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“Hallowed Ground” director Sophia Nahli Allison and executive producer/interviewee Patrisse Cullors having a sit-down interview on set.
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New Documentary Uses Footage from Eyes on the Prize Interviews

By Andy Uhrich

On August 19th HBO Max premiered the documentary special Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground. The new program is directed by Sophia Nahli Allison who previously made the Academy Award-nominated short A Love Song for Latasha. Hallowed Ground is a celebration and update of the groundbreaking Civil Rights documentary series Eyes on the Prize, which was originally broadcast nationally as two seasons in 1987 and 1990 on PBS.

The new special uses clips from a variety of full-length interviews from Eyes on the Prize, which are stored at the Washington University Libraries as part of the Henry Hampton/Blackside Inc. collection. Over the last decade, the Libraries has preserved and digitized all of the interviews thanks to grants from the Mellon Foundation, NHPRC, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

View all of the interviews from the first series of Eyes on the Prize. The Washington University Libraries is putting the finishing touches on the 183 interviews that were created for the second series of Eyes. These should be up online later this year.

To provide access to all of the interviews used in Hallowed Ground, the Washington University Libraries are, for the first time, making the entire full-length interviews with Elaine Brown, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Laverne Barkley, Ruby Sales, and Angela Davis available.

Full-length interview with Bobby Seale produced for “Eyes on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985.” Recorded on November 4, 1988. Digitized and restored thanks to funds from the NEH. The transcript is available at Eyes on the Prize Interviews Series II.

All six interviews can be watched on the University Libraries’ Online Repository. These interviews were originally conducted by Eyes on the Prize producers in 1988 and 1989. The interviewees discuss topics including the murder of activist Jonathan Daniels in Alabama on August 20, 1965, the rise of the Black Panther Party, and the revolution at Attica Prison in 1971.

Header image: “Hallowed Ground” director Sophia Nahli Allison and executive producer/interviewee Patrisse Cullors.