Facing History and Ourselves is part of a national outreach campaign being managed by Blackside, the producer of Eyes on the Prize, the most comprehensive television documentary ever produced on the American civil rights movement. The initiative brings together a group of partners to undertake considerable outreach to students, teachers, and communities across the country, in support of the first six hours of the series’ historic rebroadcast on PBS’s American Experience on October 2, 9, and 16. An additional 8 hours will be available at a later date.
Facing History and Ourselves has a long history with both education about the civil rights movement and the series Eyes on the Prize, which continues to inform its work today. Henry Hampton, the founder of Blackside was a longtime member of Facing History's national board of trustees. Facing History also played a key role in the educational outreach during the film's initial release. In recent years, its educator workshops and community events have included many of the people featured in the series, including Congressman John Lewis, Elizabeth Eckford, Terrence Roberts, Bob Moses, and Alvin Poussaint.
In addition to inviting civil rights leaders to speak in workshops and community events, Facing History has developed rich resources on particular aspects of the Movement. The story of the integration of Little Rock Central High School is one of the three stories portrayed in its national traveling Choosing to Participate exhibition and the accompanying study guide as well as in its newest publication,Choices in Little Rock, which has been adopted as a key component of the civics curriculum for all 8th graders in the Boston Public Schools.
Acknowledgements
The re-release of Eyes on the Prize was made possible by grants from The Ford Foundation and The Gilder Foundation. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funding a national outreach campaign managed by Blackside that is a collaborative effort of three outreach providers: Outreach Extensions, Facing History and Ourselves, and the National Black Programming Consortium.
