Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was a prominent American activist and revolutionary, best known for his role as the Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Hampton became a passionate advocate for civil rights and social justice from an early age.
Fred Hampton quotes are famous because he was a prominent civil rights activist and leader of the Black Panther Party.
Hampton’s activism began during his high school years when he organized a chapter of the NAACP Youth Council and campaigned against racial segregation and discrimination. He later joined the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary organization that sought to address issues of systemic racism, poverty, and police brutality in Black communities.
As the Chairman of the Illinois chapter, Hampton played a pivotal role in organizing community-based programs aimed at providing free breakfast programs, medical clinics, and educational initiatives for underprivileged youth. He emphasized the importance of unity among different racial and ethnic groups, advocating for a class-conscious approach to achieving equality.
Hampton’s eloquence, leadership, and dedication to justice made him a powerful figure within the Black Panther Party. However, his activism also attracted the attention of law enforcement and the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which viewed the Black Panther Party as a threat. Tragically, on December 4, 1969, at the age of 21, Hampton was killed during a raid on his apartment by the Chicago Police Department, acting in collaboration with the FBI.
Hampton’s death sparked widespread outrage and further intensified the struggle against racial injustice and police violence. His legacy continues to inspire activists and social justice movements today, as he is remembered as a symbol of resistance against systemic oppression and a tireless advocate for the rights of Black communities. Hampton’s commitment to unity, education, and community empowerment serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing fight for equality and justice.
Step into the world of Fred Hampton, a visionary leader whose words continue to ignite the flames of equality and social justice. Allow his powerful quotes to inspire, challenge, and reshape your perception of the world we live in.
Famous Fred Hampton Quotes
1. If you walk through life and don’t help anybody, you haven’t had much of a life.
2. And anybody that endorses integrating into this sick society before it’s cleaned up is a man who’s committing a crime against the people.
3. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you dare not struggle, then damn it, you don’t deserve to win.
4. Like we always said, if you’re asked to commit at the age of 20 and you say, ‘I don’t want to make that commitment,’ only because of the simple reason that ‘I’m too young to die, I wanna live a little bit longer,’ what you did is—you’re dead already.
5. People have to be armed to have power, you see.
6. You can kill a revolutionary but you can’t kill a revolution, you can jail a liberator but you can’t jail liberation.
7. We don’t need anyone’s culture except for revolutionary culture. What we mean by that, is a culture that will free you.
8. We understood that politics is nothing but war without bloodshed, and war is nothing but politics with bloodshed.
9. We ain’t gonna fight no reactionary pigs who run up and down the street being reactionary; we’re gonna organize and dedicate ourselves to revolutionary political power and teach ourselves the specific needs of resisting the power structure, arm ourselves, and we’re gonna fight reactionary pigs with the international proletarian revolution.
10. A lot of people get the word ‘revolution’ mixed up, and they think revolution n’s a bad word. Revolution is nothing but like having a sore on your body, and then you put something on that sore to cure that infection.
11. Yes, we do defend our office as we do defend our homes. This is a constitutional right everybody has, and nothing’s funny about that. The only reason they get mad at the Black Panther Party when you do it is for the simple reason that we’re political.
12. I am the people, I’m not the pig. You got to make a distinction. And the people are going to have to attack the pigs. The people are going to have to stand up against the pigs. That’s what the Panthers are doing, that’s what the Panthers are doing all over the world.
13. The people have to have power—it belongs to the people.
14. We got to face some facts—that the masses are poor, that the masses belong to what you call the lower class, and when I talk about the masses, I’m talking about the white masses, I’m talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too.
15. Nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism is gonna stop us all.
16. Socialism is the people! You are afraid of yourself. If you are afraid of socialism, you are afraid of yourself.
17. They talked us into buying candy bars and throwing the candy away and eating the wrapper.
18. We understood that politics is nothing but war without bloodshed and war is nothing but politics with bloodshed.
19. You have to understand that people have to pay a price for peace.
20. You won’t miss the water ‘til the well runs dry.
21. I was born in a bourgeois community and had some of the better things in life, but I found that more people were starving than people were eating, more people didn’t have clothes than did have clothes, and I just happened to be one of the few. So, I decided that I wouldn’t stop doing what I’m doing until all those people are free.
22. We don’t need any culture except revolutionary culture. What we mean by that is a culture that will free you.
23. A lot of people get the word revolution mixed up and they think the revolution’s a bad word. Revolution is nothing but like having a sore on your body and then you put something on that sore to cure that infection.
24. A lot of people think the Breakfast for Children program is charred. But, what does it do? It takes people from one stone to another stage.
25. We have to start learning, and you learn through practice. We have to start making mistakes, answer learn through making mistakes.
26. Changing your name is not gonna change our set of arrangements. The only thing that’s gonna change our set of arrangements is what’s gotten us into this set of arrangements. And that’s the oppressor.
27. They talked us into buying candy bars, throwing the candy away, and eating the wrapper.
28. I’m not going to die slipping on no ice.
29. That we might be in school now might think we’re on the mountain top, but we’re gonna come down to the valley, because people in the valley, commitment’s in the valley, oppression’s in the valley, aggression, repression, fascism, all exist in the valley.
30. In plain proletarian work workers wage, it takes two to tango.
31. Power anywhere where there are people!
32. We say that we will work with anybody and form a coalition with anybody that has a revolution on their mind.
33. And how do they fool you? Because they pick the leaders they want. And they put those people up there and portray them as being your leaders when, in fact, they’re leaders of nobody.
