Examining all of the interviews created for one of the topics in a single episode of Eyes II shows the variety of viewpoints Blackside made sure to include in their documentary. Additionally, looking at these interviews as complete "questions and answer sessions", and not just the soundbites used in the episode, clarifies the facts and opinions they recorded on film but did not use in the finished program. This allows for insights into the Blackside production method and their viewpoints on important struggles in Civil Rights history, It also opens up a discussion of how these complete interviews can be used now for research, writings, and new documentaries expanding on the stories Eyes II told. It is important to note that while this is a closer look at episode seven, every episode of the second series is a very similar scenario: many, many hours of interview footage were shot and not included in the broadcast program.

As a case study, this page looks at the interviews used in episode 7, “The Keys to the Kingdom, 1974-1980” about the Boston Desegregation Crisis. The episode as a whole looks at three cases where white resistance to desegregation and affirmative action begins to limit the progress promised with the end of Jim Crow. In Boston in the fall of 1974, the public school system began busing children to schools in different neighborhoods as a way to end the racial imbalance and resulting inequitable access to a good education that existed in the city. Students from predominantly black neighborhoods were bused to predominantly white schools and vice-versa. This issue was very polarizing resulting in violent riots from the white community and altercations between students while in class.

The episode explores this controversy through its use of interviews with a wide variety of parents, students, educators, and community members. One of the producers of the episode, Jacqueline Shearer, would have prior knowledge of the controversy. In 1977 she released a short film entitled A Minor Altercation, which explores a fight between a Black and a white student  in Boston. She would conduct most of the interviews for the episode, putting her prior knowledge to work for Blackside.

The earliest treatments and scripts regarding this episode outline the route Blackside was wanting to take in terms of bringing the historical events from Boston to life. By framing the episode around the conflict in the 1970s and the issues of civil rights laws not being followed, Blackside would develop a clear theme: “black demands for substantive equity and white unwillingness to foot the bill," as stated in one of the preliminary treatments for the episode. It is through the interviews that the team at Blackside truly developed the story of the school desegregation process.

The crisis did not garner the same degree of attention as other events in the post-civil rights movement era, partially due to the association of the civil rights movement with the South and not the more urban northern cities. One of the interview subjects, Ruth Batson, even mentions this element of the struggle in her interview: white residents of Boston were confused as to why the separation of students was an issue as they felt like they were not engaging in the same level of anti-Black discrimination as they saw in the South on the nightly news.

Ruth Batson discusses her experience

in the fight for desegregation which

included, unfortuately, vitriolic hate mail,

as well as confusion from her own community

regarding the issues Boston was facing. 

An interview with white parent Jane Duwors

echoing a sentiment many white parents felt

at the time: that their kids were getting

the short end of the stick, while black children

just wanted, and deserved,

an equal educational experience.

Blackside also interviewed

white parents, such as Tracy Amalfitano,

who supported the integration of children. 

She would still send her son to school as other

white families participated in the boycott. 

Black parent Ellen Jackson shared

a personal anecdote about the shortcomings

of the school system for her own son. She would

also become an advocate for school desegregation. 

Juanita Wade was a black parent against

taking children out of their established community,

which is what began to happen during desegregation

as children were bused to different schools. 

Ruth Batson would become a staunch activist

for school desegregation as she worked closely

with the NAACP.  

According to a document listing the potential “cast” of the episode, there were eight other archival clips to potentially use in addition to the inteviews Blackside was planning to record. These clips were taken from other, external sources and were not necessarily formal interviews in the style of Blackside. However, the inclusion of these other sources allowed for Blackside to include perspectives they might have missed out on otherwise, such as those on the Boston Schools Committee like the infamous Louise Day Hicks, parents interviewed for the local news station after integration began, as well as the judge who was involved in the federal court order, Judge Arthur Garrity. This variety of resources allowed Blackside to have 16 different perspectives on various parts of the issue, both retrospective interviews they would conduct and news footage from the actual time period.

Ultimately, Blackside selected answers and sound-bites that could both illustrate the root causes of the conflict and clearly explain the different sides of the issue. In total, Blackside accumulated over six hours of interview footage they conducted themselves, however, the total amount of footage used within the episode clocks in at roughly 8 minutes and 8 seconds. In fact, that equates to about 3% of the total interview footage Blackside acquired. It hardly scratches the surface of the discussions they recorded on the topic.

As a result, there is a massive amount of information that never made it into the episode. Many of the interview clips used are broad statements pertaining to the issues, particularly from the voices of the parents. The full-length interviews are very detailed and offer a fascinating firsthand account of the controversy that could simply not be included in such a tightly edited episode.