Fred Hampton
American Gov Sept 15, 2010 Fred Hampton was born in Chicago the year of 1948; he grew up with his parents in Maywood a suburb in the city limits of Chicago. Hampton attended high school in the city of Chicago; he went to Proviso East High School. Fred Hampton would graduate in 1966 and future his educate himself in law at Trinton Junior College. While attending Trinton he decided to join the NAACP and was appointed leader of the youth council organizations west suburban branch.
In November of 1968 Hampton went on to establish the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. When he opened up the chapter he offered the provision of free breakfast for school children. He also used the chapter to provide medical attention to patients free of charge. To help the community he taught political education classes and instigated a community control of police project. One of Fred Hampton greatest achievements came in 1969 when he persuade the most powerful street gangs to stop fighting, he called it the Nonaggression Pact.
The same year he went on to form the Rainbow Coalition a multiracial alliance of blacks, Puerto Ricans, and poor youth. That same year Hampton was arrested for stealing $71 worth of sweets that he allegedly gave away to the local children, the charges was later dropped. In 1969 the panther’s party started to gain interest from the FBI’s J Edger Hoover. The headquarters on West Monroe Street was raided three times in one year and over 100 members were arrested. In the early hours on December 4, 1969 the panther party headquarters was raided again for the fourth time.
The police claimed that the panther party opened fire first and a shoot out took place. Afterwards ballistics evidence revealed that only one bullet had been fired by the panthers, meaning nearly 100 shots came from the police. During the shoot out Fred Hampton and Mark Clark was killed, witness claimed Hampton was wounded in the shoulder and then executed by a shoot to the head. After the resignation of President Richard Nixon, the Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a wide range investigation of the incident.
In April of 1976 Frank Church of the FBI revealed that William O’Neal (Hampton’s bodyguard) helped the FBI days before the raid, by giving them a floor plan of Hampton apartment marking an “x” were his bedroom was. From that night ballistics showed that most of the bullets during the raid were aimed at Hampton’s bedroom. Fred Hampton left behind his pregnant girlfriend Deborah Johnson. After several attempts to sue the FBI for wrongful deaths of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark there families would receive 1. 85 million in a settlement.
