This is the definitive multi-part documentary on the civil rights movement. Across multiple discs the episodes include:
Awakenings (1954-1956) : Covers two events that helped to focus the nation's attention on the rights of black Americans: the 1955 lynching in Mississippi of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the 1955-56 Montgomery, Ala. boycott. Also shows southern race relations at mid-century and witnesses the awakening of individuals to their own courage and power.
Fighting back (1957-1962) : Covers stories detailing the confrontation between state and federal governments over enforcement of the law of equality, which marked an escalation in the struggle for civil rights from which there was no turning back.
Mississippi : is this America ? (1962-1964) : Focuses on the right to vote. Tells how the black citizens who had been denied the right to vote stepped forward and demanded a place in the political process. Medgar Evers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and others, died trying to help them. Shows the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the 1964 Democratic Party Convention.
Bridge to freedom (1965) : When civil rights protesters marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama were assaulted by police, national outrage over the brutality led to President Johnson providing the protection of federal troops, and ultimately to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Power! (1966-1968) : Across America, the call for "Black Power" mobilizes communities for change in strikingly different ways as told through the perspectives of Black Panther Party members, teachers, and politicians.
Promised land (1967-1968) : Hear leaders and activists reflect on Martin Luther Kings, Jr's crusade to overcome the fragmenting civil rights movement.
Recommended by Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development (Justified Anger) and YWCA Madison
