Eyes on the Prize

A documentary about the American Civil Rights Movement from 1952 to 1965.

Cast:Julian Bond , Coretta Scott King , John Lewis , Andrew Young , C.T. Vivian , Burke Marshall , Jesse Jackson , Stokely Carmichael , Ralph Abernathy , Unita Blackwell , Harry Belafonte , Nancy Jefferson , Myrlie Evers-Williams , Ernest Green , Constance Baker Motley , James Forman , Melvin Bailey , Fred Lee Shuttlesworth

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ Awakenings: 1954-1956

Wed, Jan 21, 1987

The beginnings of the U.S. Civil rights struggle is profiled, including the Emmett Till murder trial and the Rosa Parks arrest/Montgomery bus boycott.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ Fighting Back: 1957-1962

Wed, Jan 28, 1987

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown Vs the Board of Education decision, the civil rights movement presses the issue of desegregation in schools. From Little Rock High School and Eisenhower's utilization of the 101st Airborne to Ole Miss and Kennedy's lobbying efforts.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ Ain't Scared of Your Jails: 1960-1961

Wed, Feb 4, 1987

From PBS - Beginning in 1960, young people on Black college campuses took a more active role in the civil rights movement's leadership and determined their own methods of promoting change.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ No Easy Walk: 1961-1963

Wed, Feb 11, 1987

From PBS - This episode depicts major civil rights movement events in three American cities.

5Season 1

S1.E5 ∙ Mississippi: Is This America?: 1962-1964

Wed, Feb 18, 1987

1964 sees the advent of Freedom Summer. Volunteers from across the country travel to the south to register Negro voters. Despite the disappearance of three volunteers in Mississippi who are later found dead, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party is formed after blacks are banned from the regular state Democratic. The summer ends with both democratic parties struggling to be recognized at the national convention in Atlantic City.

6Season 1

S1.E6 ∙ Bridge to Freedom: 1965

Wed, Feb 25, 1987

From PBS - Ten years after the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, the civil rights leadership has become more sophisticated in its use of protest strategy.

1Season 2

S2.E1 ∙ The Time Has Come: 1964-1966

Mon, Jan 15, 1990

Episode focuses on black militancy and the roots of the black power movement. Also tracks the influence of ideas of black separatism and black nationalism on a new generation of blacks and analyzes the long-term impact they had on whites who supported the freedom movement.

2Season 2

S2.E2 ∙ Two Societies: 1965-1968

Mon, Jan 22, 1990

Northern cities served as the backdrop for confrontations on a scale the civil rights movement had never seen before the mid-1960s. Scarred by widespread discrimination, black inner-city neighborhoods became sites of crumbling houses, poverty, and street violence. Although the black-led movement for social change and equality in the North had a long history, it had not received the same media attention the struggle in the South had.

3Season 2

S2.E3 ∙ Power!: 1966-1968

Mon, Jan 29, 1990

Exploring the influence of the idea of black power on freedom movement. Follows leaders of three black communities in their efforts to gain political and economic power that would enable advancements in employment, housing and education.

4Season 2

S2.E4 ∙ The Promised Land: 1967-1968

Mon, Feb 5, 1990

Martin Luther King, Jr. stakes out new ground for himself and the rapidly fragmenting civil rights movement. He is assassinated in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel.

5Season 2

S2.E5 ∙ Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More: 1964-1972

Mon, Feb 12, 1990

Call to pride and push for unity galvanize blacks. Cassius Clay challenges America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, who refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at Howard University fight to bring the growing black consciousness movement and their African heritage inside the walls of the institution.

6Season 2

S2.E6 ∙ A Nation of Law?: 1968-1971

Mon, Feb 19, 1990

Black activism is increasingly met with violent and unethical response from local and federal law enforcement. A five-day inmate takeover at Attica Prison calls the public's attention to conditions there leaves 43 dead: 39 killed by police.

7Season 2

S2.E7 ∙ The Keys to the Kingdom: 1974-1980

Mon, Feb 26, 1990

In the 1970s, anti-discrimination rights are put to the test. Boston whites violently resist federal school desegregation order. Atlanta's mayor Jackson proves affirmative action can work, but Bakke decision challenges that policy.

8Season 2

S2.E8 ∙ Back to the Movement: 1979-Mid 1980s

Mon, Mar 5, 1990

Episode explores new and old challenges that black communities faced 25 years after civil rights struggle began. It follows black communities in Miami and Chicago and chronicles their dramatically different responses to these challenges.