Henry Hampton

Hampton was the son of surgeon Henry Hampton Sr. and Julia Veva Hampton, raised in Richmond Heights, Missouri, a suburb adjacent to the western edge of St. Louis. Henry lived on the eastern edge of an all-black working class community. His family converted to Catholicism after St Louis Archbishop Joseph Ritter led desegregation efforts in the region.[1]

Hampton attended Little Flower School and later the Jesuits' St. Louis University High School and College of the Holy Cross, before studying literature at Washington University in St. Louis.[2] He graduated from Wash U in 1961.[3] Hampton attended medical school for a term at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, before dropping out.

In 1965, while working for the Unitarian church as information director, Hampton went to Selma, Alabama, to participate in the Selma Marches (flying down on the same plane as James Reeb, the UU minister who would later be murdered during his trip). The marches changed Hampton's life, as he recognized the power of media and television and began to conceptualize a film documenting the Civil Rights Movement.

Three years later, in 1968 (while living in Roxbury, Boston), he founded Blackside, Inc., which offered "special expertise in the design and production of film and audio-visual products aimed at minority audiences."[4] It became one of the largest minority-owned non-theatrical film production companies in the U.S. during the mid-1970s and until his death in the late 1990s. Hampton and his company produced over 80 programs including documentaries, television spots, and other media productions.

Blackside's primary business between 1968 and 1979 was the production of films, television and radio spots, television programming, and audio-visual educational packages. Blackside also produced public service announcements and film-based training materials for government and commercial clients.[4] In 1977, the Harvard School of Design granted Hampton a Loeb Fellowship to study constitutional limitations and the nature of media and government information programs. His studies focused on consumers' and citizens' rights to information.

Hampton made a commitment to social justice with later productions, including his 1987 magnum opus Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954–1965). He followed this with a series of pieces, including Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965–mid 1980s; The Great Depression (1993); Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994); America's War on Poverty (1995); Breakthrough: The Changing Face of Science in America (1997); I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts (1999); Hopes on the Horizon: Africa in the 1990s (2001); This Far by Faith: African American Spiritual Journeys (2003).

He returned to WashU in 1989 to deliver the commencement speech.[5]

Hampton had contracted polio as a child. In his later years, he had lung cancer, the treatment for which led to myelodysplastic syndrome.

He died at Brigham and Women's Hospital on November 22, 1998.

He was the recipient of over 10 honorary degrees including an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from his alma mater (1989); St. Louis University (1988); Doctor of Arts, Northeastern University (1988); Suffolk University (1988); Bridgewater State College (1989); Brandeis University (1993); Boston College (1993); Emerson College (1995); Lincoln University (1996) and Tufts University (1996).