![]() Hampton formed an alliance between the Panthers, the Lords, and the white, working class Young Patriots so that they could fight poverty and a lack of resources in their communities. Fred Hampton formed the Rainbow Coalition.ĭuring his time as chairman of Illinois’s Black Panther Party, Hampton worked with the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican gang-turned-civil rights organization, to encourage activism and community organization. ![]() After Hampton’s death, while the pool was still under construction, the village board decided it would bear his name. Hampton organized rallies and butted heads with authorities over the matter and eventually locked in funds from local businesses to get the pool built. The closest public pool at the time was a couple miles away in Melrose Park, but it only served white people. During his time with the organization, Hampton spearheaded a campaign to have a non-segregated pool built in his hometown of Maywood, Illinois. When he was 18 years old, Hampton served as an NAACP Youth Council President and led approximately 500 members in the fight for stronger education resources and better community facilities. As a teenager, Fred Hampton was active in the NAACP. He went on to study pre-law at Triton Junior College and hoped to defend his community against police brutality. While in school, Hampton headed the school’s Inter-racial Council and spearheaded a boycott of homecoming, advocating for the school to permit Black girls to compete for homecoming queen. In 1966, Hampton graduated from Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois, with academic honors, three varsity letters, and a Junior Achievement Award. Fred Hampton graduated high school with honors and went on to study law. Twenty-five days after the raid, Njeri gave birth to their son, Fred Hampton Jr. They first bonded over poetry, which she wrote at the time Njeri recalled that Hampton preferred poems about “the struggles of the people and the people fighting back” and “the conditions of the Black community.” Njeri was asleep next to Hampton when police raided his apartment and shot him. ![]() ![]() Fred Hampton met his fiancée, Akua Njeri, when she was a college student.Īkua Njeri, then known as Deborah Johnson, had been studying at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago and was a member of the Black Student Union when she met Hampton. Hampton was convicted despite testifying that he had not been present at the playground when the ice cream was allegedly stolen. His crime? A Good Humor ice cream driver claimed that, in July 1968, Hampton stole $71 worth of ice cream from his van while he was parked at the Irvin School playground in Maywood, Illinois. In the spring of 1969, the Supreme Court of Illinois found Hampton guilty of robbery and sentenced him to two to five years in the Menard Correctional Center (known then as Southern Illinois Penitentiary). Monroe Street in Chicago, where Fred Hampton was killed during a police raid. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |