Eyes on the Prize II Interview Digitization and Dissemination Project

FAIN: PW-264081-19

Washington University (St. Louis, MO 63130-4862)
Joy Novak (Project Director: July 2018 to present)

The digitization of 106 hours of raw videotape footage of 182 interviews created in the production of Eyes on the Prize II, the second half of the seminal documentary series that chronicles the civil rights movement from 1965 to 1985.

The Eyes on the Prize II Interview Digitization and Dissemination Project will provide public access for the first time to 182 original complete interviews from the production of Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985.This landmark PBS series tells the complex history of civil rights in the United States in its later years, including the rise of Black nationalism, Northern white resistance to civil rights, and the blossoming of Black Pride. The interviews constitute over 106 hours of previously unavailable footage featuring prominent leaders and unsung grassroots activists. During the two-year project, an outside vendor will create digital video and audio files and initial metadata, and Washington University staff will reassemble the interviews, enhance metadata and create biographies, while a vendor will complete fully-searchable interview transcripts. We will provide online public access to the metadata, transcripts and streaming files of all interviews.

Associated Products

Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965-1985 (Eyes on the Prize II) (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965-1985 (Eyes on the Prize II)
Author: Washington University Libraries
Abstract: Airing on public television in 1990, as the second half of the landmark 14-part series Eyes on the Prize, Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985, explores the tumultuous history of civil rights after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, including the movement of activism from the South into Northern cities, the rise of Black Power and the Black Panthers, the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., civil unrest in cities such as Detroit, tensions over school busing programs, and increasing African American engagement in local and national politics. Both parts of Eyes on the Prize were devoted to telling a version of the civil rights story that was not a standard, simplified narrative. Hampton and his team were committed to going deeper. Instead of summarizing the headlines or two-minute newscasts, Blackside, Inc. sought out the grassroots folks most involved in a given event, action, or culturally historic moment in order to provide a more nuanced version of history, messy and full of conflict and contradictions. In order for an interviewee to be included in the programs, that person had to be an actual participant in the event in question. Prominent scholars had their place as close advisors and consultants to Eyes on the Prize I and II, but they were not to appear on film. To be on camera, the person had to have been part of the history itself. This was to be the most complete and detailed telling of the civil rights story ever attempted, and the ripples from this landmark television event were felt throughout both the academy and popular culture for decades to come. All 183 interviews conducted for Eyes on the Prize II constitute a treasure trove of first-hand information about the civil rights movement that can be utilized by students, scholars, and media makers.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://http://repository.wustl.edu/spotlight/eyes-on-the-prize-america-at-the-racial-crossroads-1965-1985
Primary URL Description: This link is to the landing page for the interviews digitized under the NEH grant project. The individual interviews will be available as they are ingested into the repository over the next couple months.
Access Model: open access

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