34. You can’t build a revolution with no education. Jomo Kenyatta did this in Africa, and because the people were not educated, he became as much an oppressor as the people he overthrew.
35. We say it’s no longer a question of violence or nonviolence. We say it’s a question of resistance to fascism or nonexistence within fascism.
36. The Black Panther Party stood up and said that we don’t care what anybody says. We don’t think fighting fire with fire is best; we think you fight fire with water best.
37. Let me just say—peace to you, if you’re willing to fight for it.
38. We know that political power doesn’t flow from the sleeve of a dashiki. We know that political power flows from the barrel of a gun.
39. I don’t know if I like communism, and I don’t know if I like socialism. But, I know that the Breakfast for Children Program feeds my kids.
40. When you leave here, leave here saying the last words, before you go to bed tonight, say, ‘I am a revolutionary.’ Make that the last words in case you don’t wake up.
41. First of all, we say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx and Lenin, Che Guevara and Mao Tse-Tung, and anybody else that has ever said or known or practiced anything about revolution, always said that revolution is a class struggle.
42. I’m telling you that we’re living in an infectious society right now. I’m telling you that we’re living in a sick society.
43. We’re not metaphysicians, we’re not idealists, we’re dialectical materialists. And we deal with what reality is, whether we like it or not.
44. Don’t worry about the Black Panther Party. As long as you keep the beat, we’ll keep ongoing.
45. A lot of people don’t understand the Black Panthers Party’s relationship with white mother country radicals.
46. We said nobody would shoot a Panther but a pig, because Panthers don’t pose a threat to anybody but pigs.
47. We do not support people who are anarchistic, opportunistic, adventuristic, and Custeristic.
48. We’re not a racist organization, because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is just—it’s a byproduct of capitalism.
49. We have Breakfast for Children because we teach the people, through practice, throvation and panticipation that people can be there, free.
50. If there’s ever going to be any liberation in the mother country, ever gonna be any liberation in the colony, then, we got to be liberated by the leadership of the Black Panther Party and the black liberation struggle. We don’t negate that fact.
51. With no education, you have neocolonialism instead of colonialism, like you’ve got in Africa now and like you’ve got in Haiti. So, what we’re talking about is there has to be an educational program. That’s very important.
52. If you ever think about me, and you ain’t gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don’t want myself on your mind if you’re not going to work for the people.
53. We’re gonna have to start getting out there with the people, and that’s difficult. Sometimes, we think we’re better than the people so it’s gonna take a lot of hard work.
54. Any revolutionary programmer is an advancing program. Revolution is changing.
55. Then somebody might believe it and you might, you know, end up in what they call revolutionary happy hunting grounds.
56. No matter how nice it might be on the mountain top, we’ve got a commitment, so we’re going back. We got to go back to the valley.
57. When you leave here, leave here saying, the last words, before you go to bed tonight, say, I am a revolutionary. Make that the last words in case you don’t wake up. Then somebody might believe it and you might, you know, end up in, what they call it, revolutionary happy hunting grounds.
58. We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But when I leave, you’ll remember I said, with the last words on my lips, that I am a revolutionary. And you’re going to have to keep on saying that. You’re going to have to say that I am a proletariat; I am the people.
59. Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we’re going to have to put it back in the hands of the people.
60. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.
61. You have to understand that people have to pay a price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win.
62. You’re gonna have to keep on saying that I am the proletariat, I am the people. I am not the pig. You’ve got to make a distinction.
63. You can kill a revolutionary but you can never kill the revolution.
64. I went down to the prison in Menard, thinking we were the vanguard, but down there, I got down on my knees and listened and learned from the people.
65. I’m telling you that we’re living in an infectious society right now. I’m telling you that we’re living in a sick society. And anybody that endorses integrating into this sick society before it’s cleaned up is a man who’s committing a crime against the people.
66. The people have to have power: it belongs to the people.
67. Like we always said, if you’re asked to commit at the age of twenty and you say I don’t want to make that commitment only because of the simple reason that I’m too young to die, I wanna live a little bit longer—what you did is, you’re dead already.
68. You won’t miss the water ‘till the well runs dry.
69. We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put the fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism.
70. I don’t know if I like communism, and I don’t know if I like socialism. But I know that the Breakfast for Children Program feeds my kids. And if you put your hands on that Breakfast for Children Program.
71. Black people need some peace. White people need some peace. And we are going to have to fight. We’re going to have to struggle. We’re going to have to struggle relentlessly to bring about some peace, because the people that we’re asking for peace, are a bunch of megalomaniac warmongers, and they don’t even understand what peace means.
72. I was born in a bourgeois community and had some of the better things in life, but I found that therefore people were starving some people were eating that didn’t have clothes than did have clothes, and I just happened to be one of the few. So I decided that I wouldn’t stop doing what I’m doing until all those people are free.
73. We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don’t fight racism with racism. We’re gonna fight racism with solidarity.
74. You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can’t jail the Revolution.
75. I believe I’m going to die doing the things I was born to do. I believe I’m going to die high off the people. I believe I’m going to die a revolutionary in the international revolutionary proletarian struggle.
76. Black people need some peace, white people need some peace, and we’re gonna have to fight, we’re gonna have to struggle, we’re gonna have to struggle relentlessly to bring about some peace, because the people that we’re asking for peace, they’re a bunch of megalomaniac warmongers and they don’t even understand what peace means.
77. Why don’t you live for the people. Why don’t you struggle for the people. Why don’t you die for the people.
78. Racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is a byproduct of capitalism.