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Chicago

Childhood home of slain Black Panther gets landmark status in Maywood

Maywood house was home to Fred Hampton, who was shot and killed by Chicago law enforcement in 1969

The late Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers with childhood home at 804 South 17th Avenue (Getty, Google Maps)
The late Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers with childhood home at 804 South 17th Avenue (Getty, Google Maps)

The former Maywood home of Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton is now a landmark.

The Chicago suburb’s village council voted unanimously to approve the landmark status of the home at 804 South 17th Avenue, Crain’s reported.

“This is a phenomenal feeling, a people’s victory,” Fred Hampton Jr., son of the slain activist, said after it was approved.

Hampton Jr. began the efforts to landmark the home last August with a petition drive on what would have been his father’s 73rd birthday.

“This is a great and historic day,” said Rep. Bobby Rush, who succeeded Fred Hampton as leader of the Chicago-area Black Panthers after he was killed by Chicago law enforcement in 1969. Rush said preserving the home will help “preserve Fred Hampton’s extraordinary legacy and a significant portion of the legacy of the Black Panther Party here in Illinois.”

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Hampton lived in the home, which has been in his family since his parents, Francis and Iberia Hampton bought it in 1958 after the Great Migration up from the South and owned it for almost 10 years. During his childhood, Hampton protested a whites-only contest for homecoming queen at his high school and a whites-only policy at a public swimming pool, which is now named for him.

Hampton joined the Chicago branch of the Black Panthers in 1968 when he was 20 years old and quickly caught the attention of the FBI, which worked with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Chicago Police Department to raid the apartment he lived in, about 10 miles away from his childhood home in Maywood.

The tactical squad that raided his home on Dec. 4, 1969, fired at least 90 bullets while the Panthers fired only a single shot. Hampton and fellow Black Panther Mark Clark died and others were critically wounded.

Hampton’s fiance, fellow Black Panther Akua Njeri, was also in the room with Hampton when the apartment was raided, pregnant with their only son, Fred Hampton Jr.

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[CCB] — Victoria Pruitt 

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