Many American schools usually keep their Black History curriculum on the Civil Rights Movement narrow down to just a handful of people. Most grade students never learned about Fred Hampton in the classroom. He was the chairman of the Black Panther Party in Illinois—a Chicagoland native with Southern roots who built a coalition of Black Chicagoans, white Southerners who had moved up north from Appalachia, Latino immigrants and even Chicago street gang members.
Chairman Hampton worked to successfully form and lead this rainbow coalition until he was killed by police on December 4, 1969.
Some argue that’s why he was killed.
This is the story of how Chairman Fred Hampton Sr.—a Windy City native with Southern roots—united a city for a common cause, and how the government unraveled it.
