Good morning! Can you hear me?

OK. Whether the mikes are on or not, we'll, we'll start. My name's Rob Hollister, I'm acting director of the Lincoln Filene Center here at Tufts. On behalf of President Jean Mayer and my colleagues at Tufts, I'd like to welcome you to this exciting day, Eyes on the Prize, the second Series, a conference for educators. At Tufts, we're extremely proud, feel very privileged, to be part of the partnership that brings you this activity. Cosponsors, in addition to Tufts, being the Museum of Afro-American History and the Civil Rights Project Incorporated. I'm gonna begin a, a couple of things and we'll launch right into the program. I can't help-I can't wait till the end of the day to thank the many people who've brought us together and helped plan this event. In your packet, there's a sheet which lists the members of the Planning Committee. It's a group that's spent endless hours meeting together. Many of them are also leaders of workshops and discussion groups, was extraordinarily energetic, productive group. In some respects, the conference is cosponsored by the three groups that you have heard of. In another larger regard, it's cosponsored and done collectively by the individuals and the institutions that are listed in that-on that, on that sheet, and we owe a lot of gratitude to them. I want to also express our thanks to the staff of Blackside who've been actively involved in preparing special materials in the course of what you can imagine is an intense time in the production of the second Eyes series. To, on top of that, produce special excerpts for use on this occasion is extraordinary. And finally, I wanted to make a special mention of the wonderful work done by the conference coordinator, Sandy Martin, who's a graduate student here at Tufts, but she clearly could not have gone to any classes for the past couple of months, and I wanted to ask you to join me in thanking her for her efforts.

You out there somewhere? A couple of items about logistics. Congratulations on finding parking.

Thank you if you took the T. We regret any difficulty that you had finding a place to park. There's an oft-quoted remark by a well-known former president of the University of California, Clark Kerr, who said that the only thing that the [stutters] warring, warring, warring factions in universities have in common is the shared antagonism toward university policies about parking. So, we ask you to join our confederacy in that regard and we regret any difficulty you've had finding a place to park your automobile. Some of you have been concerned as to information you may have received earlier this morning from the campus police about where you can and can't park. They've agreed not to issue warning tickets. If you do get a warning ticket, give it to me or to anyone else connected with coordinating the conference and we will destroy it in a legal manner. [audience laughs] If you have parked in front of a fire hydrant or a curb cut, you are in danger of being towed; but otherwise, don't worry about the label on the place that you've parked. The purposes of our day, I, I wanted to highlight in beginning. First is to build our respective abilities to, to use Eyes on the Prize, series one and series two, a particular focus on the second series in our teaching. And this morning at the breakfast table, my younger daughter, Susannah, asked what I was up to and I told her I was excited about this conference. And I told her, reminded her that Sarah Beatty, her classroom teacher at the Devote-Edward Devotion School in Brookline was gonna be here and she was excited by that. And then she looked, you know, over her cereal and said, But why does Mrs. Beatty need to come to a conference like this? She's all, already so wonderful at teaching the subject matter. And I said, Yeah, that's right. That's why she's coming. And many of the other people here share that feature of being actively engaged, creatively using Eyes on the Prize. And I mention that little breakfast encounter as a way of suggesting that we're all here, in a sense, on a professional development day, I know that's true for me. The group of us are really a, a group of resource people to each other. So, I hope that in addition to building our individual capacities, that we build and strengthen working relationships. And finally, and maybe more toward the end of the day and the reception that we're gonna finish up with, explore ways to follow through, to continue this work, to continue ways to support each other's efforts in this regard. [pause] Two quick items about the program. After hearing from Henry Hampton, we have a first set of, [unidentified off-screen noise] of discussion groups and you have a, a color-coded system that'll help you figure out where to go. The two discuss...the two discussion groups meet first at 10:45 a.m. or thereabouts, and then again at 1:45 p.m. Your name tags are color-coded to direct you to the correct rooms. Signs and also our student assistants will help you find those locations. But check your pink sheets in your registration packets for details. The blue sheets describe the workshops which will occur immediately after the panel following lunch. You can-if you've not already done so, you can sign up on the sheets that are posted immediately behind the auditorium in the lobby during the break prior to the first discussion groups. But be sure to sign up by the end of, of, of our first break. [pause] Now I'd like to introduce Monica Fairbairn, who's the new executive director of the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston. She comes to the museum from work leading the Heritage Park in Blackstone Valley in the Commonwealth. She has a degree in Planning. Earlier on, studied in Jamaica and in New Zealand. It's been exciting for us to work with the museum. We're delighted that Monica is now leading that institution, and I'd like to turn the program to her. Monica.

