Fred Hampton's Illinois Childhood Home Designated Historical Landmark
Iconic civil rights and Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton’s childhood home in Illinois has been designated as a historical landmark.
According to WGN, organizers of the Save The Hampton House initiative, led by Hampton’s son and mother, announced that the Maywood Village Board voted to recognize the house as a historical landmark.
The new designation is part of an effort to have the Black Panther Party and Black liberation movement represented. Organizers are reportedly planning to transform the site into a place where the works of the Black Panther Party can be displayed.
”The fight to save and maintain the Hampton House is bigger than a building and more significant than a structure,” said Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. in a statement, according to the news station. “Amongst other purposes, it serves as a major aspect of preserving the extraordinary legacy of Chairman Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party, and that of service to the people in general.”
Hampton was sleeping in the house on the West Side of Chicago in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 1969, when he and fellow Black Panther leader Mark Clark were shot and killed during what authorities said at the time was the execution of a search warrant to find weapons and explosives.
Nearly 100 shots were fired through the walls, doors and windows of the house while just one shot appeared to have been fired by someone inside the residence, according to a federal grand jury.
