Eyes On The Prize III: We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015, executive-produced by Dawn Porter, continues in the tradition of the original series, whose first season ran on PBS in 1987 (the second season ran in 1990, also on PBS). As with the original, the series chronicles people and groups who took big chances and risks in order to fight for the civil rights of people of color. As the title of this series states, it will cover the time period from 1977 to 2015.
EYES ON THE PRIZE III: WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CANNOT REST 1977-2015: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A graphic discusses the original 1987 docuseries Eyes On The Prize, then says, “The series captured the rise of a movement that transformed America. But the struggle for equality continues.”
The Gist: The first episode of Eyes On The Prize III covers 1977-1988, couching the decade-plus in the plight of two cities: The South Bronx in 1977 and Philadelphia in 1988.
The story of the South Bronx in the ’70s has been documented before; entire neighborhoods were set on fire as building owners bought residential building stock for cheap and made a profit by making insurance claims on buildings that mysteriously burned down. One group, which named itself Banana Kelly Comunity Improvement Association after the crescent-shaped neighborhood on Kelly St., took it upon themselves to use “sweat equity” to renovate burned-out buildings; the people who worked on them co-operatively owned the building and the apartments they moved into. The efforts caught the attention of President Jimmy Carter, who visited the South Bronx in 1977, but predictably caught the ire of New York politicians and developers who equated “sweat equity” with “no profit potential.”
The episode then transitions to late ’80s Philadelphia and the fight mounted by Rashidah Abdul-Khabeer and others to bring awareness to the idea that HIV and AIDS were not just hitting the white LGBTQ community hard but was devastating the Black community in Philly, as well. She founded Bebashi, an organization that helps give people access to quality health care in places where it’s hard to find or afford.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Porter produced the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble, so if there’s anyone who can carry on the mantle of Eyes On The Prize, it’s Porter.
Our Take: The structure of Eyes On The Prize III is interesting, especially the time period that it covers. It’s not trying to tell a staight-line history of what obstacles and victories the civil rights movement had in the past half-century, but discuss it by way of categories. It’s why the time spread of each of the six episodes is so wide and often overlaps. But, like the original, is more concerned with the histories of individual personalities and movements that illustrate the best of the movement.
Episode three, for instance, is all about the Million Man March, which took place in October, 1995, and it was designed to help change the image of Black men in American society. Participants in the march are interviewed about how the march transformed their lives 30 years ago.
Other episodes are about criminal justice, about the environmental movement, and affirmative action. The final episode covers Barack Obama’s presidency, and how the struggle continued despite the presence of the first Black president.
The format really drives home the sometimes-herculean effort that these individuals and groups needed to expend in order to make things better for the people they were serving, and how much opposition they got. It could have been the 1980 scene where a campaigning Ronald Reagan literally yelling to be heard amongst a South Bronx crowd telling him that they still need federal help, or an interview with WIlson Goode, the mayor of Philadelphia in the latter part of the ’80s, looking back on the city’s response to the AIDS crisis. But at every turn there’s stark evidence of what these groups faced.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Abdul-Khabeer gets emotional when talking about “not wanting to go to another funeral” during the height of the AIDS crisis.
Sleeper Star: Whoever procured the footage of Reagan losing his cool in the face of the crowd in the South Bronx should be lauded, because we almost never saw him loose his cool on the campaign trailer. We also never saw him get directly challenged like he was during that campaign stop.
Most Pilot-y Line: None.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Eyes On The Prize III: We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015 is a compelling companion series to the 1987 original, putting the civil rights movement into a modern context through the stories of the people at its forefront.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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