The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (2002) provides a thorough overview of Jim Crow and the black response to it. The four-hour documentary explores the history of segregation from emancipation through World War II, chronicling both its formal and informal manifestations in the South and beyond. The second and third episodes, which examine the black experience from Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 through the start of the NAACP’s school desegregation campaign in the 1930s, is particularly useful for establishing the movement’s precursors and preconditions. [Description by Hasan Kwame Jeffries.]

The post The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn’t exist in biology doesn’t mean it isn’t very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.

Episode 1- The Difference Between Us examines the contemporary science including genetics that challenges our common sense assumptions that human beings can be bundled into three or four fundamentally different groups according to their physical traits.

Episode 2- The Story We Tell uncovers the roots of the concept of race in North America, the 19th-century science that legitimated it, and how it came to be held so fiercely in the western imagination. The episode explains how race served to rationalize, even justify, American social inequalities as “natural.”

Episode 3- The House We Live In asks, If race is not biology, what is it? This episode uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics, and culture. It reveals how our social institutions “make” race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status, and wealth to white people.

One of the most honest and compelling documentary series I’ve ever seen on race and its impact on this nation’s culture and politics, as well as on the economic status of nonwhite citizens. Acel Moore, Philadelphia Inquirer

A marvelously intelligent documentary. A timely reminder that social divisions are made, not inevitable.  Patricia Williams, The Nation

An online facilitator guide is available.

Trailer

In light of the ongoing devastating impact of neighborhood segregation, housing discrimination, and gentrification, California Newsreel has posted a segment of the film online for free public viewing. See below.

RACE THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION: The Genesis of Discriminatory Housing Policies from California Newsreel.

The post Race — The Power of an Illusion appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

Series topics range from the murder of Emmett Till and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the 1965 Voting Rights Act; from community power in schools to “Black Power” in the streets.

The series won six Emmys and numerous other awards, including an Academy Award nomination, the George Foster Peabody Award, and the top duPont-Columbia award for excellence in broadcast journalism.

Eyes on the Prize was created and executive produced by Henry Hampton (1940-1998), one of the most influential documentary filmmakers in the 20th century. Blackside, the independent film and television company he founded in 1968, completed 60 major films and media projects.  [Description from PBS website.]

Access

The documentary is streaming on Kanopy and can be purchased from PBS via the links below.

Full Eyes I and II 14-hour set (Eyes II – Educational use only)

Eyes I Only – 6 hours (1954-1965) – Home video

Also, access Interviews ONLY (Video, Transcripts, Bios)

Bree Newsome on Eyes on the Prize

In this short clip, Bree Newsome describes the impact of watching Eyes on the Prize on her own life of activism.

Trailer

Description of the Segments and Contents

Transcripts and Credits

Awakenings (1954-1956)
Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.

Fighting Back (1957-1962)
States’ rights loyalists and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School, and again in James Meredith’s 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi. Both times, a Southern governor squares off with a U.S. president, violence erupts — and integration is carried out.

Ain’t Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961)
Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement as lunch counter sit-ins spread across the South. “Freedom Riders” also try to desegregate interstate buses, but they are brutally attacked as they travel.

No Easy Walk (1961-1963)
The civil rights movement discovers the power of mass demonstrations as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges as its most visible leader. Some demonstrations succeed; others fail. But the triumphant March on Washington, D.C., under King’s leadership, shows a mounting national support for civil rights. President John F. Kennedy proposes the Civil Rights Act.

Mississippi: Is This America? (1963-1964)
Mississippi’s grass-roots civil rights movement becomes an American concern when college students travel south to help register black voters and three activists are murdered. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the regular Mississippi delegation at the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City.

Bridge to Freedom (1965)
A decade of lessons is applied in the climactic and bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. A major victory is won when the federal Voting Rights Bill passes, but civil rights leaders know they have new challenges ahead.

The Time Has Come (1964-66)
After a decade-long cry for justice, a new sound is heard in the civil rights movement: the insistent call for power. Malcolm X takes an eloquent nationalism to urban streets as a younger generation of black leaders listens. In the South, Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) move from “Freedom Now!” to “Black Power!” as the fabric of the traditional movement changes.

