Henry Eugene Hampton Jr. (8 January 1940 – 22 November 1998) was an African-American filmmaker. His production company, Blackside, Inc., produced over 80 programs—the most recognizable being the documentary Eyes on the Prize, which won Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, and was nominated for an Oscar. Blackside 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. Biography Early life and education 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. 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. He graduated from Wash U in 1961. Hampton attended medical school for a term at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, before dropping out. Career 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." 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. 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