Blackside constructed Eyes on the Prize out of five categories of media: actual footage and photographs of the specific events covered in the episodes (they made sure to never include generic b-roll), contemporaneous freedom songs and soul music, Julian Bond’s narration, and the new interviews they conducted. The interviews add personal testimony to Eyes on the Prize. They provide evidence about aspects of historical events not caught on news cameras or by photojournalists as well as offering an emotional understanding of the stories told in the episodes.

Blackside felt it important to interview people who were there and not contemporaneous scholars. This was a political act hidden within the sheen of a polished PBS documentary series. Blackside was telling the audience that the change brought on by the civil rights movement was made by regular citizens. The audience – and that includes you reading this and those of us who wrote this exhibit – have the same power to affect change. As such, Blackside interviewed a wide variety of individuals including well-known folks directly involved with the Movement and other political causes such as Bobby Seale, John Lewis, and Angela Davis. But they also interviewed regular citizens, such as Clory Bryant and her daughter Linda who lived in Cicero, Illinois, when Dr. King turned his attention north, and parents in Boston at the time of school desegregation such as Ellen Jackson and Juanita Wade. Blackside was well aware that the series would need to remain impartial to follow the journalistic standards of public television, and they let the interviews speak for themselves by gathering a variety of folks with different views. In doing so, Blackside was able to craftily make their stance known.

Blackside made sure to tell the story in a way that included protestors and law enforcement, those working to further desegregate America, as well as entrenched white communities concerned about giving up the benefits they accrued from segregation. The interviews reflect Blackside’s commitment to social justice and pushing America towards finally fulfilling its promise of freedom. But the reactionary opposition is an important part of the history of the civil rights movement, and Eyes on the Prize, especially Eyes II, depicts the successes of the movement as well as times when repressive forces stifled it.   

For Eyes II, Blackside adopted the process of conducting interviews that it developed for the first series. Once they narrowed down the subjects and events to be covered in each episode, producers began to reach out to potential interview candidates. There are countless letters, as well as notes scribbled down during phone calls showing this search process. After the initial phase of reaching out to individuals, Blackside staff and producers, often associate series producer Judy Richardson, conducted what they called pre-interviews. These were audio-only discussions not intended for broadcast. Blackside used these pre-interviews to gather more information to help write the episodes’ scripts, to learn about other people they should track down and interview, and to unofficially audition the pre-interviewee to interview on film in the next stage.

A memo sent in June of 1988 regarding telephone interview logs explains that the initial pre-interview call was a very important step for all of the teams working on Eyes II. The cassette tapes with the pre-interviews were either transcribed or summarized and then indexed in a way that any producer could use them for research purposes.

Some interviewees were sought after by different teams to use in their corresponding episodes. Field shoot information logs detail the inner workings of these shoots. Andrew Young, for example, was sought by teams A, B, and D and would require separate interviews within the course of a production day. The first interview was a collaboration between the teams, and their individual interviews were conducted after. Only 6 of the 183 interviews were joint efforts between teams. Using interviews in multiple episodes made sense when an individual was involved in a number of the historical events covered in Eyes II, but it was also a cost-saving method of filling up time in two different episodes from one single film shoot.

The production teams at Blackside were also proponents of authenticity, hoping to get real and spontaneous reactions from those they would interview. The fifth episode of the series, “Ain’t Gonna Shuffle No More, 1964-1972,” covers the student uprising at Howard University. During the production process, episode writer, director, and producer Sam Pollard was in correspondence with Charles Epps, the current Dean of the Howard University School of Medicine at the time. Upon Epps’ request for the interview questions, Pollard responds that they will only give Epps the potential subject areas, as Blackside preferred not to provide the actual questions as it “decreases the degree of true spontaneity”.  

The interviews would also evoke valuable responses and emotions which would add impact to the stories told in the episodes. When Sonia Sanchez, a New York City-based poet associated with the Black Arts Movement, tearfully recounts her hearing about Malcolm X’s assassination on the radio, she provides the viewer with an understanding of the power of his death that even archival photos and footage cannot. William Rutherford, executive of the Southern Christian Leadership conference and close confidant of Dr. King, shares personal stories about Dr. King, adding a level of intimacy to a figure who is too often over-mythologized. These types of moments were made possible by the connection that the interviewer and the rest of the Blackside staff established with the interviewee.

However, the interviews were not freeform discussions. Blackside interviewers knew what they wanted to get from the interviews. The interviews were structured affairs based on the research conducted in pre-production, information gathered from other pre-interviews, and the already written scripts. As a result, interviewers would subtly, or not so subtly, redirect the path the interview was taking based on what was necessary for the topics of the episodes and the stories Blackside wished to highlight. 

The clip of Carl Stokes demonstrates how the interviewer directed the interviewee. When Stokes begins answering the question, interviewer Louis Massiah intervenes when Stokes does not get to the point of the question immediately and asks him to answer again. This can be seen in the vast majority of the interviews.

What the interviewee said had to be able to be edited into a broadcast-quality documentary program. That meant the interviewee had to restate the question in their response and be concise in their answer. If not, problems could arise later in the editing room. Interviewers were very quick to speak up and ask the interviewee to repeat the answer, providing clear direction on how it should be said, even if it took the interviewee a few different times to reach the standards of the production team. 

The clip of Martin Luther King, Jr’s associate William Rutherford is an example of the interviewer asking the interviewee to restate the question asked in their answer in order to provide a clear and concise sound bite.

Accuracy was also a must for Blackside and they would fact-check the responses from interviewees if it was deemed necessary. When recounting the Cicero March for fair access to housing in the Chicago suburb, then resident Rosemary Porter stated that Dr. King was leading the march. That was a mistake although it was a common misconception. The clip below shows Porter’s initial answer, and then the interjection from the interviewer.  Interviewer Shelia Curran Bernard quickly stopped Proter before she could go any further, and asked her to restart.  

The interviews are an invaluable historical resource offering firsthand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power era covered in Eyes II. But they are also an example of efficient interviewing and information acquisition. By directing the interviewee in ways to have them say exactly the needed statement in the right way, their interviews would be easy to cut and format into the episodes.