James Hampton (April 8, 1909-November 4, 1964) was an African-American janitor who secretly built a large assemblage of religious art from scavenged materials.

James Hampton was born in Elloree, South Carolina in 1909. His father was a gospel singer and a traveling Baptist preacher. In 1928, Hampton left for Washington, D.C. to join his elder brother Lee. They shared an apartment. James Hampton worked as a short-order cook until 1942 when he was drafted into United States Army Air Forces. He served as a carpenter with the noncombatant 385th Aviation Squadron around the Pacific theatre. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and returned to Washington, D.C.

In 1946, Hampton became a night janitor with the General Services Administration. In 1950 he rented a garage in northwest Washington. His brother Lee died in 1948. Hampton died of stomach cancer on November 4, 1964 at the Veteran's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He never married.

A month later Meyer Wertlieb, owner of the garage, came to find out why the rent had not been paid. He knew that Hampton had been building something in the garage. When he opened the door, he found a room filled with many symmetrical, glittering objects surrounding a central throne.

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. He had pinned it together with tacks, glue, pins and tape.

The text The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly was written on the objects in Hampton's handwriting. He had emblazoned the words Fear Not above the central throne. The garage contained total of 177 objects. Many of them were inscribed with words out of the biblical book of Revelation. The objects on the right side of the central throne seem to refer to the New Testament and those on the left side to the Old Testament (Stokstad 2005).

Hampton had also kept a 112-page notebook, titled St James: The Book of the 7 Dispensation, written in his personal code. He referred to himself as St. James and ended each page with the word "Revelation". He had written more text on various pieces of paper and cardboard. Some of them refer to religious visions. Hampton's personal code remains unsolved.

The story became public in the December 15, 1964 issue of the Washington Post. Hampton had kept his project secret; his relatives first heard about it when his sister came to claim his body.

Wertlieb sold the throne to two people who anonymously donated it to the National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in 1970.

James Hampton (born July 9, 1936) is an American actor best known for his roles in The Doris Day Show, F Troop, The Longest Yard, Teen Wolf (1985), Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988) and Sling Blade (1996). He was also a guest celebrity on the NBC game show Super Password in 1987.

Raised in Dallas, Texas, James Hampton attended John H. Reagan Elementary, N.R. Crozier Technical High School and the University of North Texas (Theatre Arts Major). He studied acting with Michael Howard in New York and Leonard Nimoy in Los Angeles. He worked with Baruch Lumet at Knox Street Theatre in Dallas and did summer stock at Casa Manana in Fort Worth (1961). He performed off-Broadway in "Easy Does It" with Tom Poston and Elizabeth Allen (II), and toured with Burt Reynolds (I) in "Rainmaker". He starred in "Tender Trap" with Reynolds at Arlington Park Theatre in Chicago and played the title role in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" at the same theatre with Mamie Van Doren and Rick Jason (I). Onscreen he has played in films as diverse as Longest Yard, The (1974) and Teen Wolf (1985), and is probably best remembered as the eager but inept bugler Pvt. Hannibal Dobbs in the classic sitcom "F Troop" (1965).