Fred Hampton Jr. (born Alfred Johnson; December 29, 1969) is an American political activist, based in
Chicago. He is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs. He is the only child of
Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party leader assassinated by police in Chicago on December 4, 1969, with his fiancée, now known as
Akua Njeri.
Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Hampton is the son of
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
leader
Fred Hampton and his fiancée, Deborah Johnson.
He was born 25 days after his father, at age 21, was assassinated by the
Chicago police in a 1969 FBI instigated raid.
His mother named him Alfred Johnson at birth. When he was ten years old, she had his name legally changed to "Fred Hampton Jr."
She had already changed her own name to
Akua Njeri, as she increasingly had identified with Africa in the years after Hampton Sr's death. She wanted to drop what she and many in the Black Power movement considered "slave names".
Hampton graduated from
Tilden High School and sporadically studied journalism at
Olive–Harvey College
Olive–Harvey College is a community college on Chicago's far South Side located at 10001 S. Woodlawn Avenue, and is a part of the City Colleges of Chicago, the largest community college system in Illinois and one of the largest in the nation.
...
.
Career
During the late 1980s, Hampton worked part-time as an auto mechanic while speaking at rallies and working as an organizer for the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM), an interracial group. He also sold ''The Burning Spear'', the newspaper associated with the affiliated African Socialist Party.
He now serves as president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) and the Black Panther Party Cubs (BPPC), made up of descendants of Black Panthers. He continues to organize to bring people together across racial and class lines. He also is a spoken word artist and poet, and draws from his experiences with police and incarceration.
Legal issues
During his early adulthood, Hampton was tried and acquitted on charges of armed robbery and murder. He and his supporters say that he was framed.
In 1993, he was convicted of
aggravated arson. The case involved the 1992 firebombing of a Korean menswear store and a Korean jewelry store in
Chicago on
Halsted Street
Halsted Street is a major north-south street in the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois.
Location
In Chicago's grid system, Halsted Street marks 800 West, west of State Street, from Grace Street (3800 N) in Lakeview south to the city limits at t ...
. No persons were injured. The arson occurred in 1992, during the
1992 Los Angeles riots
The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...
, a six-day period of protests and outrage in many African-American communities after the acquittal of four
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers who were charged with excessive force in the beating of African-American motorist
Rodney King during an arrest. The incident had been videotaped and widely viewed in television broadcasts.
Hampton and his supporters maintain his innocence, claiming he was framed in both cases.
During the trial, fire officials testified that the bottles that held the gasoline never broke, preventing more widescale damage. According to Hampton's supporters, the fingerprint expert for the Chicago Police Department Crime Lab testified that none of Hampton's fingerprints was found on the bottles. But photographs of his hands showed blisters that were evident when he was arrested.
Hampton was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. He was
paroled on September 14, 2001.
In popular culture
*Hampton appeared in
Michel Gondry's 2006 film ''
Dave Chappelle's Block Party''.
*His 1993 trial is referred to in
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer A ...
's song "
You're Crashing, But You're No Wave
''Infinity on High'' is the third studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on February 6, 2007, by Island Records. Recorded from July to October 2006 at Pass Studios in Los Angeles, California, its music was composed by lead si ...
".
*He and his father are mentioned in the song "Behind Enemy Lines" by
Dead Prez, as well as "Clap for the Killers" by
Street Sweeper Social Club
Street Sweeper Social Club is an American rap rock supergroup, formed in Los Angeles, California in 2006. The band primarily consists of guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and vocalist and emcee Boots Riley of The Coup. The band ...
.
Hampton and his mother both worked as consultants on the film ''
Judas and the Black Messiah'' (2021), a biopic about his father co-written and directed by
Shaka King. It stars
Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton Sr. and
Lakeith Stanfield as
William O'Neal, a young
FBI informant who infiltrated the Panthers.
With nearly equal screen time in the film, both men were nominated for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor; Kaluuya won.
References
External links
Fred Hampton Junior Speaks to VIBE 2004 interview with
VIBE magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hampton, Fred Jr.
1969 births
Living people
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Chicago
American people convicted of arson
American prisoners and detainees
Prisoners and detainees of California