Good morning and welcome on behalf of the Museum of Afro-American History. It's wonderful to be at the first collaborative effort on the making of Eyes on the Prize and I challenge you all to make the best of this. Our commitment to this project is rooted in the history and the mission of the museum. In the 1800s, our national treasure and our chief artifact, the historic African Meeting House on Beacon Hill, resounded with the triumphs and quarrels of William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. It rang with the stirring words of the declaration of Anti-Slavery Sentiment which began the Abolitionist movement. From the meeting house, Maria Stewart raised her challenge to Black women on their role in lifting their families out of oppression. "How long," she asked, "shall the fair daughters of Africa be compelled to bury their minds and talents beneath a load of iron pots and kettles?" Today, the work of the African Meeting House goes on. We call our organization a museum without walls. We seek to celebrate the Afro-American community, its past and current ideas, and its culture. Our programs and events bring people to the African Meeting House and also send us out into the wider community. When Henry Hampton gave us all the materials that are...were gathered for the making of Eyes on the Prize II, he handed us a grave responsibility. We see that responsibility also as a great opportunity to help fulfill the mission to educate society and especially our children. The museum as caretakers and as educators, must sincerely and passionately promote the development and talents of all children. We must make the interpretation of Black history so potent that we lift our children from the prejudices of their social environment. As a former teacher myself, I feel that the greatest challenge in teaching is to touch and to influence the emotional life of a child in positive ways. Civil rights is one of the uncharted areas of education. I commend every one of you for coming here and accepting the challenge. I'd also like to invite you to bring your students to visit the African Meeting House and to join our network of educators who are committed to continuing the work that is started here today. I would like to introduce the Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Afro-American History, Henry Hampton.

It's a very tricky task to introduce your boss.

I've been working with Henry for only two months, but even so let me take the liberty, the extreme liberty, of sharing my impressions.

It is clear that this remarkable man sees with his own eyes and feels with his own heart. Beyond that, he has the gift to make us see more clearly and to feel more deeply. As I sat through Eyes on the Prize One and then through the clips of Eyes on the Prize Two, it is obvious that this work was inspired by a great illuminator. Through his medium, Henry speaks with a bold and a sincere voice. From the many pages, and I really mean pages, of Henry's life, it is impossible to create in these few minutes a complete story of his achievements. I'm not going to try. Let us begin with 1987, when he was execu...executive producer of Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, aired nationally on PBS. The series was named Program of the Year by the Television Critics Association, Best Documentary by TV Guide, and Best of Festival by the American Film and Video Festival. The series also earned a nomination for an Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Documentary. And Episodes 5 and 6, and I just want to go on here, won Emmys for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The first six hours of the series received broadcast journalism's most prestigious award, the duPont-Columbia Gold Baton. What more can I say? In January 1990, the second part of the series, Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads, will be aired. Henry is President of Blackside Incorporated, which he founded in 1968 over twenty years ago. He's the recipient of numerous awards, honorary degrees, and fellowships. I think I will stop here. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Henry Hampton.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. It is clear I should quit right now, this can only go downhill. And Monica, the raise will be coming forthwith [unintelligible].

I have a bad habit sometimes of speaking too softly, so that if during these brief remarks somebody can't hear me, just wave your hand and I'll try to project a bit more. And if I can say it as sincerely as I can, although it sounds inadequate to the, the point, Eyes on the Prize is very much the product of many people's skills and talents and hard work. There are people at this very moment who are struggling with the hard issues of making film work, of getting educational materials into print that makes sense, that get the book from Bantam that's going out the door. All of that happens not by me, but by a group of people who have committed themselves to this project, both with Eyes One and with Eyes Two. And it is both rewarding and a little misrepresentative if I stand here and accept all the plaudits and kind comments without you understanding that without them, this project would not be. And perhaps, I know that round of applause was for me, but if you think in your minds just for a moment of all the people, all the producers, Eyes One and Eyes Two, could we kinda...many of them are here, can we applaud them at this time? [applauds]

