NEAR WEST SIDE — Black Panther Party members gathered Wednesday outside a Near West Side two-flat where, almost 56 years ago to the day, Chairman Fred Hampton was assassinated alongside fellow Black Panther Mark Clark.
The two-flat at 2337 W. Monroe St. where Hampton and Clark were killed by Chicago police is now the latest site to be commemorated as part of the Black Panther Party Heritage Trail. A vigil and plaque dedication was held at the site Wednesday by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party to mark the site and anniversary of the assassinations.
“They died with the people in their hearts,” Black Panther chapter member Wanda Ross said at Wednesday’s vigil. “Their memory and sacrifice we can never forget, because we are revolutionaries. … We must continue until we are free from racism, free from classism [and] free from hate.”
Hampton, Bobby Rush and Bob Brown founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in August 1968 ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which saw widespread violence in clashes between demonstrators and police. The local chapter of the Black rights group provided free breakfast to young people and impoverished residents across Chicago.
In his brief stint as deputy chairman for the Illinois chapter, Hampton made it his mission to reach across racial barriers and build unity between members of the working class. He founded the Rainbow Coalition, where he collaborated with local groups and street gangs like the Young Lords, Brown Berets and Young Patriots on joint survival projects and demonstrations.
Hampton, then 21, was killed alongside Clark, the Black Panthers’ defense captain, during a police raid at the Monroe Street apartment building on Dec. 4, 1969.
Hampton was sleeping in his apartment with his pregnant fiancée, fellow Black Panther Akua Njeri, when, in the early morning hours, undercover officers stormed the building and fired over 90 times, including with machine guns, through walls and windows of the building. His killing was part of the FBI’s targeted Counterintelligence Program that systematically attacked and dismantled left-wing activist groups from 1956-1971, including the Black Panthers.
Rush, who served for decades as a congressman after co-founding the Illinois chapter, reflected on Hampton’s significance in his life at Wednesday’s vigil.
“Fred Hampton was the most courageous man that I have known. … At age 21, whatever he said, he meant it,” Rush said. “We could not have conducted a revolution by ourselves. We knew we had to have a message behind us, so we went out to organize the masses.”
Wednesday’s vigil also served to mark the home as the second location on the Black Panther Party Heritage Trail.
A plaque was presented and to be installed as one of the places central to the Black Panther Party’s history in Chicago and Illinois. In August, a plaque was installed at the former headquarters for the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party on the Near West Side. Another plaque is already installed in Peoria.
The sites were added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2023 in an effort spearheaded by the Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois chapter of Black Panthers, which unveiled the plaques last year.
Other sites to get a plaque honoring the Black Panthers:
- Better Boys Foundation, 1512 S. Pulaski Road, which was the site of the first free breakfast for children program
- The People’s Medical Care Center, 3850 W. 16th St.
Wednesday’s vigil was immediately met with protest from Hampton’s son, Fred Hampton Jr., who is opposed to the Illinois Chapter’s preservation efforts. He hosted an impromptu press conference to address his father’s legacy and how he should be remembered.
“We will say his name, we will study his work and we will continue his fight because we are all united by his words: ‘You can murder a liberator, but you can’t murder a liberation,’” Hampton Jr. wrote on Instagram.
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