Dana Chandler with Fred Hampton’s Door and other artwork, Roxbury, MA, 1973

In early 1970, Chandler channeled his rage over the murder of yet another gifted and charismatic young Black leader by creating the first version of Fred Hampton’s Door. According to Time magazine, the work was permeated with actual bullet holes. In Chandler’s words: “I remember spending a great deal of time...being very publicly angry about the killing of this brilliant young man just because what he was trying to do was get both Blacks and whites together in a movement to make things better for people of color and poor people. He was a young version of Martin Luther King and they killed him outright.”