They deserve much more. There's some dangerous people in this room and their names are Rob Hollister and Ruth Batson and Carla Ricci and Ron Bailey and the list goes on and on. These are people wi-by around whom you have to be careful about simply mentioning an idea, because if they grab hold of it, it ends up as we see today. These folks decided that it was important for this day to occur and nothing was gonna stop them, and they accomplished it with enormous success. This Planning Committee has been both sensitive to our needs in production, but they obviously have pulled off a great coup here. I thank them and the people at Tufts University, surely Sandy and the other members have done such a good job for their work. And I cannot begin without first recognizing what might seem like a single individual, but surely, one of the great and remarkable facets of our experience with Eyes has been something called the Harding family. Many of you, if you know anything about Afro-American history and religion and any...and American history, have come across the name of Vincent Harding, who has been the spiritual godfather of this project from its earliest times, one of our anchoring scholars. But Vincent is a threefer or a fourfer, if you will, because when you involve Vincent in a project, you involve much more. His wife Rose is equally important to this project. His daughter Rachel and son are both...have been involved from the very beginning. I believe that Vincent and Rachel are here. Rose is sleeping from her travels last night but will join us shortly. But I would like Vincent to stand-not, and have you recognize him, not just for his work with Eyes on the Prize, but for all the long and sustained work from the Institute for the Black World, from his work with the churches, from his time with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, for all the hard work over the years, Vincent Harding, Rachel, Rose, and family.

I could go on and there's always danger in recognizing some when you can't do all, but the time is short and I would prefer to, to move through what remarks I have, to show you some film, and then to have some time for give and take. Because this is an unusual opportunity for us, for those of us who, who manipulate and work this material, because you are the end users, as it were. And I am interested in just the few short minutes that I have with you this morning and the rest of the time today, to hear from you what works and what does not, where you would advise we go, and what you would advise we change. Because you and I are to be tested. We are indeed. We are to be tested. Let me tell you about Eyes quickly. I, I need not belabor in this organization that the first part of Eyes on the Prize was in chronological time from the years '54 to 1965. It was an event from the time of the passage of and death of Emmett Till and the trial of his murderers up through the, the grand celebration and success of the voting, passage of the Voting Rights Act after the march and the horror on the bridge at Selma. It was, by more important criteria, the pulling back of America from the brink of apartheid. If you understand where America was in the mid-fifties and late-early sixties, it was a nation not dissimilar in many ways to South Africa. And the brilliant miracle that occurred in what we call the early facets of the American civil rights movement occurred in an eye blink of historic time, and was able to pull the nation back from this brink, and do it in such a manner that at the end of that dismantling of those bad laws and the deinstitutionalized legalized facets of racism, we are still able to sit in this room together today as Americans, Black and White. It was an extraordinary time, but even in a broader sense, it is the nature of democracy as it struggles to unload from itself a cancer. And it becomes in that regard a model case study for how we, those of us who believe in the true democracy, would see it happening further. There was success in this process beyond our fondest dreams. Documentary filmmakers are not given to the kind of success that, that Monica so generously described and most anyone here in this room knows about this business of ours. You make these projects, they go out in the air, and rarely, if you're lucky, do you hear from them again. In this fact, it was a, an extraordinary response, building slowly over the years. First, the audiences that, that watched it on PBS, twenty million the first time, twenty million the second a year later. There were the awards, which are, are much appreciated and much unexpected. There was the distribution of the series to fifteen countries abroad, English-speaking countries and England and Australia, and New Zealand, but also non-English-speaking countries, Japan and Germany, Finland and many, many others. But in fact, if you had to find an aw... a reward for the team that made these materials, it was the simple act of a teacher turning with pleasure and saying, Thank you. It was the notion of a parent saying, I used this to sit down with my kid and talk about this moment. Those were the sheer moments of pleasure that you can acquire from having done something like Eyes on the Prize, and when I'm sitting on the nursing home porch rocking slowly-

-I'm gonna hold those dear, along with those straight golf shots down the middle that Rob knows I hit so rarely.

