Another Unknown Hero!

Few people have about James Hampton. I stumble across the name and his works myself.  Whatever reason people are kept in obscurity, we may never know.  But there are so many people that has contributed to this world one way or another that their value may not be important to the masses.  Yet, all of us are valuable to someone!

James Hampton was born in 1909 in Elloree, South Carolina, a small community of predominantly African-American sharecroppers and tenant farmers.  He died in 1964 in Washington, DC.  His father was a gospel singer and self-ordained Baptist minister who left his wife and four children to pursue the call to spread the word.

In 1928, when he was nineteen, Hampton moved to Washington, D.C., to live with an older brother Lee. Drafted into the Army in 1942, he served with a segregated unit that maintained airstrips in Saipan and Guam during World War II. Hampton returned to Washington in 1945, and began working a year later as a janitor for the General Services Administration. James Hampton died of stomach cancer in 1964. Although he expressed interest in finding "a holy woman," to assist with his life’s work he never married and had few close friends.

Hampton was raised as a fundamentalist Baptist, but he disliked the concept of a denominational God and attended a variety of the city’s churches. As early as 1931, Hampton believed that he began receiving visions from God, and by 1945 it appears he had made one small, shrine-like object while stationed on Guam. This piece became part of his larger work, and is now placed in front of the center pulpit.  

His work on The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly probably began in earnest around 1950, when he rented a garage in his northwest Washington neighborhood, which was also the city's center of African-American business, religious, and night life.  He had emblazoned the words Fear Not above the central throne. The complete work consists of a total of 180 objects that were donated anonymously to the SmithsonianAmerican Art Museum in 1970. Many of them were inscribed with words from the Book of Revelation. The objects on the right side of the central throne appear to refer to the New Testament; those on the left side, to the Old Testament.

Although a humble man, Hampton often referred to himself as "St. James." He gave himself the title of "Director, Special Projects for the State of Eternity."  He may have considered himself a prophet like John, the author of The Book of Revelation, the biblical writing that inspired Hampton's belief in the Second Coming of Christ and his desire to build The Throne as a monument to the return of Christ to earth.

Hampton worked almost every day on his project, often starting his work at midnight after completing his janitorial duties. He continued his efforts until he died in 1964. The Throne was discovered and brought to the public's attention after his death by the owner of the garage he wanted to find out why the rent was not paid. It is most likely Hampton's monument to his faith might not be completely finished.  For 14 years, Hampton had been building a throne out of various old materials like aluminum and gold foil, old furniture, various pieces of cardboard, old light bulbs, shards of mirror and old desk blotters.  Amazingly, he had pinned it together with tacks, glue, pins and tape.

What I found interesting is his notebook titled St. James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation. Most of the text had been written in an unknown script that remains undeciphered. The text is available online and has been the subject of research.  Some of this text, however, had been accompanied by notes in English. In Hampton's writing, for example, he used the title "Director, Special Projects for the State of Eternity" and ended each page with the word "Revelation." Hampton had also written texts, some of which refer to religious visions, on various pieces of paper and cardboard and on a few pages in each of seven other notebooks.