Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was a radical African American

Quotes on Hampton

• "I have rarely been so impressed with anyone as I was with Fred Hampton at our first meeting. I thought to myself: this twenty-year old Black has a depth, understanding and sensitivity that I don't have and that just about every white person I know lacks. Maybe whites are the underprivileged members of our society, since at least some Blacks learn more from their persecution than any of us have learned from our privileged status." — David Dellinger, peace activist and codefendant of the Chicago Seven (from his autobiography).
• " had charm coming out his ears. My impression of the Black Panthers in Oakland (California) was that they were thugs. Fred was not a thug." — Rev. Thomas Strieter, a member of the Maywood village board who knew Hampton from his earliest days as an organizer, as quoted in a 1994 Chicago magazine article.
• "One of the most persuasive speakers I've ever heard." — James Montgomery, former Chicago corporation counsel
• "He was a giant, and this is not some idle white worship of a black man. This is a terrible way to put it, but the people who made it their business to kill the leaders of the black movement picked the right ones." — Dr. Quentin Young, a member of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's inner circle.
• "One of the most talented and promising leaders of the Panthers". - Noam Chomsky
• "Fred Hampton was an effective organizer in the Chicago ghetto. He was one of the main targets of the FBI terror campaign, and they ended up killing him with the cooperation of the Chicago police department after an FBI setup... That didn't come up in the Watergate hearings. Nobody said to Richard Nixon, 'Wait a minute, you organized the Gestapo-style assassination of an organizer in the ghetto.' What they said in the Watergate hearings was: 'You called a powerful guy a bad name. The Constitution is collapsing.' " - Noam Chomsky