We should've stopped. Any wise group of people would've said, We've had our success. Move on. But you cannot stop and we could not stop. If we had, it was half a history, it was a story in which too many lessons were yet to be taught. And for most of us, because we are to be tested, you and I, the times are too urgent for us to have stopped. So, we have to assume the risk of doing Eyes II. And what I hope will happen today is not only the response to what happened with the first series, but also to help you and us get ready for the use of Eyes II. Because it is done not without risk, but I believe a risk well worth undertaking. Now, Eyes II is more difficult. It's been the conventional wisdom ever since we started trying to raise the five-and-a-half million dollars, the six million dollars that it was gonna take to do it. It's more difficult because of obviously the history is closer to us. And that is a risk because we, the historians have not had time yet to sit and evaluate and to fully understand. What are the implications of Jesse Jackson's run for the presidency? What, in fact, were the results of the enormous voter rights, vo...voter registration drives in the South in the post-1965 period? Hundreds of issues that should be ferreted out, studied, examined, interviewed, studied, changed again, challenged by graduate students yet to be born. That is how history works in its best form and at the end of a period of time you have a, a thoughtful analytical interpretation with the evidence to show the consequences. But we are to be tested, you and I. We don't have time for that process. So, in fact, Eyes II, we move into an arena whi...which is more instinctual history, instinctual history. Eyes II is different because of that. Eyes II is different because no longer is the civil rights movement geo ... geographically isolated in a part of the country called the South. In Eyes II, the history moves north and no longer can be something that is a pretend and enjoyable event that occurs down there. I think if you look at history in some ways, it has been a movement over time between us and them, to us. And in the earlier part of this history that we try to treat, the us and them was those of us who lived in the North and watched them in representative Southern sheriffs and, and raging racists take their anger and venom and prejudice and weakness out on the, the marchers. It was a morality play but when that morality play came north to the streets of Chicago, when it came into the heart of the Boston School System, when it began to change people's very character and identity, then it was no longer us and them there. It was us and them here. Eyes II is different history. And Eyes II is different because there's a wonderful piece in our business of, there's no mystery about film, we have beginning, middle, and end. And with Eyes II, we have a problem.

Maybe. Maybe we have a problem. Eyes I, the ending was, was clear. And I think one of the things we were able to do was to give the nation a moment of celebration about the really remarkable goal that it had accomplished by doing the first stage of the movement. Those of you who lived the period, and there are few of you in the room as old as I, remember the euphoria that you felt in '65, '66, when you began to understand and think that America was now gonna move quickly, move quickly to the resolution of the issue that had been identified and had been largely, we thought, beaten. But the nation never really had time to enjoy the moment of victory because immediately upon that came a succession of events that seemed to drive us not closer together but further apart. Eyes II is different. It is more important because we are going to be tested, you and I. What is Eyes II? Well, chronologically, it is the treatment of the history of what we could call the American civil rights movement, but in fact, is something larger than that. We have chosen a subtitle that I have argued and may...I may still be prevailed upon by my associates, but to me it is the right subtitle, America at the Racial Crossroads. What does that mean and why have I, am I so persistent in ignoring the advice of my colleagues and friends who say, I don't understand what it means? It means that during the second stage of the civil rights movement, we ended a period when America had racial choices. And one of the things that we hope to have you teach in Eyes on the Prize is that a, a nation has an opportunity to attack, to confront certain problems, and surely during these years of Eyes II, it had many times. And what happened? Were we able to confront? It is again the same struggle of a democracy continuing to, to come to grips with the very nature of what, whatever this philosophy, cultural sense that we call democracy is. What it is in, in real heart is America coming to grips with pluralism. Really coming to grips with what one might call movement toward a perfect union, a more perfect union, a phrase that Vincent will no doubt talk to you about later today. It is en...entering into our discussion of democracy the notion of remedy. It is one thing, one thing to recognize a wrong. It is quite another to take action to remedy it. It moves democracy to a new level, a new level in the history and the annals of man. There is a notion of a responsible party, responsible parties that I call full citizens, true citizens. And to be responsible, Martin Buber says somewhere that you have to have two things. You have to recognize the ill and then you have to act on it. In that second period of history, in Eyes II, the responsible parties attempt to begin to come to grips with not just this, the relatively simple although enormously important act of dismantling bad laws, but to move to remedy. It's a new notion on this landscape. Flying back from California six months ago, I watched in horror, became horrified at the man in front of me. He went rigid in his seat, fell forward, was clearly the victim of a heart attack. We were somewhere over Utah. We were all stunned for a moment. The crew reacted well, the, they came back, they made an announcement for medical personnel, people. Unlike many times in the past, these medical personnel came rapidly forward. They made him as comfortable, although he was unconscious. The captain came back, assessed the situation, and set a new course for Stapleton. But in that hour, in that hour that all of us were on that plane with a man who probably died, I do not know, we became a community, vested in his life and the threat to it. It was a community that was formed by crisis. And I make the point, as I began to think about this as we flew on after leaving him in Denver, that it, it is in part what happened to America after 1965. In the earlier period, we had been a nation driven by design, community by design, falling back on our basic instruments of government and precepts and principles. A community that our leaders felt comfortable in taking us to when forced to. This next stage of history is more often than not created by crisis, crisis that's magnified and leveraged way beyond the initial event by media, that has become as much a player in all national lives as the Congress or indeed any functioning element. There are a few things that you can think about with Eyes II that cannot fit under the, the notion that what goes on in this history, what happens in these moments, is about transformation. And as I watch, as I show you the sampler, I want you to think about two things, about this history that's occurring in the '65 to '85 period that is happening still today. Transformation at one level within African Americans as they go about the business of unloading the very nature of the oppression that's been visited upon them. What is it like? You simply don't remove the obstacle. You simply don't remove the obstacle and have the, the ba-pain and burden of those years go away. And what happens to that process? Listen to, to Malcolm X as, as you are about to see. Watch Muhammad Ali. And think about the transformation that can range from the silly to the cosmetic to the most profound of a people who are changing themselves as they now operate in an environment free for the first time in America's history without the legal trappings of segregation and racism. And think also that no such process can happen without it having an enormous impact on all that surrounds it. Make no mistake. This was not something exclusively held within the African American or Black presence. It changed the world around us as it happened. It's like moving an electron to a new level, you change the nature of the element. America was changed fundamentally and deeply by that experience. And so I'm gonna ask the, the young man in the back now to run a sampler. These are excerpts from the shows, it runs about fifteen minutes, and then I have a few remarks to, to close with.

