With the political state of America in 2026, and the apparent rise of new activists claiming affiliation with the original Black Panther Party, it feels urgent to look back at history and honor those who fought before us. Among those is Illinois native Fred Hampton.
Hampton was 21 when he emerged as the powerful leader of the Black Panther Party in 1968, standing openly against a government that viewed him as a threat. That fact hits close to home for me as a 21 year old African American man today.
I struggle to imagine the mental fortitude, courage and political brilliance required to lead a movement while knowing the system you are challenging was built against you. Hampton’s remarkably young age makes his political impact even more striking.
Before joining the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton was already deeply involved in activism. As a teenager in Maywood, IL., Hampton became active in the NAACP Youth Council, where he demonstrated an early talent for mobilizing people to fight for change.
By 18, he had grown the local chapter from just a handful of members to hundreds, organizing protests and campaigns for better educational resources and public services. Hampton believed in collective action and political education, emphasizing unity and discipline rather than violence. This effective charisma quickly drew him into the spotlight.
The Black Panther Party was started in Oct. 1966 in Oakland, Calif., by college students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, it was created to protect Black communities from police brutality and to advocate for Black liberation. The party emerged in response to systemic racism and state violence and quickly grew into a significant revolutionary organization focused on armed self-defense, Black empowerment and community survival.
Armed Panthers patrolled Black neighborhoods to protect families from racist white hate mobs that carried out murders, lynchings, burnings and other forms of terror.
The government refused to protect Black communities from these constant violent attacks and in many cases, police worked alongside groups like the Ku Klux Klan to coordinate these violent attacks without facing any legal punishment.
Beyond self-defense, the Black Panther Party’s main goal was to create extensive community programs to meet basic needs the government ignored.
These included free breakfast programs for schoolchildren, free health clinics specifically addressing illnesses like sickle cell anemia and tuberculosis, which disproportionately affected Black households. Food pantries, legal aid services, and free transportation for seniors and families visiting incarcerated relatives.
In total, the Black Panther Party developed more than 65 “Survival Programs” aimed at addressing poverty, inequality and systemic neglect in low-income Black communities.
On Dec. 4th, 1969 Hampton was assassinated at 21 by the FBI and Chicago Police. They fired over 90 bullets into his apartment, with Hampton and his friend Mark Clark inside. Hampton was drugged and unconscious before the shooting. Both Hampton and Mark died that day and others inside were left injured.
From its inception, the Black Panthers faced relentless pressure from the U.S. government. Through government propaganda, the Panthers were repeatedly labeled as a “radical terrorist group,” despite the fact that their primary focus was Black community survival.
By portraying the group as dangerous and extremist, the government justified aggressive policing tactics and covert operations against them.
The Panthers were treated as a greater threat to national security than white supremacist organizations infamously working with the Ku Klux Klan. More resources were dedicated to dismantling the Black Panther Party than to stopping an organization responsible for generations of lynchings, bombings and racial terror. That is because the Panthers threatened the legitimacy of a system built on racial inequality.
While America today is not identical to the America of the 1960s, it would be dishonest to say these patterns have disappeared. In 2026, with Donald Trump back in office, the country feels tense and unstable. Threats of war, aggressive immigration raids, and the expansion of state power have created a sense of fear and uncertainty for many Americans. For Black communities, this moment feels especially familiar.
For decades, Black Americans have tried to warn the country about what unchecked state power looks like, how easily rights can be stripped away, how quickly propaganda can turn normal people into enemies and how violence is often justified in the name of the law.
What many are experiencing now is not new to us; it is a continuation of a reality we have long been forced to navigate. The story of Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party is not just history. It is a warning White America has repeatedly chosen to ignore.
