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Eyes on the Prize: The Time Has Come (1964-1966) [VHS]

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Eyes on the Prize is certainly on of the best television programs ever made. It is absolutely riveting to watch - something really rare for documentaries.

THE TIME HAS COME (1964-1966) is program 7 in the series - and one of the best episodes. It focuses on MALCOLM X, BLACK PANTHERS, and STOKELY CARMICHAEL.

In the South and in the urban North, leaders emerged who articulated the black communities' sense of urgency and anger. THese were voices who helped tranform the civil rights movement into a broader struggle for human rights, an dfor tru equality and economic jstice. These leaders called for different tactics, and their message was direct - "The Time Has Come."

The u rgency was best articulated by Malcolm X, then the National Minister of the Nation of Islam. His eloquence gave renewed voice to the issues of racial soldarity, economic self-sufficiency, black pride, and self-defense. Exhorting African Americans to guild a base of power independent of whites, Malcolm X struck a chord that still reverberates.

This episode reveals how Malcolm X's beliefs influnced the Student Nonviolent Coordinationg Committee (SCCC) in Alabama, as the young activists helped launch a political perty independent of the Alabama Democratic Party (the Black Panthers). The influence of Malcolm X could also be heard in the call for Black Power by the SNCC's young chairman, Stokely Carmichael. This documentary also follows in detail the "March Against Fear". The march was first started by James Meredith, who wanted to march across Mississippi to protest the lack of human rights in the segregated state. Meredith was shot just after he began his march. As a result, movement leaders gathered from around the country to continue Meredith's efforts: "March Against Fear", one of the largest and most important marches of the civil rights movement (also one of the last major marches).