Black Panthers Hampton organized rallies, taught political education classes, and even helped to create a non-aggression pact between Chicago's most powerful gangs. Additionally, he helped organize the Black Panther's Free Breakfast Program and advocated for community supervision of the police. His skills as a revolutionary activist allowed for Hampton to quickly climb the Black Panther hierarchy, but the Panthers were not the only ones to notice Hampton's gifts...Hampton had caught the eyes and ears of the federal government.
F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover saw Hampton and the Panthers as a serious threat to the power of the United States government. In 1967 the F.B.I. officially created a file to keep tabs on Hampton; two years later the file had expanded to twelve volumes and over four thousand pages. Under the auspices of COINTELPRO, Hoover ordered his agents to eliminate the Black Panther Party and everything it stood for. One particular raid saw F.B.I. personnel "smashing typewriters, destroying food and medical supplies for the Panther health clinic and breakfast program, setting several small fires, and beating and arresting a number of Panthers for obstruction." Similar raids and arrests took place all over the country; federal agents infiltrated Panther chapters and spread disinformation, hoping to cause infighting and conflict.
By 1969 Hampton was in line to become Chief of Staff and spokesman for the Black Panther Party. It was at this time, however, that the F.B.I. decided to forever silence Fred Hampton. An infiltrator and informant, William O'Neil, told the F.B.I. that a "provocative" stockpile of weapons was being stored in Hampton's Chicago apartment. The F.B.I., in collaboration with the Chicago Police Department, planned what they claimed was an arms raid. In the pre-dawn hours of December 4, 1969 fourteen officers arrived at the apartment; the group split, with eight officers to enter through the front and six officers to enter through the back. At 4:45 am the police stormed the apartment; armed with twenty-seven weapons, they fired more than ninety bullets. Black Panther Mark Clark was killed instantly while Hampton, still asleep because of barbituates slipped into his drink by O'Neill, was wounded in the shoulder. Upon finding him still alive, the police shot Hampton twice in the head, point-blank. The remaining Panthers in the apartment were dragged into the street and beaten before being arrested on charges of "aggravated assault" and the "attempted murder of the officers;" each was given a $100,000 bail.
The Chicago Police Department defended the actions of its officers, claiming that the assault team showed "remarkable restraint," "bravery," and "professional discipline." Not surprisingly, a grand jury ruled that all of the participating officers were innocent of any crimes.
Though the State silenced Fred Hampton, his ideals live on. Hampton himself said it best:
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