Two Societies (1965-68)
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) come north to help Chicago’s civil rights leaders in their nonviolent struggle against segregated housing. Their efforts pit them against Chicago’s powerful mayor, Richard Daley. When a series of marches through all-white neighborhoods draws violence, King and Daley negotiate with mixed results. In Detroit, a police raid in a black neighborhood sparks an urban uprising that lasts five days, leaving 43 people dead. The Kerner Commission finds that America is becoming “two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.” President Lyndon Johnson, who appointed the commission, ignores the report.

Power! (1966-68)
The call for Black Power takes various forms across communities in black America. In Cleveland, Carl Stokes wins election as the first black mayor of a major American city. The Black Panther Party, armed with law books, breakfast programs, and guns, is born in Oakland. Substandard teaching practices prompt parents to gain educational control of a Brooklyn school district but then lead them to a showdown with New York City’s teachers’ union.

The Promised Land (1967-68)
Martin Luther King stakes out new ground for himself and the rapidly fragmenting civil rights movement. One year before his death, he publicly opposes the war in Vietnam. His Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) embarks on an ambitious Poor People’s Campaign. In the midst of political organizing, King detours to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis, where he is assassinated. King’s death and the failure of his final campaign mark the end of a major stream of the movement.

Ain’t Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-72)
A call to pride and a renewed push for unity galvanize black America. World heavyweight champion Cassius Clay challenges America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, a minister of Islam who refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., fight to bring the growing black consciousness movement and their African heritage inside the walls of this prominent black institution. Black elected officials and community activists organize the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, in an attempt to create a unified black response to growing repression against the movement.

A Nation of Law? (1968-71)
Black activism is increasingly met with a sometimes violent and unethical response from local and federal law enforcement agencies. In Chicago, two Black Panther Party leaders are killed in a pre-dawn raid by police acting on information supplied by an FBI informant. In the wake of President Nixon’s call to “law and order,” stepped-up arrests push the already poor conditions at New York’s Attica State Prison to the limit. A five-day inmate takeover calling the public’s attention to the conditions leaves 43 men dead: four killed by inmates, 39 by police.

The Keys to the Kingdom (1974-80)
In the 1970s, anti-discrimination legal rights gained in past decades by the civil rights movement are put to the test. In Boston, some whites violently resist a federal court school desegregation order. Atlanta’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, proves that affirmative action can work, but the Bakke Supreme Court case challenges that policy.

Back to the Movement (1979-mid 80s)
Power and powerlessness. Miami’s black community — pummeled by urban renewal, a lack of jobs, and police harassment — explodes in rioting. But in Chicago, an unprecedented grassroots movement triumphs. Frustrated by decades of unfulfilled promises made by the city’s Democratic political machine, reformers install Harold Washington as Chicago’s first Black mayor.

Full Interviews

All of the interviews from Eyes on the Prize I and II are available online with full text search capability. These interviews are part of the Henry Hampton Collection housed at the Film and Media Archive at Washington University Libraries. Each transcript represents the entire interview conducted by Blackside including sections which appeared in the final program and the outtakes. This project is part of Washington University’s Digital Gateway and was produced by Digital Library Services and the Film and Media Archive. This invaluable resource is available for free online.

The Making of Eyes on the Prize: Reframing the Civil Rights Movement

The March on Washington Film Festival, in partnership with the SNCC Legacy Project, hosted a webinar on Eyes on the Prize in June of 2020. A screening of short clips was followed by a conversation with those who helped shape the 14-hour series. It was moderated by high school teacher Jessica A. Rucker.

Panelists
• Jon Else, Eyes on the Prize series producer and cinematographer
• Sam Pollard, Eyes on the Prize producer
• Judy Richardson, SNCC Veteran and Eyes on the Prize series associate producer and education director

Classroom Stories

Eyes on the Prize is critical curriculum for our Civil Rights and the American Dream unit in junior American studies, which is rooted in the essential question: “How do diverse perspectives broaden our single story of the American Dream?”. The unit is anchored in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay, The Case for Reparations and reckons with the questions: Where are we now? Where have we been? Where are we going? The unit is thematic as we trace the deeply entrenched roots of racism and slavery in the United States, the spirit and courage of the Abolition Movement, the failures of Reconstruction, and the merits and limitations of the Civil Rights Movement initiated by the 1954 Brown v. Board Supreme Court ruling.

Students supplement the important voices in the Eyes on the Prize documentary with primary sources, Zinn Education Project lessons like the Abolition Mixer, Reconstructing the South: A Role Play, and historical “throughlines” to relevant race conversations today and the New York Times bestselling book Between the World And Me. The unit culminates in a summative research project where students examine the University of Illinois Chicago 2010 report from the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy. They select one research lens of either voting, economics, education, healthcare, housing, or justice as they examine the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and the continued work that needs to be done.

I also find the Eyes on the Prize episodes to be very user-friendly with supporting film questions to consider, and the episodes are chaptered out which is necessary when designing a 50 minute lesson. Being able to easily break episodes into different parts makes it accessible to students and teachers. Even more importantly, the students are always intrigued watching many of the people interviewed in the 1980s reflecting on their choices and decisions from the 1960s. It would be such an important legacy to document those voices again as you remember the legacy of this important history and classroom resource.

—Lindsey DiTomasso

High School Social Studies Teacher, Elmhurst, Illinois

Eyes on the Prize is a magnificent and encompassing document of the struggle and success of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It provides so many stories that students do not typically hear and approaches the topic of civil rights from different perspectives, locations, and times in a fluid and masterful way.

I have used Eyes on the Prize when I teach Kindred for context, when I look at rhetoric and speeches, and I will be using it in my AP class for context in relation to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Personally, my family watched all 14 episodes together before taking a trip to Georgia and Alabama to see some of the major sites of the battle for civil rights. It really expanded our knowledge and feeling for the people who participated and its relevance to our lives today.

—Nick DePascal

High School Language Arts/English Teacher, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The post Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1985 appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

The Story of Stuff has been viewed millions of times by people throughout the world. There is a growing series of related films including the Story of Electronics, the Story of Bottled Water, the Story of Cosmetics, the Story of Broke, and more.

Watch

Here is a description of the Story of Stuff film from the website:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Produced by Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios.

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Slavery by Another Name

Based on Blackmon’s research and book of the same title, Slavery by Another Name spans eight decades, from 1865 to 1945, revealing the interlocking forces in both the South and the North that enabled this “neoslavery” to begin and persist.  Using archival photographs and dramatic re-enactments filmed on location in Alabama and Georgia, it tells the forgotten stories of both victims and perpetrators of neoslavery and includes interviews with their descendants living today.  The program also features interviews with Douglas Blackmon and with leading scholars of this period. [Description from PBS.]

Directed by Sam Pollard, produced by Catherine Allan and Douglas Blackmon, written by Sheila Curran Bernard, based on the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Blackmon.

Trailer

Slavery by Another Name: Author Douglas Blackmon on the Re-Enslavement of Black People in America | Democracy Now! | July 11, 2008

Learn more in the Zinn Education Project national report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” and find teaching resources on Reconstruction below.

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First Light

For centuries, the United States government has taken Native American children away from their tribes, devastating parents and denying children their traditions, culture, and identity. First Light documents these practices from the 1800s to today and tells the story of an unprecedented experiment in truth-telling and healing for Wabanaki people and child welfare workers in Maine. [Producer’s description.]

Produced by Upstander Project.

Watch

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It is a story of racist violence and unspeakable cruelty. But it is also the strange story of how this mission of colonial conquest was appropriated as a day of Italian pride, a defiant yet sad assertion that “We’re American, too.”

Columbus in America explores the history of what transpired in 1492 and after, and how “Columbus” has been used throughout U.S. history to legitimate the marginalization of Indigenous peoples. However, the film is ultimately hopeful, as it focuses on how the victims of Columbus and those who came after have themselves targeted “Columbus in America” to assert their humanity, their history, and their rights.

The film is too long for most classroom uses, but there are lots of excerpts that could be used effectively.

The filmmaker notes,

Many people never think about how the man who first brutalized Indigenous peoples became a hero in the United States, a nation guilty of its own atrocities against native peoples. The little we learn as children about this monumental event in history is inexcusable. But a generation of young people raised on instant access to information are learning and sharing what isn’t taught in class. Columbus is falling.

Hear what Theresa Sheldon, Roberto Borrero, Matt Remle, Native Americans at Brown (Sierra Edd, Phoebe Young, Floripa Olguin, and Kara Roanhorse), Red Nation members (Nick Estes, Hope Alvarado and Jennifer Marley), James Loewen, Bill Bigelow, Kirkpatrick Sale, Jonathan Zimmerman, and Italian American leaders say about this never ending controversy over one of the most useful symbols for maintaining the status quo in the United States.

View in Full for Free

Trailer

Produced by the Film Accord. Available on iTunes, Amazon, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and Films Media Group.

Find related teaching resources below.

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Through the voices of several historians, including Eric Foner, and dramatic re-enactments by actors, Reconstruction follows the stories of Kate Stone, whose family owned a large cotton plantation and enslaved over 150 people before the war; Marshall Twitchell, a former Union soldier who becomes a Freedmen’s Bureau agent in one of the most violent corner’s of Louisiana; John Roy Lynch, a former slave who became a U.S. congressman for the state of Mississippi; Frances Butler, the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner; and, most compellingly, Tunis Campbell, a Black abolitionist who builds an independent colony for freedmen and women in Georgia’s Sea Islands before being elected to Georgia’s state senate.

While the documentary leaves out many other important Reconstruction era stories and suffers from its attempt at providing “balance” (note the two narratives of former slaves are “balanced” by two narratives of former slave owners), by constructing the time period from the perspectives of ordinary citizens it paints a much more expansive and comprehensive picture than most textbook accounts.

The documentary is split into two parts which total three hours long, so it would be difficult to use in its entirety in the classroom. However, Reconstruction is full of short segments — whether it’s the battles in D.C., the multiracial legislatures in the South, or the various massacres attempting to reestablish white supremacy — that can enrich a classroom narrative of the time period. In particular, the segments on Tunis Campbell and the separatist democracy he helped build in the Georgia Sea Islands give an unparalleled visual to both the promise and disappointments of land distribution and economic independence for freedmen and women during Reconstruction.

ISBN: 1415709300 | WGBH

Watch Part I

Watch video.

Watch Part II

Learn more in the Zinn Education Project national report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” and find teaching resources on Reconstruction below.

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The 45-minute DVD and discussion guide can be used to fruitfully explore several issues and related themes, including the impact of desegregation on both students of color and white students, racial bullying, the impact on victims, the responsibility of bystanders, and the role adults play in perpetuating or interrupting racial microaggressions that negatively impact students of color. [Publisher’s description.]

Produced by Lee Anne Bell. Directed by Markie Hancock. Teachers College Press, 2013.

Watch Excerpt

Reviews

40 Years Later: Now Can We Talk? is a moving and powerful documentary that uses storytelling to expose as well as heal the racial divide in American society. The stories prompt examination of critical questions that can assist both students and educators in a variety of settings not only to reflect on past injustices, but also to confront the present context of increasing racial segregation and inequality. Lee Anne Bell has produced an inspiring experience. —Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, professor emerita, Emory University

A stunning film about yesterday, and unfortunately today; about the sacrifices of the first generation, and the always unfulfilled promise of integration. This film serves as a window on American educational history, from racialized bodies to the national body politic. 40 Years Later demands, indeed, that now we must talk.  Producer Lee Bell is not only a brilliant educator and writer, but she has found a new medium for her message, and her call for action. —Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Urban Education, the Graduate Center, CUNY

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In his 2007 documentary Banished, filmmaker Marco Williams examined four examples of primarily white communities violently rising up to force their African-American neighbors to flee town.

In 2001, results from an 18-month investigation of Black land loss in America were published by The Associated Press. 

It turned up 107 of these land takings, 57 of which were violent, the other cases involved trickery and legal manipulations. Here are eight of these heartbreaking stories. [Atlanta Blackstar]

Trailer

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