1. Evan Homison
Sociology 105
Dr. Ezekiel Olagoke
3/24/2021
Civil Rights Paper - Eyes on the Prize
Eyes on the Prize first aired in 1987 on PBS as a 14-part documentary series that was
directed by Henry Hampton. The series focused on the history of the civil rights movement
taking place in the United States during that era. For the purpose of my paper, I chose to observe,
study and analyze the third episode in the series, titled, “Aint Scared of Your Jails.” This episode
highlighted the events occurring in America between 1960-1961 regarding the basic freedoms in
which African Americans were fighting for at the time. The third installation of the series covers
some major turning points in the movement, such as the boycotts in Nashville, the segregation of
schools in Tennessee, and the heroic efforts of the Freedom Riders.
The episode starts on February 1st, 1960, this was the day when one tiny spark started a
chain reaction of events that eventually turned into a full-blown wildfire. The very first “sit-in”
took place on this day, when four young African American men refused to leave the lunch
counter at a local restaurant. These men were trained to not use violence no matter what
happened and remained silent and calm the whole time despite being told to leave as well as
physically harassed. The courageous acts of these men inspired more students to become
involved in activism and civil rights. They became most drawn to Jim Lawson and his
workshops on “nonviolent direction action” which taught students how to “take the blows” and
still remain levelheaded during altercations. Shortly after the first sit-in occurred, three students
by the names of; John Lewis, Angela Butler, and Diane Nash led Nashville students to their very
own sit-in. These acts of defiance would continue for 2 weeks without incident, until on
February 27th, gangs started to gather downtown to confront the peaceful demonstrators. With
the police nowhere to be found during this, the African American people were in serious danger.
Despite being violently attacked, the students stayed true to their code of no-violence and did not
fight the thugs back, eventually, police showed, and 80 demonstrators were taken into custody
for disorderly conduct. The students were found guilty of the charges and were now doing jail
time. As a result of this, black merchants decided to do their part and they served food to them in
jail. People of the community also sold property that they owned for bail money. Which I
thought was amazing because it shows a lot about people and what lengths people will go to to
achieve a common goal. After the arrests took place, the boycotts started. The African American
community was fed up and decided to stop supporting the national chains that discriminated
against blacks altogether, which would cost the city in turn around 10 million dollars of revenue.
Now the movement began to pick up steam and it started to receive national attention, in only 2
months since the first sit-in had occurred. 69 cities now followed suit and demonstrated their
own boycotts and around 2,000 demonstrators had been arrested because of this. At this point
fear was starting to creep into both sides, shops began to close in fear of violence and people
stopped going out. African Americans who worked downtown were easy targets for violence and
2. often were attacked by mobs. Tensions between the two ethnic groups reached its climax when
on April 19th, 1960 a stick of dynamite was thrown at the house of Z. Alexander Looby’s house-
a black city councilman- it is a miracle no one was killed in this attack but his house was
destroyed.
With the city at threat of being torn apart by its own residents, Reverend C. T. Vivian took
the stand in front of a crowd of 4,000 people who had marched on Jefferson avenue earlier that
day. C.T. condemned the mayor of Nashville, Ben West, for his failure to speak about the issues
at hand. Diane Nash (prominent activist) pushed Ben West to take a personal stand on the matter.
Diane Nash went on to pressure the mayor into revealing his feeling’s about the events taking
place where he eventually answered by saying “I could not agree that it was morally right for
someone to sell them merchandise and refuse them service.” He received a lot of criticism for
this stance, but it was the push that the students needed to motivate them to make a real
difference because now they were backed by the mayor. A few weeks after this statement, black
students were served lunch downtown for the first time ever while at the same moment,
Nashville student activist decided to form the “Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC)” which can slightly be compared to the modern-day, BLM since it was comprised of
mainly young people trying to make a difference while remaining peaceful. Later that year, JFK
beats out Richard Nixon for the presidency by only a margin of 0.17 percent, Kennedy was well-
liked by African Americans at the time because he advocated for the release of MLK earlier that
year. The start of his term was not going well as he was failing to fulfill his promises that he
made to the black community, mainly regarding housing and travel. It was now 1961 and black
people were still forced to sit in the back of the bus, JFK was not pushing hard enough to come
through on the statements that got him elected. James Farmer decided to take matters into his
own hands and organize the “Freedom rides”, James knew the administration had the power to
force southern states to obey a law, he just needed to get them to act on that power. His plan was
simple, have an interracial group that switches roles when it came to where they sat on the bus
and the rooms they waited in, eventually, the racist will create a crisis and the government will
impose federal law. So, on May 4th, 1961 2 buses left from Washington DC with the goal to
reach New Orleans, tragedy struck on May 14th when the first bus was firebombed in
Birmingham, Alabama and the other was met and stopped by members of the KKK. The
Alabama governor, John Patterson blamed the Freedom Riders by saying they deserved it
because “they seek the hip of the police but are the first to criticize the police when they arrive.”
