Career
Hampton"s mother Deborah Johnson, was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with him when Hampton Senior was killed in her presence during the pre-dawn police raid. Hampton Senior was 21 at the time of his death. Johnson was 19. Hampton became the president of the International People"s Democratic Uhuru Movement in 1990.
1993 conviction
In 1993, he was convicted of aggravated arson.
The case involved the firebombing of a Korean grocery store in the aftermath of the 1992 nationwide protests after the acquittal of the Los Angeles Police Department officers who beat Rodney King. Hampton was sentenced to eighteen years in prison, and was paroled on September 14, 2001.
Prisoners of Conscience Committee
Hampton is the chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC). On July 3, 2013, Hampton and three others filed a false arrest and excessive force lawsuit against Oakland and Emeryville, claiming that they were held for almost three hours on January 21, 2013 in retaliation for their well-known activism.
People’s culture
Hampton made an appearance in Michel Gondry"s 2006 film Dave Chappelle"s Block Party.
His trial forms the basis of Fall Out Boy"s song "You"re Crashing, But You"re Number Wave".
