Eyes on the Prize

History Series / 1 Season

EYES ON THE PRIZE tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Narrated by political leader and civil rights activist Julian Bond (1940-2015).

Get Cascade PBS Passport to watch

Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961) | Promo

30s / TV-PG

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.

Awakenings (1954-1956) | The Bus Boycott: Women and Allyship

1m 11s / TV-PG

Donie Jones opens up about her experience boycotting Montgomery, Alabama's buses, and the assistance she received from white women after a day of protesting. Activist Virginia Durr, who supported Rosa Parks, speaks about the necessary relationship between white women and Black women. From Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings (1954-1956).

Fighting Back (1957–1962) | Elizabeth Eckford

32s / TV-PG

Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine students, arrives at Arkansas's Central High School for the first day the school is desegregated in its history but is met by an angry crowd to a bus stop. From Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back (1957–1962).

Fighting Back (1957–1962) | Minnijean Brown

1m 9s / TV-PG

Melba Patillo Beals and Ernest Green recall when fellow Little Rock Nine student Minnijean Brown retaliated against the harassment by white students at Arkansas's Central High School. From Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back (1957–1962).

Fighting Back (1957–1962) | The Little Rock Nine

33s / TV-PG

Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine students, shares the police's plan to escort them to safety on the day they were to attend Arkansas's Central High School. It was the school's first day of desegregation but instead an angry crowd surrounded the student and school. From Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back (1957–1962).

Awakenings (1954-1956) | Montgomery Bus Boycott

55s / TV-PG

Jo Ann Robinson, the president of the Women’s Political Council, prepares for the one-day Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott on December 5, 1955 - the day Rosa Parks would be tried in municipal court after her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The community-wide effort pays off as witnesses attest. From Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings (1954-1956).

Fighting Back (1957–1962) | Promo

30s / TV-PG

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 US president, violence erupts - and integration is carried out.

Awakenings (1954-1956) | Promo

30s / TV-PG

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.

Eyes on the Prize | Trailer

1m 10s / TV-PG

EYES ON THE PRIZE tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Narrated by political leader and civil rights activist Julian Bond (1940-2015).

Eyes on the Prize | Promo

30s / TV-PG

EYES ON THE PRIZE tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Narrated by political leader and civil rights activist Julian Bond (1940-2015).

Supported by