Unidentified Artist

Description

Fred Hampton (1948–1969) was the deputy chair of the Black Panther Party, rising to this position after years of organizing with the NAACP. His political career demonstrates the splits that were occurring in the civil rights movement as the NAACP’s focus on integration, legal challenges, and nonviolent moral persuasion fell out of favor with a younger generation. Charismatic and effective, Hampton drew the attention of the FBI as a “key militant.” In the late 1960s, the FBI began a campaign to destabilize the Black Panthers and killed Hampton while he was sleeping during a raid. Although the FBI officers in charge were never prosecuted, after thirteen years of litigation Hampton’s family won an appeal and achieved a civil rights settlement in a landmark case. Nevertheless, after Hampton’s murder, the inability to produce another leader with the same energy and intelligence of Hampton led to the party’s demise in the 1970s.Fred Hampton (1948–1969) llegó a ser portavoz del Partido Panteras Negras luego de años de militancia con la NAACP (Asociación Nacional para el Progreso de las Personas de Color). Su carrera política evidencia las rupturas que se dieron dentro del movimiento pro derechos civiles cuando la generación joven empezó a rechazar elementos de la NAACP como el énfasis en la integración, los pleitos legales y las tácticas de persuasión moral sin violencia. Carismático y eficiente, Hampton estaba en la mira del FBI como “militante clave”. A fines de la década de 1960, el FBI inició una campaña para desestabilizar a los...

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution