Just west of Chicago is the village of Maywood, Illinois. On a residential block of

South 17th Avenue just across from a middle school there's a two-story light

brown brick house and it's a simple modest house it looks like any other house

in the neighborhood. For over 50 years there was a couple who had lived in this

home from the 1950s all the way until 2016 when the wife passed away. At that

point the house was in need of repairs and there was a lot of money owed against

the subprime loan the couple had taken in the early 2000s. Soon the banks moved

to foreclose but there was one man who knew that this ordinary looking building

was the home of an extraordinary legacy he was determined to save the house from

foreclosure. We told handclubs and caskets before we abandoned those out there was our

land. That man is Fred Hampton Jr. and this simple brick building was the

boyhood home of his father the Civil Rights icon Fred Hampton Jr. This is

Atlas Obscura. I'm Bota Lara and today we'll go to 804 South 17th Avenue to

hear how the remarkable but short life and career of Fred Hampton Sr. began in

this house and how his son Fred Hampton Jr. is working to protect and continue his

father's legacy. The Hampton House after this

We got to start getting out there with the people and a lot of times we think he better than

the people that's the end of the road and that's criminal. Thank you better than the people.

We got to get it. That's Fred Hampton giving a speech in 1968. At the time he was only 20.

Fred Hampton loved the people and the people who knew Fred Hampton loved him.

And this is Fred Hampton's son who was named after his father. As he mentioned he's the leader of

the Black Panther Party Cubs a group working to establish a new generation of Panthers devoted to

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