After the attacks, the core riders left on a plane because the drivers refused to give them rides,
the students in the SNCC stayed however because they believed that if they bow to violence
now, it will forever give the impression that all you have to do is attack an idea that you don’t
like in order to get rid of it. This is when the Nashville Mayor decided to get involved in the
cause and made demands that if the state could not protect American citizens, it becomes a
federal responsibility. So, on May 20th, Alabama agreed to provide protection to the Freedom
Riders, which included a private plane flying over the bus and a police patrol car every 15-20
miles. This sense of security was shorted lived however and after they reached about 30 miles
out of the city their protection vanished, and the freedom Riders were attacked at a bus station by
a mob of angry white people. The first to exit the bus was a white man by the name of Jim
Zwerg, Jim was instantly attacked by the mob who completely put all interest on him, allowing
3. other freedom fighters such as, Frederick Leonard enough time to flee. In the hospital, Jim said
to a reporter that the freedom ride would not end and that they were willing to accept death in
order to ride freely. Robert Kennedy then ordered 600 US Marshalls to protect the SNCC
members, shortly after this order MLK flew into speech at a church in Alabama. It wasn’t long
until a mob had formed outside the church and tear gas began to fly in. MLK would not give in,
and told the audience members to “Fear not, we’ve gone too far to turn back, let us be calm, we
are not afraid, and we shall overcome.” At 2 am that night, the governor ordered marshal law
into effect and the members of the church were safe. The newly protected Freedom Riders
continued their journey to Jackson, Mississippi where the joy was short-lived, James Farmer and
the other fighters were arrested and sentenced to 60 days in jail on May 24th, without the judge
even willing to listen to their testimonies. By the end of the summer 300 total more had been
arrested, while Robert Kennedy pushed the ICC to issue regulations on segregation of interstate
travel. Finally, in late September the students had won their battle and become heroes of the civil
rights movement when the Commerce Commission banned segregation of people during
interstate travel.
Some of the major themes of this episode that I noticed while watching were, Power vs
Powerlessness (White vs Black), Social Injustice via segregation and the mistreatment of African
Americans, the use of mass demonstrations to accomplish a goal, and the theme of Age is Just a
Number demonstrated by the young college students who did not make age an excuse to not be
able to make a difference in the world. Through these themes and a great explanation of the
events that occurred, I was able to learn so much new information about American history that I
previously was blind to. I knew about segregation and the issues it caused; however, I was never
was taught about the Freedom Riders and the events that took place with them. All the chaos
they went through and the things they endured were so insane that I think even a Hollywood
director couldn’t have written a script like that. It was also new information to me that JFK was
essentially the one who bailed MLK out of jail and that he won the election by such a narrow
margin, makes me think about how history could be much different if Nixon would have become
president instead.
Many of the events of 1960-1961 have comparative qualities in stuff that is happening in
society today. The first minor comparison that stood out to me was the link between segregation
in 1960 and one of the issues that Transgender people experience now. When the sit-ins began
many white people took offense because they believed it was a violation of their rights to have to
speak and treat someone a certain way even if they don’t want to. This draws a parallel to what is
going on when people misgender someone on purpose in modern society, people who are
opposed or bigoted towards trans people often argue that they feel it’s against their own moral
code and personal rights to have to call someone something that they don’t want to. Another
example in which the events back then compared to today is the effect mass media has on the
entire movement. TV’s were starting to become common in most households and it gave the
world a chance to see the civil unrest and violence with their own eyes, today with social media
we see much more and from every angle imaginable, both now and in 1960 media was playing a
massive role in disrupting information to people that may have been left in the dark. Lastly, I
mentioned earlier in my summary, the development of the SNCC in 1960 is comparable to BLM.
4. The SNCC group was formed by a couple of young college students in 1960, BLM was also
started by a handful of young kids after the George Zimmerman shooting. Both of these groups
believe that young people have immense power to shift the way society thinks and works. The
two also are both nonviolent in their orientation but seek more militant style protest. The civil
rights events in 1960 were also very different from what is happening in modern times. Some
discrepancies include, racism was openly practiced and apart of the law in 1960, the protest were
much more violent back in the ’60s, and also there is no clear-cut leader of BLM, like MLK was
for the civil rights movement during that time.
Overall, I enjoyed every second of the third episode in the “Eyes on the Prize” series. It
was able to open my eyes to new information about the civil rights movement that I previously
had no knowledge about, it also went into great depth and detail, by showcasing the major events
that ended up having a chain reaction effect on society between the years 1960 and 1961. When I
compare it to today’s society, I think it is clear to everyone that immense progress has been made
since the ’60s regarding racial injustice. People now of all colors can eat, travel, and hang out
wherever they please without facing legal action. With that being said, many racial problems
from 1960 have been able to survive into modern society and the year 2021. It is imperative that
we try our hardest as citizens to make the next big push in the civil rights movement and get rid
of all this lingering hate that still casts a shadow over this otherwise, fantastic country.
