The Henry Hampton Collection contains a wealth of materials created and gathered by the documentary film producer Henry Hampton and his production company Blackside, Inc. The archive holds the film, video, photos, news footage, interview audio, transcriptions, research files, and other production-related materials that the Blackside team collected and created while working on various projects, including their award-winning civil rights documentary, Eyes on the Prize. Among these materials include the only known copies of certain historical records and news footage, making the Hampton Collection a valuable resource for research on twentieth-century American politics, history, and economics. In addition, the collection also includes Blackside’s business records, Hampton’s personal papers and records, and material from Hampton’s non-profit, Civil Rights Project, Inc.
Eyes on the Prize School
Blackside Inc. characteristically held and recorded “schools” for all of their major productions. These schools were an opportunity for the staff, to hear and learn from scholars, and important figures related to each of their productions. The school for first series of Eyes on the Prize, lasted ten days, amounting to roughly fifty-one hours of audio recording and nineteen hours captured on VHS. Some of the people invited to speak included John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, Constance Baker Motley, Ernest Greene, Odeta Holmes, and Guy Carowan among many others. Each participant provided a unique perspective on significant aspects of the civil rights movement. The audio recordings and transcripts are forthcoming. The school for the second series of Eyes on the Prize, was a little shorter, lasting only six days (roughly forty hours). Most of Eyes 2 school, was recorded on VHS. These recordings and transcripts are also forthcoming.