WORLD Channel

Al Sharpton of the National Action Network talks about the progress of the nation even when it may seem America has not, and how #BlackLivesMatters must organize to be a sustainable, change affecting movement. From the WORLD Channel special, "Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now."

Filmmaker Henry Hampton was inspired to tell the history of the Civil Rights Movement from marching to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. For the black & white, men & women production team, the challenges of producing the six films for Series I of "Eyes on the Prize" ranged from budget to stories. This is the "Making Of." From the WORLD Channel special, "Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now."

A decade of lessons is applied in the peaceful-turned-climactic and bloody march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery. "Blood Sunday" leads to two additional marches, one symbolic and one full-scale, and a major victory: the Voting Rights Act is passed in 1965. But civil rights leaders know they have new challenges ahead. From the award-winning documentary series "Eyes on the Prize."

Mississippi's grassroots civil rights movement becomes an American concern when college students travel south to help register black voters; three activists - two white students and one black local - are murdered. The inclusive Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the Mississippi delegation at the Democratic Convention. From the award-winning documentary series "Eyes on the Prize."

The civil rights movement discovers the power of mass demonstrations with success and failure. Under the leadership of the very visible Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., the triumphant March on Washington, D.C. in 1963 shows a mounting national support for civil rights. And President John F. Kennedy proposes the Civil Rights Act. From the award-winning documentary series "Eyes on the Prize."

Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement; the lunch counter sit-in movement starts in Greensboro, North Carolina and spreads to 69 cities in the South. "Freedom Riders" try to desegregate interstate travel, which the Supreme has banned twice, but are brutally attacked as they travel through Alabama & Mississippi. From the award-winning series "Eyes on the Prize."

States' rights loyalists and federal authorities collide over integration and segregation; Arkansas' Central High School in 1957 (Little Rock Nine), and the University of Mississippi in 1962 (James Meredith). Both times, a Southern governor squares off with a U.S. president, violence erupts...and integration is carried out. From the award-winning documentary series "Eyes on the Prize."

A re-examination of the series, Eyes on the Prize, from the filmmakers’ perspective, and viewpoint of civil rights activists then and now. This intergenerational dialogue takes the civil rights movement and places it under a microscope – revisiting, reframing and re-asking key questions while contextualizing those issues in a contemporary way. Narrated by Aloe Blacc.

"Eyes on the Prize" is 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).

A re-examination of the series, Eyes on the Prize, from the filmmakers’ perspective, and viewpoint of civil rights activists then and now. This intergenerational dialogue takes the civil rights movement and places it under a microscope – revisiting, reframing and re-asking key questions while contextualizing those issues in a contemporary way. Narrated by Aloe Blacc.

"Eyes on the Prize" is 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).

A behind-the-scenes look at "Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now" with Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc, the narrator of the WORLD Channel special.