It’s been 57 years since Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. For some, his death anniversary is a moment of reflection on his life’s work and the ongoing fight for equality.
Before he died in 1968, King joined the Chicago Freedom Movement in the summer of 1965, working alongside educator and organizer Al Raby, and labor and civil rights leaders Rev. Dr. Addie L. Wyatt and Rev. Jesse Jackson. The campaign challenged the city’s deep-seated racism and discrimination in housing, education and employment, laying the groundwork for the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
“Dr. King’s legacy illustrates that our politics can evolve, that we can evolve and our thinking and action can evolve,” longtime community activist, scholar and Black Youth Project (BYP100) founding national director Charlene Carruthers told The TRiiBE. “We can always continue to move farther left in service of more robust freedom dreams and movements for liberation.”
That legacy and the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement are at the center of Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest, the latest installment of the historic and award-winning Eyes on the Prize documentary series. Debuted on Feb. 25, part three is currently streaming on HBO Max.
First released in 1987, the original series chronicled key moments of the Civil Rights Movement from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the 1950s to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The second installment, Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads, followed King, Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, the Black Power Movement and the Chicago election of Mayor Harold Washington in 1983.
In this new third chapter, executive producer Dawn Porter — also known for documentaries Luther: Never Too Much (2024) and John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020) — builds on the legacy of the original Eyes on the Prize series, highlighting grassroots activists, organizers, and community leaders from 1977 to 2015.
Part three’s final episode — titled “What Comes After Hope?” — examines the myth of a post-racial America after the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama, as well as the emergence of two leftist movements: Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. The film traces the connectivity of organizing efforts in response to the deaths of Trayvon Martin in Florida, Mike Brown in Missouri, and Rekia Boyd in Chicago.
The episode features local organizers and activists, including Carruthers, Breanna Champion, Asha Ransby-Sporn, Damon Williams, Johnaé Strong and Dr. Cathy Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
“This is the most comprehensive telling of our movement formations,” Let Us Breathe Collective founding member and Respair Production & Media co-founder Damon Williams said.
Williams built the #LetUsBreathe Collective through mutual aid and its support of organizing groups in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police murder of Mike Brown.
“It was both gratifying and emotional, and even sometimes weighted to see these images of my peers and loved ones and of Ferguson all these years later, and just the knowing that I celebrate what we have done and the impact we made in the world,” he added.
The TRiiBE caught up with Carruthers, Williams and Champion after the release of Eyes on the Prize III. Read our conversation below.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What does being part of this newest Eyes on the Prize iteration mean to you?
Charlene Carruthers: Having the opportunity to join or participate in the Eyes on the Prize documentary took me back to my own childhood and [time] as a college student. I used Eyes on the Prize as an educational tool as an educator. Wow, to be a part of this legacy and add to the story through my own personal experiences and the movements I’ve been a part of is an honor.
Damon Williams: It’s surreal. I could first think of [myself as a] little boy. My mom forced me to watch stuff like Eyes on the Prize with the intention of wanting me to be in that responsibility, not thinking that there would ever be a continuation of it. There’s the little boy in me who feels like I made my mom and dad proud.
Breanna Champion: I’m beyond honored to be considered an unsung hero in our fight for liberation and freedom. It also holds me accountable to this work even more. It reminds us of what we’ve done, what we have left to do, and what future generations will carry on.
Describe what you felt as you watched the Eyes on the Prize episode you’re featured in.
CC: As a historian and someone who was part of that particular movement era, I was surprised at how thorough it was in such a short amount of time. I was also really, really happy to see the Dream Defenders centered. They deserve to be centered in understanding our era of movement.
DW: It was both gratifying and emotional, and even sometimes weighted to see these images of my peers and loved ones and of Ferguson all these years later. I celebrate what we have done and the impact we made in the world, but this history is not celebratory. A lot of people hold a lot of weight and a lot of pain.
BC: I was able to share my experience organizing in Chicago, and I felt proud about it. I’m truly impressed by it. I learned so much from the documentary about what has been done and what still needs to be done, and what’s repeating itself today, in our current political landscape. It’s just a nice capsule of the fight to be free and be liberated from the powers that be. And it’s also a nice study tool.
What do you hope people take away as they view the episode that you’re featured in?
DW: The importance that Chicago and Black Chicago, our cousins in St. Louis and Florida, have had on this country. Those three places are hot spots that have informed where we are in terms of the language we use and how we understand what is and what isn’t acceptable. But also the political backlash that we’re seeing.
The organizing in Chicago didn’t start with Occupy Wall Street; it started with [former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s] school closings [in 2013]. So we can make a straight line from that organizing to going into this radical movement formation, which then was a lot of the electoral muscle of the Brandon Johnson mayoral campaign. A lot of the anti-woke, anti-DEI, fascist, anti-trans forefronting is a response or a backlash to this work.
CC: Black people have not ever left it up to other people to figure out our liberation. There have always been people within our communities who have said, “This isn’t OK, and we’re going to take organized action to change it.” I think that’s especially important right now, where folks are trying to push this narrative that Black people are sitting it out and that’s not happening.
Before this [third] installment of Eyes on the Prize even existed, we were fortunate to have [historical] accounting of our people’s work because so many communities didn’t have this. This iteration doesn’t include everything, but how fortunate are we to have that for our children and for our people? I feel really grateful to have that.
BC: I want people to connect their lived experiences to people in the film. [For me and my friends and comrades, [I want us] to know that we’re not these exceptional superheroes that are unique. What we were doing was just building [upon] a legacy of hundreds of freedom fighters before us. People watching also could and should be a part of that legacy as well. I hope they see that we need each other in this fight to overcome the oppressions we all are experiencing. It takes a collective of us all coming together, sharing our stories, and fighting against the powers that be to change it. I hope some people see it as a call to action, or if not, they’re inspired by it in that they feel called to show up in their world, in their capacity, in whatever way that is.
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