Fred Hampton, Barack Obama, and the American Urban Poor

 I remember moving to Chicago in the summer of 2007, a city and moment charged by the excitement of the presidential candidacy of one of its own—a young, intelligent, and handsome African-American man committed to organizing for the improvement of the social conditions facing the Black community.  For reasons that many of us within the progressive community may recall, it was an invigorating time and atmosphere.  While living in the city, and in what now strikes me as a fortunate coincidence, I spent my time studying another of its native sons—also young, Black, and handsome, and in similar possession of an astute intellectual drive and devotion to his community and his people.