Participate
Public Servants and Segregationists
Eyes I begins with the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and ends with the passage of civil rights legislation in 1965.62 Hampton and his crew understood that these events did not mark either the beginning and the end of the fight for Black rights; however, they are significant milestones in the Eyes story. Political and legislative victories were important to Hampton, as was the work of the public servants whose efforts Eyes I showcases.
One such public servant was John Doar, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division from 1960 to 1967. During his time in the Justice Department, he investigated violations of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, an important precedent to the 1964 Act. Nicholas Katzenbach was Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1961 to 1962, Deputy Attorney General from 1962 to 1965, and Attorney General of the United States from 1965 to 1966. He later became Under Secretary of State. One of Katzenbach's most significant contributions to civil rights history was his part in drafting the Voting Rights Act.63
Of course, not all the public officials Hampton and his crew interviewed helped advance the cause of racial justice. The interviews Blackside conducted with the politicians and law enforcement officials who opposed the civil rights fight are among the most compelling and disturbing in the collection. Many of these formerly avowed segregationists are evasive in their interviews; however, some of them voice troubling ideas rooted in the racist ideology of Jim Crow.
Segregationists—and former segregationists—whose interviews appear in this collection include Joseph Smitherman, mayor of Selma, Alabama; Sheriff Melvin Bailey, who worked with Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor in Birmingham, Alabama; and Chief of Police Laurie Pritchett of Albany, Georgia. Connor attempted to quell the civil rights struggle using aggressive methods like siccing police dogs on protesters and blasting them with fire hoses. In contrast, Pritchett tried to outwit civil rights leaders by schooling himself in the tactics of nonviolence. Connor's and Pritchett's different strategies are compared in episode four of Eyes on the Prize, "No Easy Walk (1961–1963)."
The Interviews
Blackside interviewed the following politicians, law enforcement, and government officials. This list also includes those involved with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), which challenged the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party delegation at the Democratic National Convention in 1964. Although these activists were not government-appointed or elected politicians, they played a critical role in the civil rights movement's political history, which is why they are included here.
Like other sections of Freedom Song, the following list identifies interviewees based on the positions they held between the years 1954 to 1965, the period covered by Eyes I:
Victoria Gray Adams: Ran for the United States Senate in 1964; led the MFDP
Melvin Bailey: Sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama
Unita Blackwell: Member of the MFDP delegation that attended the Democratic National Convention in 1964
Herbert Brownell: Attorney General under President Dwight D. Eisenhower
James Clark: Sheriff of Selma, Alabama
William Coleman: Appointed by President Eisenhower to the President's Commission of Employment Policy
Courtland Cox: MFDP delegate
Annie Devine: Founded the MFDP with Fannie Lou Hammer and Victoria Gray Adams
Charles Diggs: Served in the Michigan State Senate and United States House of Representatives
John Doar: Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division
Orval Faubus: Governor of Arkansas; attempted to bar the integration of Little Rock Central High School
Lawrence Guyot: Chairman of the MFDP and delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention
Erle Johnston: Director of public relations and later executive director of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
Nicholas Katzenbach: Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, 1961 to 1962, Deputy Attorney General, 1962 to 1965, and U.S. Attorney General beginning in 1965
Floyd Mann: Director of Alabama's Department of Public Safety; charged with protecting the safety of the Freedom Riders
Burke Marshall: Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
John McLaurin, Sr.: Mississippi state senator and member of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
Walter Mondale: Minnesota Attorney General and United States senator
Robert Moses: Active in the formation of the MFDP
Constance Baker Motley: (1985; 1986): First African-American female senator in the New York State Senate, 1964 to 1965; first African-American woman elected to the presidency of the Manhattan borough
John Patterson: Attorney General and later Governor of Alabama
Laurie Pritchett: Chief of Police of Albany, Georgia
John Seigenthaler: Administrative Assistant to U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
Joseph Smitherman: Mayor of Selma, Alabama
George Wallace: Governor of Alabama
Paul E. Wilson: Assistant Attorney General for the State of Kansas
John Minor Wisdom: Federal judge, Fifth Circuit Court
Harris Wofford: Legal assistant to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President Eisenhower; special assistant on civil rights under President John F. Kennedy
Ralph W. Yarborough: United States Senator from Texas
Next: Media and the Press
