Eyes on the Prize Interview Transcripts Now Available Online

Full-text transcripts of interviews conducted for the documentary film series Eyes on the Prize are now available online at http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eop/index.html. A 14-part documentary that premiered in 1987, Eyes on the Prize is still regarded as the authoritative film on the U.S. civil rights movement. It was produced by Blackside, Inc., which was founded by Washington University alumnus Henry Hampton and became the largest African-American-owned film production company of its time.

The transcripts include interviews with civil rights activists and opponents, politicians, and everyday people who in one way or another were involved in the civil rights struggle, including Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, Coretta Scott King, Governor George Wallace, and James Farmer. Only a small portion of the interviews made it into the documentary. Until now, the remaining interviews have been unavailable to researchers.

Interested faculty and students will find that the full-text transcripts are “searchable” using simple and advanced searching techniques. At present, the database contains transcripts for all filmed interviews conducted for "Eyes I," the first six episodes, which cover the years 1954 to 1965. The database is part of Washington University's Digital Gateway and was produced by Digital Library Services and the Film and Media Archive.

The Eyes on the Prize interviews are part of the larger Henry Hampton Collection, which includes all materials created or used during the production of Blackside's many films. The Hampton Collection resides at the University Libraries’ Film and Media Archive, located at the West Campus Library.

{¹ Marion Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, being interviewed by Henry Hampton for Eyes on the Prize. Photo by Blackside, Inc., courtesy of Washington University Libraries.}