Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense is depicted in the banner of my syllabus in an art piece made by Melanie Cervantes to honor his legacy. The quote is part of a larger speech he gave where he said in part, "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. We say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism." (read the entire speech here)
I chose to place this art piece of him and his quote for ESTU 101 for many reasons. One reason is that Chair Fred Hampton was a community college student at Triton College where he took pre-law courses and used those skills as one part of the many things he did to defend the civil and human rights of oppressed people in Chicago and beyond.
His example of study, action, and critique is an important part to how I understand where Ethnic Studies as an academic field comes from. That college students were trying to build an intellectual space to connect with and serve the people. Please check out the above video if you want to learn more about who Chairman Fred Hampton was and do your own searching and studying as well.