Overview:
For this assignment, you should watchEyes on The Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, Episode 1 or 2 (or both, you choose).
To use the streaming service provided by The University of Memphis, go to memphis.kanopy.com. You will need to create an account using your memphis.edu credentials. This is a FREE service provided by UofM. You do not need to pay for it! It is basically like Netflix for documentaries, but the university pays for our subscription. Find the University of Memphis from the list of subscribers. Use your memphis.edu email to create your account. Follow the steps promoted by kanopy.com to set up your account.
Then, search for either:
Awakenings 1954-1956 or Fighting Back 1957-1962
Episode Descriptions & Reflection Prompts: Eyes on The Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years
Note: You do not have to answer each of these reflection prompts. Just use them to get you thinking. The questions are based on Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years Discussion Guide (2006). Choose one episode to watch and use the prompts to help with your reflection.
Episode 1 – Awakenings 1954-1956: Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: MoseWright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
https://memphis.kanopy.com/video/awakenings
Reflection Prompts:
• Segregation, a social system based on a long history of prejudices and discrimination, was deeply entrenched in people’s minds as well as in the culture. How did segregation manifest itself in daily life in the South? How did segregation disenfranchise black Americans? How does this still affect issues of racial equality today?
• Why do you think the lynching of Emmett Till became a catalyst in the national movement for civil rights? Do you see any parallels to today’s fight for civil rights? In what ways?
• Till’s uncle, Mose Wright, would not go to the police. In a democracy, what institutions are responsible for protecting the vulnerable? What options do individuals and groups have when these institutions cannot be trusted?
• Why do you think Rosa Parks became a symbol of the civil rights movement? Why did so many people identify with her cause? How did that identification build support for the emerging movement?
• What ideology do White Supremacists espouse? Who were/are they?
