Who is Alton Darwin from Hocus Pocus and what is their importance?

Alton Darwin is the leader of the rioting prisoners. He is self-appointed as such but the others largely follow him. Alton is a former drug dealer who has been convicted and sent away for life. He has learned to read while in Athena Prison, largely because of Eugene's teaching. Alton believes that the society he lives in is so racist that the only way he and other black men can be free in America is to have their own reservation like the American Indians. He dies while ice skating outside his makeshift headquarters, shot to death by police suppressing the riots. His surname is a clear play on the notion of Darwinian "survival of the fittest" in which it is implied the strong prey on the weak to improve their odds of personal survival.