Civil Rights Movement

I’ve always been interested in the civil rights movement and the general movement for social change. As I’ve read books on the people who’ve participated in the fight for equal rights, one name kept popping up who inspired many of these people to become active. Bayard Rustin is not as well known as Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, yet he played an important part in the middle of the twentieth century in organizing protests for civil rights and for anti war causes, and he helped bring Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence into the mainstream of American progressive thought. His work on behalf of important progressive causes was informed by his Quaker faith, and his activism helped improve American society by tearing down segregation in the South and bringing to the forefront issues of economic justice and world peace.

Today, on my first work day back from vacation, I ran into a great PBS documentary series that is now out on DVD. The documentary is called Eyes On The Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement and it chronicles the landmark civil rights events from 1954 to 1985 in the eyes of the participants of the events.  I watched this documentary series during the 1980s, and it had a profound effect on the way I thought and saw the world.  I learned a lot about the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and the whole breadth of leaders and the unknown individuals who made up the movement.  The series was produced by Blackside, and its creator, Henry Hampton, is recognized as one of the world's most acclaimed documentary filmmakers.  This series was my first exposure to the intricacies of popular movements of change, and it cemented my liberal political point of view.