One second. Is Anna Combs here? There's an emergency and if you can come out to meet us at the lobby it'd be helpful.

Anna Combs Allen?

Anna, I think it was Anna Combs [inaudible] might be here.

Anna Combs?

[narrates] The sample reel you are about to see is a roughly edited work tape intended for limited distribution. You will notice that scenes are not properly color balanced or have other technical deficiencies. These flaws are typical and common to a program at this stage of production and in no way reflect the high broadcast standards we will meet in the completed program. In 1987, Eyes on the Prize brought the civil rights years to public television. It featured the stories behind the stories, a close-up look at the personal courage of individuals who created a remarkable social movement that demanded dignity and justice for all Americans. Now, in the second series, we follow this dramatic history out of the South, from the terror of urban rebellions in a nation that seems out of control to the passionate joy of the victories that mark a people's fight to define themselves. We watch as Americans struggle toward a new vision of democracy.

They applauded me when I stood on my porch in Montgomery, Alabama, when my home was bombed and four thousand Negroes assembled with guns in their pockets and locks in their hands getting ready to tear the city up, and I held up my hand and said, This isn't the way. Violence can't solve our problem. They applauded me in Albany, Georgia. These same people are damning me when I say you ought to be nonviolent toward little Brown children in Vietnam.

[narrates] And now, selections from the second series of Eyes on the Prize.

How long have you waited to register?

Me?

How many years?

Oh, long time. Long.

How many years?

[inaudible]

How old are you?

I'm a hundred-and-six years old. [unintelligible] with 'em now.

How do you feel, sir?

Me? I feel good.

Let me say first that this march here is nonviolent. It is a nonviolent expression of our determination to be free. This is the principle of the march and certainly we intend to keep this march nonviolent.

Mr. Carmichael, are you as committed to the nonviolent approach as Dr. King is?

No, I'm not-

-[unintelligible] way of life, I never have. I also realize that no one in this country is asking the White community in the South to be nonviolent and that, in a sense, is giving them a free license to go ahead and shoot us at will.

Ricks had everybody primed. He said just get to your speech, we're going against Freedom Now, we're going with Black Power. Don't hit too much on Freedom Now, but hit the need for power. So, we built up on the need for power. And just when I got there, before I got it, Ricks was there saying, Hit 'em now, hit 'em now. I kept saying, Give me time, give me time. When we finally got in and we dropped it, Black power, of course, they had been primed and they responded immediately. But I myself, to be honest, I didn't expect that enthusiastic response.

Now from now on when they ask you want you know what to tell 'em. What do you want?

Black power!

What do you want?

Black power!

What do you want?

Black power!

Everybody! What do you want?

Black power!

That's right! That's what we want! Black power!

When I first saw Malcolm on the television, he scared me also. Immediately, the family said, Turn off that television. That man is saying stuff you ain't supposed to hear. [laughs]-

-So, of course, we did. But always, you know when the sun comes in a window and you kind of jump up to get it? To close the blinds or pull down the shade? But before you do that, the sun comes in? Well, before...each time we turned the television off, a little sun came in.

You are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, of ignorance, of apathy, of disease, and of death. And they have these old Uncle Tom Negro leaders coming to Harlem telling you and me that the times are getting better. The times will never get better until you make them better.

When he came off the stage, I jumped off the aisle and walked up to him. And of course, when I got to him, the bodyguards, you know, moved in front and he just pushed them away, and I went in front of him and extended my hand and said, I liked some of what you said. I didn't agree with what all that you said but I liked some of what you said. And he looked at me, held my hand in a very gentle fashion, and says, One day you will, sister.

