NEAR WEST SIDE — The headquarters for the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party was once at 2350 W. Madison St., where Chairman Fred Hampton rose to national prominence.
Today, it is a Walgreens parking lot.
But as of Saturday, the site is home to a plaque honoring the local Black Panther Party — the first of 12 plaques to be installed in Chicago recognizing the national Black rights organization.
The plaques will be installed at places central to the Black Panther Party’s history in Chicago and Illinois, with one already installed in Peoria. The sites were added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2023 in an effort spearheaded by the Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois chapter of Black Panthers, which unveiled the plaques last year.
Once installed, the plaques will make up Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in Illinois, which will honor the pioneering organization and the injustice it faced after Hampton’s assassination, officials said at a dedication ceremony Saturday.
The plaque commemorating the former headquarters of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, 2350 W. Madison St. during a ceremony on July 26, 2025. Credit: Charles Thrush/Block Club Chicago
Hampton, Bobby Rush and Bob Brown founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in August 1968 ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which saw widespread violence in clashes between demonstrators and police. The contentious convention and the ensuing riots were documented in a photo exhibit featured at Saturday’s plaque dedication, which brought together elected officials, former Panthers and neighbors.
The local chapter provided free breakfast to young people and impoverished residents across Chicago. Many of the locations it operated will be commemorated as a part of the planned heritage trail, said Leila Wills, Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Rush, who served for decades as a congressman after co-founding the Illinois chapter, spoke Saturday of the sacrifices members of the group made to uplift others and forge a path to a brighter future, specifically highlighting the work that went into the free breakfast program.
“It wasn’t just about leadership,” Rush said. “The Black Panther Party was about those who were the rank and file, those who really would get up in the morning and cook the breakfast.
“It was about those who dedicated their lives and their futures … to make the dream and the goals of the Black Panther Party a reality.”
A free breakfast sign for the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, at a plaque dedication on July 26, 2025. Credit: Charles Thrush/Block Club Chicago
In his brief stint as deputy chairman for the Illinois Chapter, Hampton made it his mission to reach across racial barriers and build unity between members of the working class. He founded the Rainbow Coalition, where he collaborated with local groups and street gangs like the Young Lords, Brown Berets and Young Patriots on joint survival projects and demonstrations.
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) shared some of his connection to the party, saying his parents lived and met “across the street” from the former headquarters. Burnett, City Council’s most-tenured alderman who is resigning at the end of the month, implored future generations to study organizing of the past and the tactics employed by authorities to suppress revolutionary thought.
“This is personal for me,” Burnett said to the crowd. “This chapter became a beacon of truth, challenging an unjust system with clarity and fire. They taught us that revolution is not just an act of defiance, but an act of service.
“But let us not whitewash this history. The FBI waged war against them not because they were violent, but because they were effective and building power among the powerless. … Let this marker remind every passerby: These were not just dreamers; they were doers.”
The local Black Panther chapter disbanded in 1973 as the group became increasingly fractured in the wake of Hampton’s well-documented assassination at 2337 W. Monroe St., another location on the historic registry.
Hampton, then 21, was killed during a Chicago police raid aided by FBI counterintelligence as he was sleeping in his apartment on Dec. 4, 1969, just a few months before his son, who would be named in his honor, was born. Hampton’s killing was part of the FBI’s targeted Counterintelligence Program that systematically attacked and dismantled left-wing activist groups from 1956 through 1971, including the Black Panthers.
Former Congressman Bobby Rush and Fred Hampton Jr. speak during the unveiling ceremony for a plaque at 2350 W. Madison St. on July 26, 2025. Credit: Charles Thrush/Block Club Chicago
Hampton’s son, Fred Hampton Jr., who was at Saturday’s event, remained quiet as the slate of speakers rolled through before erupting into a pointed critique of officials behind the historical preservation effort. Hampton Jr. has been a vocal opponent of historic preservation efforts relating to the Illinois chapter for years, the Sun-Times previously reported.
Hampton Jr. said the Historical Preservation Society is hijacking his father’s legacy and co-opting the mission of the Black Panther Party for corporate gain. Rush attempted to cool the situation by saying, “We love you, Fred.”
Hampton Jr.’s behavior at Saturday’s event was “unacceptable,” said Billy “Ché” Brooks, former deputy minister of education for the chapter and one of Hampton Sr.’s closest confidants.
Brooks stressed the importance of historic preservation, especially in a time in which racial and class tensions in the United States are growing, he said.
“There’s some things we can do to create the type of support and understanding that we need in our community at this time,” Brooks said. “Because 1968 is not that different from 2025. Really, it comes down to governments committing genocide throughout the world, and that needs to be struggled against. Most of the things we’re struggling against did not just come into existence, and we need to be reminded of the struggles of the ’60s and ’70s.”
Other sites to get a plaque honoring the Black Panthers:
- Better Boys Foundation, 1512 S. Pulaski Road, which was the site of the first free breakfast for children program
- Hampton’s apartment and site of his assassination, 2337 W. Monroe St.
- The People’s Medical Care Center, 3850 W. 16th St.
“Too often, these places of dough are lost, bulldozed, gentrified, forgotten,” said Fredrika Newton, daughter of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton. “When that happens, we lose more than buildings. We lose memory, we lose meaning and we lose momentum. But there is hope, and there is precedent, and now there is this marker, because this place meant something empowering, decisive and hopeful. Let this be the first of many, many to come.”
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast: