Eyes on the Prize

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965) is a documentary series about the American Civil Rights Movement that originally aired on PBS in 1987. Then, three years later, eight segments dealing with the years between 1965-1985 were added to the original six. The documentary is noted for its sweeping use of rare archival footage.

After years of legal wrangling over copyrights on some of this archival footage, the original six-part series is being re-aired on public television this week--the first time it has been available in thirteen years.

This NPR broadcast (10/2/2006 - 11:48) the efforts that went into bring this classic documentary back to television.

Musings

• There is a saying to the effect that "History is written by the winners"; today it may be hard to realize just how broad, determined, and generally well connected were the opponents of the Civil Rights Movement.
  
• How can you explain the success of the Civil Rights Movement--the part played by activists, by ordinary people, and finally by the federal government? Indeed, one way of looking at the movement as a whole was as an attempt to force the federal government to act, after decades of largely ignoring the plight of African-Americans in the South.

We will try a slightly new format this week, by focusing on this one topic. The daily postings will be in the form of comments that add links and new perspectives to the week's topic, as a means of encouraging greater feedback and depth of study.