Freedom Facts and Firsts. Jessie Carney Smith
1924, 1931, and 1938. The resulting controversy only helped to fuel the film’s box-office appeal, and it became a major hit. Even President Woodrow Wilson, during a private screening at the White House, was reported to have enthusiastically endorsed Birth of a Nation. Film scholars agree, however, that it is a key film in American movie history. It contains many new cinematic innovations and refinements, technical effects, and artistic advancements, including a color sequence at the end. It had a formative influence on future films and has had a recognized impact on the development of film as an art form. In addition, at almost three hours in length it was one of the longest film to date. Nevertheless, it still provokes conflicting views about the representation of African Americans during the Reconstruction era.
Linda T. Wynn
Eyes on the Prize (1987)
Winner of numerous Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Award, and a Television Critics Association Award, Eyes on the Prize is one of the most critically acclaimed documentaries on the African American struggle for civil rights in America. Derived from the song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” the 14-hour documentary series narrates the story of the modern civil rights era by giving voice to the everyday people whose exceptional actions launched one of the nation’s most important social movements of the twentieth century. It conveys the struggle to end more than fifty years of racial discrimination and segregation. Eyes on the Prize is the story of the people—adults and children, men and women, northern and southern, black and white—who out of a sense of justice were obligated to right America’s civil wrongs sanctioned by both law and custom. They worked to eliminate a society that racially restricted African Americans from cradle to the grave.
Narrated by Julian Bond, the documentary aired in two parts. Using first-person accounts and historical film footage, part one, which is six hours long, originally aired early in 1987 on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (1954–1965), which covered The Awakening (1954–1956), Fighting Back (1957–1962), Ain’t Afraid of Your Jails (1960–1961), No Easy Walk (1961–1963), Mississippi: Is This America? (1963–1964), Bridge to Freedom (1965), and The Time Has Come, (1964–1966). The remaining eight hours aired in 1990 as Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965–1985), which covered Two Societies (1965–1968), Power! (1966–1968), The Promised Land (1967–1968), Ain’t Gonna Shuffle No More (1964–1972), A Nation of Law? (1968–1971), Keys to the Kingdom (1974–1980), and Back to the Movement (1979–mid-1980s). Henry Hampton (1940–1998), the founder of documentary film company Blackside (est. 1968), produced the series.
The series generated three books by noted journalists and historians. Juan Williams, an Emmy Award-winning radio and television correspondent, wrote Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965, published by Penguin Books in 1988, which serves as the series companion volume. In 1990, Bantam Books published Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer’s Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, and in 1991, Penguin Books published The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, 1954–1990, for which Clayborne Carson, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, Vincent Harding, and Darlene Clark Hine served as general editors.
Linda T. Wynn
During slavery, spirituals and work songs provided affirmation and strength in the face of a system meant to debilitate and degrade.
Music
Music of the Civil Rights Movement
African American music has been important to the lifestyle and survival of black people. Music is one of the most prominent areas of African retention in African American culture. Like the West African traditional role of art, music for African Americans during slavery served not only as an expression of morality and cultural values but also as a means of communicating social and political views. During slavery, spirituals and work songs provided affirmation and strength in the face of a system meant to debilitate and degrade. From the spirituals and work songs to the later forms of blues, jazz, R&B, and gospel, African American music from the time of slavery to the climax of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s has inspired protest and progress.
During the 1950s and 1960s, a number of songs served to empower civil rights demonstrators. Some of these songs were performed by the Freedom Singers of Albany, Georgia, to raise money for protesters and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The same songs performed and later recorded by the Freedom Singers were sung at marches and rallies to inspire protesters, giving them a common orientation and sense of purpose and direction. Prominent among the singers were Cordell Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon. According to Eilene Southern, “We Shall Overcome” was the theme song of the movement in its early days. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the movement commonly referred to that freedom song as a spiritual, probably because it resembled the nineteenth-century slave song “No More Auction Block for Me.” Among other prominent songs of protest were “I Shall Not Be Moved,” “Oh, Freedom,” “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” and “This Little Light of Mine.”
The religious nature of some songs was modified at times to indicate a political agenda; the religious origin of the music, however, underscored the moral mission of the Civil Rights Movement. The music expresses the idea that the racial oppression and injustice visited upon African Americans was not only unfair but immoral, emphasizing the concept that their political mission was a spiritual one as well. Secular music also served to inspire change and encourage civil rights protesters. The dominance of Berry Gordy’s black record label Motown and the ability of African American artists to win reputations in mainstream America suggest the determination of the Civil Rights Movement.
Singer, songwriter, and pianist Nina Simone, who was passionately committed to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, is said to have given musical expression to both. She contributed her talent to the movements by singing at benefits and marches. Her song “Mississippi Goddam” became a classic during the Civil Rights Movement. Sam Cooke’s “A Change Gonna Come” and James Brown’s song “I’m Black and I’m Proud” were two of the most well-known popular songs to inspire and serve the Civil Rights Movement. Some other R&B artists who contributed inspiring messages to the movement include Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, Marvin Gaye, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. The songs of the movement are variously recorded; a notable source is the Smithsonian Institution’s three-volume collection released in 1980, Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960–66.
Rebecca S. Dixon
Music Entrepreneur
Simmons, Russell (1957–)
Russell Simmons was born in Queens, New York, on October 4, 1957. He recognized the potential of rap music in the 1980s and the way in which it was being overlooked by the music industry. Thus, he began promoting the music and producing records. He later formed production companies and clothing lines that aided in moving this urban music and its artists into mainstream America.
In his endeavors, Simmons has not left the African American community behind. He has continuously provided ways in which youth can be empowered and has served as a role model for responsible use of that power, acting as a voice and a positive force in the community. Simmons established the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation that supports the arts, and The Rush Impact Mentorship Initiative, which seeks to give back to youth, especially urban youth. In 2001, he co-founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) with Benjamin Chavis. HSAN encourages political involvement; its programmatic strategy statement on its Web site indicates its focus is on “community development issues related to equal access to high