It is time for you and me to see for ourselves. And it's time for you and me to hear for ourselves. And it's time for you and me to fight for ourselves. We don't need anybody today speaking for us, seeing for us, or fighting for us. We will fight our own battles with the help of our God.

[sings] We started to fight, keep your eyes on the prize. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Keep your eyes on the prize. Oh, Lord.

Thank you.

It's-thank you.

It's pretty good stuff, isn't it? [laughs]

It's always a test to apply to it if you still like it after looking at it for six months, that there must be something going on there. I don't have much more to say to you and yet I do. The reasons why Eyes are important are the things that you can help with. One of the powerful lessons that are in this material, Eyes I and Eyes II, there are probably as many, there are as many as there are individuals in this room. And the lessons are no secret. The lessons of coalition and the power of the coalition that was formed and the nature of coalitions that they come together and they split apart. They are not inherent or inevitable. They have to be earned and maintained. The role of government and law in our society was challenged, tested, and oftentimes found wanting in this period. But the role of government is critical to social change. Media, this new player on the block, which none of us fully understand even to this day, clearly had an enormous impact. Understand that the civil rights movement in its early stage would have happened with or without the cameras. But it was almost like gasoline to turn the cameras on, the morality play that was being pla, played out in the South. And what happened when those cameras turned and watched the rebellions in the North or chose to tell us certain things about our heroes or not to tell us about heroes at all or heroines. Leadership, something cameras don't do very well but clearly if you had to choose one single element from all these years, the power of the individual leader taking responsibility for themselves. Those unnamed, some of whom died, people in the South who simply said, No more. No more. It was their example that gave power to the people who followed. All of those lessons, hundreds of them that you can find and teach. For me, the most important lesson is that this material behind me in these films that you will find in this project add to our historical vocabulary. And by that I simply mean that we see the world differently, you and I. We have secrets from one another, from generation to generation, and race to race. Many of the things that happen in our world that prevent us from dealing effectively with the problems that confront us is that we see things differently. And this history was in many ways the beginning of that split, a split that immobilizes us today. When you say "police," I see one thing, you see another. When you say "law," I see one thing and you see another. Inevitably, if we are not able to resolve that difference, we are impotent. We must come to grips. And one of the ways to do that, I truly believe, is the empowering notion of history, is when you share it, analyze it, criticize it, and bring it home to yourselves and to your students. That is when we will be able to confront the problems that face us today with the same power that we applied to the American civil rights years stage one. I have a, a reason why I believe we are to be tested. What has happened in Boston in the last six months, the deterioration of relationships, the violence on the street, the reactions to death, are all characteristics of how we are being tested as a nation throughout the country. But we seem incapable of responding. And one of the reasons is the split between us. It seems like we fight a battle together and count only half the casualties. If you are Black, you will react to the, the horror of a, of the death of a [unintelligible] woman. But there had been ten deaths before that that you incorporate. And you try to have a discussion with people about what it means and it's as if you are talking across a grand abyss. We are to be tested. America, like relationships, is about to go through interesting and troublesome times. And we have, as I said earlier with this notion of being at the crossroads, there are moments of opportunity, and you have to understand your history to come to some understanding of what is about to face us. Perhaps even before the turn of the century. America, every time it faces a racial crisis and a racial question, tends to back up, tends to move away from the confrontation, tends to delay the inevitable. When the constitution formed, we invented three-fifths of a man. We fought a bloody and terrible war and, and earned the right to reconstruction and ran so fast it left heads spinning. The civil rights movement in its early stage was one of the grand opportunities when it was engaged. Perhaps because the leadership, those strong and unnamed men and women who made it happen, would not be swayed. And now, now we face I think another racial opportunity. Ideally, we face another racial opportunity. This time driven not by the morality and the urgency of our basic documents and principles that, that characterized the early movement. This time driven by something that perhaps might really work because it is more fundamental to the American experience, and that is our competitive role in the national and international environment. Wouldn't it be ironic if the people of the Soviet Union were able to resolve the thousand diverse cultures which make up that, that nation before we were able to solve our peculiar little race problem? Wouldn't it be ironic if, if Eastern Europe, as we watch daily, and Europe itself were able to achieve the power of a thousand years of diversity and move on before we were able to handle our dirty little race problem? And if anyone has traveled the Pacific Rim, you understand that it is more likely that the next century will be theirs than ours. We have no time to waste. And perhaps it was that driving need that we might form and fire this next civil rights revolution, this next Black Power movement. There is something inherent in all of us that says us and them and it seems to characterize our lives. So, those who sit in the suburbs and watch death in Roxbury, it is more them than, than us. Those who watch AIDS from an early stage and see that as some far-off experience for Africans or, or, or gay people, it is more them than us. There is a fundamental notion to oppression, and something that history will not let you forget, that such things will not go away, they will come closer and closer and shortly, it will be us. And we will understand that the casualties that now drop in our city streets, that the kinds of pain that have been suffered by people is soon to be ours if we don't act. There's a social earthquake coming and we have an advantage over the physical ones, we can predict what is going to happen. And the way we can predict it simply is by opening our eyes and studying the history. I have no grand notion for you at the end except this. Courage comes in, in many forms. There is the grand courage, I think, of the people who made this movement, of a Muhammad Ali who steps forth and, and gives up all that America had to offer because he believed in something else. The grand courage that old man who probably risked his life to stand on that road in Mississippi. The courage of Tracy Amalfitano in, in South Boston during the bus...busing crisis. Grand courage that I can only aspire to and most of us only can. But courage comes in two forms. It comes as small courage. The kind that does not cost you your life. It may only cost you a raise instead of a job. But I would ask as you go through this history and in the years that are to come that you think not so much in terms of grand courage, because it is grand courage that Churchill tells us is ahead of every other human virtue, because without it the others mean nothing. Think not so much in terms of grand courage. Think in terms of small courage and that will see us through. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, very kind. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That, that is warmly and richly appreciated. I thank you. I said earlier that I was really interested in, in reactions and questions, and learning what it's like for you, because we can build the airplane but somebody's got to fly it. I would like to have for a few minutes just to take a few questions and then we'll move to the next stage of the program. Are there any? Yes.

