Mr.
Tom Kus
Chairman, Historic Preservation/Landmark Commission
Village of Maywood
40 Madison Street
Maywood, IL 60153-2323
Dear Mr. Kus:
I write to you regarding the historic landmark application for the Hampton House, which would
grant Chairman Fred Hampton’s childhood home in Maywood official recognition as a historically
significant building.
The Hampton House is an integral part of Maywood’s history. Fred Hampton moved to 804 South
17th Avenue when he was ten years old, and many formative experiences that laid the groundwork
for Chairman Fred Hampton’s extraordinary political activism and leadership took place while he
was living in this house. Hampton ran morning homework sessions while attending Irving Middle
School across the street. While a student at Proviso East High School, he led walkouts protesting
the exclusion of Black students from the race for homecoming queen and calling on officials to
hire more black teachers and administrators. While living in the house, Hampton also became
active in the NAACP as a youth organizer and helped mobilize 500 young people to successfully
lobby city officials to create better academic services and recreational facilities for Black children.
In 1968, just two years after graduating high school, Hampton became Deputy Chairman of the
Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. On December 4, 1969, Fred was assassinated in an
early morning raid by the Chicago Police Department. The raid was carried out as part of FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover’s nefarious COINTELPRO operation, a series of covert and illegal
projects aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political
organizations, including the Black Panther Party.
There is still much the public does not know about the full extent of the chicanery of
COINTELPRO, which is why I am pushing for passage of my COINTELPRO Full Disclosure Act
(H.R. 2998). This legislation would require government agencies to release and publicly disclose
all records related to COINTELPRO, including records related to Chairman Fred Hampton’s
assassination. Landmark status for the Hampton House, which would allow the House to become
a museum and community center for the public, would bolster efforts to tell the full truth of
Chairman Fred Hampton’s murder and make sure this important history is not forgotten.
More than 50 years after Hampton’s calamitous and indefensible state-sponsored assassination,
the City of Maywood has an opportunity to continue Chairman Fred Hampton’s legacy by saving
his childhood home from demolition. If granted historic landmark status, the Hampton House
aims to become a museum and community center. Here, visitors could learn the true history of
the Black Panther Party, which is seldom taught and almost never taught accurately. Visitors to
the Hampton House could learn about programs started by the Black Panther Party to help Black
and poor and oppressed people who had been left behind by the government, including free
medical clinics and the landmark Free Breakfast for Children Program, which was an impetus for
today’s federal School Breakfast Program.
Currently, the Hampton House serves as an informal community center, with a community fridge,
a community garden, and a space for Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. to record his weekly “Free ‘Em
All Radio” podcasts. If granted historic landmark status, the Hampton House could continue and
expand its role serving the community with additional resources that would enable visitors to learn
about and put into practice the spirit of self-determination and community activism cultivated by
Chairman Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party.
As Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. so aptly put it, the fight to save the Hampton House is bigger than
a building. It is a fight to preserve Chairman Fred Hampton’s extraordinary legacy, and the legacy
of the Black Panther Party in our community. With this in mind, I respectfully ask for full and fair
consideration of the application for landmark status for the Hampton House.
Sincerely,
Bobby L. Rush
Member of Congress
CC: Nathaniel George Booker, Mayor and President, Village of Maywood
