Eyes on the Prize
In 2006,
Facing History and Ourselves was part of a national outreach campaign managed by Blackside, the producer of Eyes on the Prize,
the most comprehensive television documentary ever produced on the
American civil rights movement. The initiative brought together a group
of partners to undertake considerable outreach to students, teachers,
and communities across the country in support of the series' historic rebroadcast on PBS's American Experience in 2007-2008.
Facing History and Ourselves has a long history with both education about the civil rights movement and the series Eyes on the Prize,
which continues to inform its work today. Henry Hampton, the founder of
Blackside, was a longtime member of Facing History's national board of
trustees. Facing History also played a key role in the educational
outreach during the film's initial release. In recent years, its
educator workshops and community events have included many of the
people featured in the series, including Congressman John Lewis,
Elizabeth Eckford, Terrence Roberts, Bob Moses, and Alvin Poussaint.
Facing History has developed rich resources on
particular aspects of the movement, including an educators' guide and lesson plans to accompnay Eyes on the Prize. The story of the integration of
Little Rock Central High School is also one of the three stories portrayed
in its national traveling Choosing to Participate exhibition and the accompanying study guide as well as, Choices in Little Rock, which has been adopted as a key component of the civics curriculum for all 8th graders in the Boston Public Schools and 10th graders in the Chicago Public School system.
Acknowledgements
The re-release of Eyes on the Prize was made possible by grants from
The Ford Foundation and The Gilder Foundation. The Corporation for
Public Broadcasting is funding a national outreach campaign managed by
Blackside that is a collaborative effort of three outreach providers:
Outreach Extensions, Facing History and Ourselves, and the National
Black Programming Consortium.