I think many of us share your concerns right now about Boston. Are there coalitions to take action? If not, let's start one today.

I'm ready. I think what, what it needs, you know, what we need is some fresh re, re, reinforcements. I think a lot of us who, who do this end up oftentimes talking to each other and it can be a powerful coalition. But we need to broaden the horizon, which is why I think the education front is so critical to us. Fresh troops into this battle will win it and bring together the, the, bring to bear the kind of new force that we need. But no hesitation at all, you get the sign-up sheet and I'll be the first to sign. [laughs]

I'm just curious because in the first part in Eyes on the Prize I you showed times where labor leaders came and spoke out, like a Walter Reuther in terms of Selma, but I'm curious given or, organized labor has not always been in the forefront in recent years in terms of civil rights, how you handle unions in the, the sort of the late '60s and '70s.

Well, again, that notion of coalitions is an important one. There was a place at which the, the labor unions felt identification with the people who were struggling in the streets, mostly in the South, but even in the North. But one of the notions of Eyes II that you have to take in hand and teach people about are what happens in a time of limits. As long as there is a constantly expanding pie or the perception thereof, people will give you all you want because it's out of some amorphous possibility down the road. But as America began to constrict and such things as gas lines formed and such things as the job next to you, this becomes a very different matter. And the unions watched that. Some few reacted with, with I think integrity and discipline, but most went back to their, their constituencies, and instead of preparing for the sharing that inevitably has to happen if you're gonna have a plural nation, instead of that, sometimes they worked on the fears. Sometimes they worked, as our politicians do, on ripping people apart and making them see it as a confrontation rather than joining together to expand the, the universe which can be shared. Unions are a piece of the coalition, churches are a piece of that coalition. We have been living for the last twenty years in a political environment that is being manipulated by, by politicians around the very issues that you see in this history today.

Do you show the contributions of the unions? I'm somebody in the labor movement and that's a very hard discussion to have within the labor movement.

Yeah.

Because in order to go forward in the next century, clearly unity in the workplace is an important dynamic.

Right. How, how many people in this room have ever heard of the Gary Convention?

Heard the what?

The Gary Convention. OK. Well, Show 205, you will see a story about the Gary Convention which occurred in 1972, and eight to nine-thousand Black folks went to Indiana to celebrate the election of Gary Hatcher as one of the first Black mayors in the country, but more importantly to figure out where we were going politically. And the reason I, I raise it is, one, it's part of the history and part of the experience you do not know, and it fires many of the electoral campaigns which we still enjoy the benefit of today. But in it, there's a scene and a confrontation between Coleman Young, the mayor of Detroit now, who led the delegation from Michigan to that. And it talks about the conflict within the UAW and the, the realities of what happens when you really are beholding to someone else and your racial identity has to be challenged by who's paying your check. Yeah, there's stuff in Eyes II that you can use to, to raise the issue. Yeah.

Is there any coverage on the role of women or the women's movement in the civil rights movement in Eyes II?

