Fred Hampton (1948-1969) was Deputy Chairman of the Black Panther Party and Chairman of the Chicago chapter. He founded the Rainbow Coalition, a multicultural political organisation that included the Panthers, the working-class Young Patriots, the (Latino) Young Lords and Chicago street gangs, to help work for social change. He was assassinated by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI, aged only 21.

Fred Hampton Jr. is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs.

Bedour Alagraa is Assistant Professor of Political and Social Thought in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.