Award Winning Civil Rights Documentary: Eyes on the Prize

17 February, 2011 (10:36) | African American History, Civil Rights Movement, Movie of the Week | By: Haasim

This documentary is one of the best that I have seen on the Civil Rights Movement. Being that I have read numerous books on the subject, and love Black History in general, I really didn’t expect this video to teach me anything that I didn’t already know. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the information presented.

Henry Hampton
Creator of "Eyes on the Prize"

I enjoyed the way it showed how these monumental Civil Rights protestsand events were interrelated. The documentary also did a fabulous job of not just showing the successes of the movement but also highlighting some of it’s most prominent failures and highlighting not only the strategies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but also the strategies of those who didn’t agree with everything the Civil Rights Movement was fighting for. I’m truly glad that the documentary exposed this information because I think most people who didn’t actually live during that day and age have a tendency to believe that Dr. King, the SCLC and SNCC succeeded every time they had a rally, organized protest or march. The last aspect of the documentary that impressed me was how it spoke on some of the tension that existed between the different Civil Rights factions who shared the same vision but had different approaches they wanted to take when it came to making this vision a reality.

All in all, Eyes on the Prize is the perfect documentary for you to watch with your children to educate them on these historic times. This will be time well spent because most likely you will also learn just as much as them about the Civil Rights Movement from this 360 minute documentary created by Henry Hampton and narrated by Julian Bond. Keep in mind that this is only a part of the full documentary set that covers from 1954 to 1985 and consists of more than 14 hours of footage.

Season 1: America’s Civil Rights Years Tracklisting

Episode 1: Awakening (1954-1956)
Episode 2: Fighting Back (1957-1962)
Episode 3: Ain’t Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961)
Episode 4: No Easy Walk (1961-1963)
Episode 5: Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964)
Episode 6: Bridge to Freedom (1965)

Season 2: America at the Crossroads Tracklisting

Episode 1: The Time Has Come (1964-1965)
Episode 2: Two Societies (1965-1968)
Episode 3: Power! (1967-1968)
Episode 4: The Promised Land (1967-1968)
Episode 5: Ain’t Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-1972)
Episode 6: A Nation of Law? (1967-1968)
Episode 7: The Keys to the Kingdom (1974-1980)
Episode 8: Back to the Movement (1979-mid 1980s)