Fred Hampton Jr. (born Alfred Johnson; December 29, 1969) is an American political activist, based in Chicago. He is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and Black Panther Cubs He is the only child of Fred Hampton (the Black Panther Party leader killed by police in Chicago on December 4, 1969) with his fiancée, now known as Akua Njeri.
Early life and education
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. 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.
- 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.