Eyes on the Prize

For the 3 The Hard Way album, see Eyes on the Prize (album). For the folk song, see Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.

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Eyes on the Prize is a 14-hour documentary series about the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The series was produced in two stages: Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1964 consists of the first six episodes covering the time period between the Brown v. Board decision and the Selma to Montgomery marches. It was broadcast in 1987 on PBS. The remaining 8 episodes make up Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965–1985, which was broadcast on PBS in 1990. The series was also shown in the United Kingdom on BBC2.

Created and executive-produced by Henry Hampton at Blackside, Inc., the series uses primary sources (such as archival footage and interviews with persons involved in the mentioned events) to record the growth of the civil rights movement in the United States, with special focus on the ordinary people who effected the change. It has been lauded for its depiction of the Civil Rights Movement, and used extensively in schools and other educational settings as a way to convey the experiences and struggle for civil rights in America.

The title of the series is derived from the song "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize", which is used in each episode as the opening theme music.

Original broadcast and home video releases

The film originated as two sequential projects. Part one, six hours long, was shown on PBS in early 1987 as Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954–1965). Eight more hours were broadcast in 1990 as Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965–1985).

It was quickly released to home video (in VHS and Laserdisc). By the mid-1990s, both rebroadcasts and home video production were halted for several years due to limits on the licenses of the copyrights of the archive footage used, and increasingly higher rates imposed by the copyright holders. Grants from the Ford Foundation and others enabled Blackside to renew rights. To date, PBS has rebroadcast the first six hours on three consecutive Mondays in October 2006, and rebroadcast the second eight hours in February 2008.

PBS reissued an educational version of the series in the fall of 2006, making it available on DVD for the first time. It is now available to educational institutions and libraries from PBS on seven DVDs (ISBN 0-7936-9262-8) or seven VHS tapes. A consumer version of part one (1954–1965) was released in March 2010. It is unclear whether any footage has been changed to appease rightsholders.

The licensing issues from 1993 to 2006 generated what was called Eyes on the Screen, an effort to disseminate the series by file sharing networks without regard to copyright restrictions.

Book

The book of the same title was created as a companion volume to the series during post-production by the producers and publishing staff at Blackside, Inc. They were assisted by Juan Williams, a Washington Post journalist. (hardcover ISBN 0-670-81412-1, paperback ISBN 0-245-54668-5); it was published by Viking in 1987.

Awards

Episode six, Bridge to Freedom, produced by Callie Crossley and James A. DeVinney, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1988 during the 60th Academy Awards.

Critical reception

The series has been hailed as more than just a historical document. Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University history professor and editor of the published papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., said that "it is the principal film account of the most important American social justice movement of the 20th century". Because of its extensive use of primary sources and in-depth coverage of the material, it has been adopted as a key reference and record of the civil rights movement.

Episodes and content

Each episode of the series is narrated by Julian Bond. A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Bond emerged as a notable figure in the Civil Rights Movement in 1965 when he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. The House refused to seat him because he publicly endorsed SNCC's opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his freedom of speech and was required to seat him.

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1 – "Awakenings" (1954–1956) Murder of Emmett Till Montgomery Bus Boycott 2 – "Fighting Back" (1957–1962) Central High School and the Little Rock Nine James Meredith and the University of Mississippi 3 – "Ain't Scared of Your Jails" (1960–1961) Nashville sit-ins and boycotts Freedom Riders 4 – "No Easy Walk" (1961–1963) Martin Luther King, Jr. and . . . Albany, Georgia Birmingham, Alabama The March on Washington 5 – "Mississippi: Is This America?" (1962–1964) Medgar Evers Murder of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party 6 – "Bridge to Freedom" (1965) Voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama

Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads 1 – "The Time Has Come" (1964–1966) Malcolm X Lowndes County Freedom Organization The March Against Fear 2 – "Two Societies" (1965–1968) Martin Luther King and Chicago Detroit Riot of 1967 3 – "Power!" (1967–1968) Election of Carl Stokes as Cleveland mayor Birth of the Black Panther Party Community control of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district in Brooklyn 4 – "The Promised Land" (1967–1968) The final years of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Poor People's Campaign and Resurrection City 5 – "Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More" (1964–1972) Muhammad Ali The movement at Howard University National Black Political Convention 6 – "A Nation of Law?" (1968–1971) Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party in Chicago Attica Prison rebellion 7 – "The Keys to the Kingdom" (1974–1980) Busing and the Boston public school system Maynard Jackson and the city of Atlanta Allan Bakke and affirmative action 8 – "Back to the Movement" (1979–1983) Miami Riot of 1980 and preceding events Election of Harold Washington as Chicago mayor and preceding events Overview of the movement and its effect upon the nation and the world

External links

• PBS/WGBH Eyes on the Prize Series
• Teacher study guide
• PBS Lesson Plans
• Eyes on the Prize Interview Transcripts, Washington University Library
• Eyes on the Prize I - Henry Hampton Collection, Washington University's Film and Media Archive
• Eyes on the Prize II - Henry Hampton Collection, Washington University's Film and Media Archive
• Eyes On the Prize at IMDb
• Eyes On the Prize II at IMDb
• Lyrics and discussion of the song "Eyes on the Prize", 2006 Bruce Springsteen recording

• Regarding the copyright controversies:
  • Wired Article on archival footage issue
  • Eyes on the Screen
  • Wired Article on Eyes on the Screen screening in the Bay Area
  • Reaction from producer's family