Well, to, to your first question, God help me if there weren't because [laughs]-

-the, the women of Eyes on the Prize, and indeed the men, consider this one of the, the most important stories of the series. We don't do it as a separate story and, and there was some argument about how that happened. But it's more within the, the images and the people who talk to you. A, a number of interviews, the people talking about their, about their lives involved in the other events. It is very clear that this movement would not have happened without, without the women. Now, you're asking a larger question which is the, the overall, I, I assume White women's liberation movement. And that is there by extrapolation but not in, in specific. There is a limit, in spite of the fact this is eight hours of material, you can tell two, and at the very most three stories per hour, and you must make hard choices. There are the connections between the transformed America, the women's movement, the anti-war movement, I think the basic nature of protests. There's a wonderful moment in the South Boston busing story when one of the opponents there clearly points out with a little smile on her face, not Tracy but point, one of the women who, amongst the resisting community, points out with a smile on her face that they're taking their tactics from what the bla, the Black folks did in Boston ten years earlier. It is that kind of transfer of impact that occurs throughout the series, but centered in all of this, you will see the faces of women who, without whom it would not have happened.

While I agree with the gentleman on the coalition, that spoke about the coalition and specifically around Boston, and that certainly is an issue, I think that we have to certainly broaden our horizons and, and take a look at the greater area and include outlying areas where there are groups of people not in the inner city. So, the coalition needs to be broadened to the lah, smaller cities and towns, the smaller communities where we have groups and where there are incidences happening all the time. So I, I, I'm hopeful that if we do start a coalition, that we don't just stop at Boston but the other areas as well surrounding.

I think you make a, a, a terrific point. And in fact, I, I talked earlier about things that are driven by crisis. Well, right now we're being driven in some ways by crisis, and if we form up around that basis, we might use it as a way to organize ourselves but ultimately that would un...would be undercut and fail. And in fact, drugs, which are the, the top complaint on the list now of most citizens, are, are probably not the problem because the real problem exists below the surface and drugs are a litmus for it. And if we use the, our fear about violence to organize, we, we'd best be certain that we, that we do exactly what you said, which is open up the viewfinder and understand what's really going on within the country. So we can stage ourselves not just for the next two years or until the shooting stops, and it will, but to the next level and the real issues.

Yeah, I was distressed this summer to see the mass media's coverage of the death of Huey Newton. I was wondering if you addressed the Black Panthers and how you sort of covered that in Eyes II?

We do indeed, Show 203 and 206 have-we were, were fortunate, tragically fortunate, to get probably the last major interview with Huey Newton be, before he was killed. And in Show 203, we talk about the emergence of the Black Panther Party as a, a player on the American landscape. And Show 206, which is a show that's called The Nation of Law, is really about what our government does in response to the kind of fear that people were, were undergoing in that period, and we watch the death of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago where the government and the Chicago police were clearly involved.

I have one statement, two questions. I'm, I'm thirty-five years old so I kinda scan the scope of your two series.

You're, you're, you're young.

Yeah. And, and I just wanna say that you, and I may never get a chance to do this, that for me you're an inspiration and in many ways a hero and I'd like to thank, thank you.

I need that. Secondly, I wonder if you could speak to the, I guess, decimation or destruction of Mayor Barry in Washington D.C. and which...what the implications are you think that will be on the ability for Black politicians to continue to make some changes or effect some changes?

Mm-hmm. Well [sighs] you, you know, one of the things that happens to us as Black people is that there, there are two levels of discussion that we have with one another. One is one we have with each other and, and the other is the one we have, you know, in public.

And the problem is that that's immobilizing. Now my friend Ruth Batson over here and I argue about this all the time. To me, one of the most powerful instrus, instruments of communication, television, is not really available for us to talk to our communities, because if we have it, the hundred thousand racists out there will take it and use it and, and, against us. And yet we give up the power of the instrument. Now, with that said, I'm gonna assume that this room is, is mostly friendly-

- and, and say that this series, I hope, teaches us some other things. I hope it teaches us as a community, that as Malcolm so eloquently put it, that we've got to start dealing with some of our own business, because it's clear that the approaches that have been tried have left too many people powerless and in jeopardy. I think when you have a politician who's not doing it, you do what a lot of people would do, you organize and, and get rid of him. And I don't know the specifics, I'm not gonna indict Marion on, on the basis of press reports. But there's been enough evidence to show, I think, that Washington, and the Black community in Washington, is suffering from what I-what they desperately need, which is some fresh leadership. So, I would, I think, I would hope Marion-