Eyes on the Prize "Series Two"

Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads , is a monumentally successful video achievement. With eyewitness accounts, archival film footage, government documents, and excellent retrospect interviewing, Eyes on the Prize II chronicles the African-American's human rights struggle in the United States from 1965 to 1985. This struggle, referred to as "the movement," is examined through eight individual episodes of approximately one hour each.
Each episode critically examines a combination of topic, issue, individual, or organization, and the effect each element had on the momentum and direction of the civil rights movement. These programs not only seize the opportunity to explore many of the movement's traditional aspects (marches, boycotts, voting, organized protests, etc.), they take reportage two steps further. The aggressive coverage of events rarely discussed makes this series a truly meritorious accomplishment.

Part 2: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985

Episode 7 - The Time Has Come (1964-1965) This Program shows the influence of philosophy on the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as they organized the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama as they issued the call for "Black Power" during the 1966 Meredith March Against Fear in Mississippi.

Episode 8 - Two Societies (1965-1968) Against the backdrop of the long hot summers of the mid 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference went to Chicago in an attempt to apply southern movement tactics to the urban north. Their strategies were tested as they came up against the powerful political machinery of Mayor Richard Daley. A year later, in Detroit, frustration and anger built to urban violence as blacks and law officers clashed on city streets and America appeared to be a nation out of control.

Episode 9 - Power! (1967-1968) Shows blacks taking control of their communities using ballot boxes, streets and schools as dominant platforms. Carl Stokes is elected the first black mayor of a major city and the Black Panther Party is formed in Oakland.

Episode 10 - The Promised Land (1967-1968) Examines the movement's increasing concern with economic issues. In the midst of organizing a Poor People's Campaign march in Washington D.C., Dr. King is called away to help striking workers in Tennessee. On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.

Episode 11 - Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-1972) Looks at the refusal of blacks to continue to conform to traditional stereotypes. A new generation begins to define itself, led by a greater sense of pride and awareness of its roots, culture and values.

Episode 12 - A Nation of Law? (1968-1971) Uncovers the levels of police harassment and brutality targeted at young black activists. At the same time inmates at New York's Attica prison organize a takeover in an effort to publicize intolerable conditions. For many, Attica becomes symbolic of prison conditions nationally.

Episode 13 - The Keys to the Kingdom (1974-1980) Chronicles the relationship between the law and popular struggles, and the efforts to inject substance into promises of equality. The movement's focus is on the keys to the kingdom: jobs and education.

Episode 14 - Back to the Movement (1979 To Mid-1980's) Concludes the series with an examination of the social and political changes that occurred in two cities - one Southern, one Northern - more than a decade after the civil rights movement

5 DVD Set