Fred Hampton Jr.

Born in Chicago, Hampton is the son of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton and his fiancée, Deborah Johnson. He was born 25 days after his father's assassination by the Chicago police, at the age of 21, in a 1969 FBI instigated raid. His mother named him Alfred Johnson at birth. When he was ten years old, she had his name legally changed to "Fred Hampton Jr." She had already changed her own name to Akua Njeri, as she increasingly had identified with Africa in the years after Hampton Sr's death. Hampton graduated from Tilden High School and studied journalism at Olive–Harvey College. ==Career==

During the late 1980s, Hampton worked part-time as an auto mechanic while speaking at rallies and working as an organizer for the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM), an interracial group. He also sold The Burning Spear, the newspaper associated with the affiliated African Socialist Party. He now serves as president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) and the Black Panther Party Cubs (BPPC), made up of descendants of Black Panthers. He continues to organize to bring people together across racial and class lines. He also is a spoken word artist and poet, and draws from his experiences with police and incarceration. ==Legal issues==

During his early adulthood, Hampton was tried and acquitted on charges of armed robbery and murder. He and his supporters say that he was framed. During the trial, fire officials testified that the bottles that held the gasoline never broke, preventing more widescale damage. According to Hampton's supporters, the fingerprint expert for the Chicago Police Department Crime Lab testified that none of Hampton's fingerprints were found on the bottles. But photographs of his hands showed blisters that were evident when he was arrested. Hampton was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. He was paroled on September 14, 2001. ==In popular culture==

• Hampton appeared in Michel Gondry's 2006 film ''Dave Chappelle's Block Party''. • His 1993 trial is referred to in Fall Out Boy's song "You're Crashing, But You're No Wave". • He and his father are mentioned in the song "Behind Enemy Lines" by Dead Prez, as well as "Clap for the Killers" by Street Sweeper Social Club. Hampton and his mother both worked as consultants on the film Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), a biopic about his father co-written and directed by Shaka King. It stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton Sr. and LaKeith Stanfield as William O'Neal, a young FBI informant who infiltrated the Panthers. With nearly equal screen time in the film, both men were nominated for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor; Kaluuya won. ==References==