Williams - Eyes on the prize: Americas civil rights years, 1954-1965

PENGUIN BOOKS

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Juan Williams is a top political analyst for Fox Television and a columnist for The Hill newspaper in Washington, D.C. He is a regular panelist for Fox News Sunday. A former award-winning Washington Post columnist, Mr. Williams also served as the papers White House correspondent. During ten years at NPR, he was the networks senior correspondent and also the host of NPRs nationally broadcast afternoon talk show, Talk of the Nation. In addition to prize-winning op-ed columns and editorial writing for The Washington Post, he has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Foxnews.com. A widely celebrated speaker he is also the author of seven books. Several of them have been bestsellers, including Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary and his most recent book, Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate.

Eyes on
the Prize

Americas Civil
Rights Years,
19541965

Juan Williams

With the Eyes on the
Prize Production Team

Introduction by Julian Bond

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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin Inc. 1987

Published in Penguin books 1988

Published with preface by Judi Hampton and Veva Hampton Zimmerman 2002

This edition with a new preface, introduction, and epilogue published in Penguin Books 2013

Copyright Blackside, Inc., 1987, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this product may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

constitute an extension of this copyright page.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE PREVIOUS EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

Williams, Juan.

Eyes on the prize.

Includes index.

1. Afro-AmericansCivil rightsHistory.

I. Title.

KF4757.W52 1987 323.40973

86-40271

ISBN: 978-1-101-63930-6

I know one thing we did right

Was the day we started to fight.

Keep your eyes on the prize,

Hold on, hold on.

from a traditional civil rights song

This book is dedicated to the memory of Louis Allen, Thomas Brewer, James Chaney, Addie Mae Collins, Jonathan Daniels, Medgar Evers, Andrew Goodman, Jimmy Lee Jackson, Herbert Lee, the Reverend George W. Lee, Viola Liuzzo, Denise McNair, William Moore, the Reverend James Reeb, Carole Robertson, Michael Schwerner, Lamar Smith, Emmett Till, Cynthia Wesley, and the other men and women who gave their lives for civil rights during the years 1954 to 1965.

It is also dedicated to the people of South Africa. May they come to know that no man is free until all men are free.

Preface to the 25th Anniversary Edition

The inspiration for this book dates to March of 1965. Even as he joined the throng of protesters crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, my brother, Henry Hampton, knew he was participating in a historic eventand in a movementthat he would one day want to chronicle. It would take almost twenty-five years, but he never lost sight of that mission and in February 1987 his now legendary public television series Eyes on the Prize premiered and this companion volume was published.

The television series won instant acclaim, and in the months that followed it garnered numerous awards, including multiple Emmys, a George Foster Peabody Award, and a duPont. Critics and viewers alike recognized its power, and it became one of the most watched and most talked about public television series in history.

Likewise, this companion volume has enjoyed both critical and popular success, and in the years since its initial publication it has been hailed as the definitive comprehensive history of the early civil rights years. I am gratified by its ongoing popularity among the reading public as well as its use in high schools and colleges around the country. I am honored and pleased to see this twenty-fifth anniversary edition published, and I would like to thank Cindy Kuhn and Frances Kennedy for their efforts in the process of updating it.

Eyes on the Prizeboth the book and the television showdares us to examine our values, to question our perceptions, and to overcome our prejudices and remain in active dialogue with one another about injustice, intolerance, and racism. The stories in Eyes are about ordinary Americans who displayed extraordinary courage in a time that must not be forgotten. Eyes is also about the grass roots strategies and leadership values that created and sustained a more representative democracy. We are still on that journey, though times and generations have changed. This book and the Eyes on the Prize series remain a guide to making our nations dream of freedom for all a reality.

Henry Hampton passed away prematurely on November 22, 1998, too soon for those of us who knew and loved him. His death has strengthened our resolve to expand Blacksides work and to continue Henrys mission to encourage a national dialogue on crucial social issues. More than anything Henry loved telling the stories of everyday Americans and their struggles to uphold the democratic aims of our country. I dedicate this anniversary edition of Eyes on the Prize to his memory; to the memory of our sister, Vera; and to that of our parents, Dr. and Mrs. Henry Hampton, whose sacrifices made it possible for us to contribute in this way. I applaud once again the Eyes production team who was critical to the success of the films and thank Juan Williams for his inspiring work in this book. Most important, I honor all the heroes of the civil rights movement, both known and unknown, who kept their eyes always on the prize.

Judi Hampton

Acknowledgments

This book and its companion six-part television series are part of a project conceived by Henry Hampton, executive producer of Blackside, Inc., a Boston film company. Henry Hampton is an extraordinary man who, over the course of seven years, managed to turn his dream of capturing the spirit of the civil rights movement into reality. Not only that, but he managed to impart that spirit to his dedicated and remarkably talented staff. The inevitable money problems lurked around each turn, ready to devour not only the project but also the businessman. But Hampton never faltered. On the contrary, he displayed supreme strength in his idea and this project. Henry Hampton fought the good fight and won.