Eyes on the Prize backdrop
Documentary

The Best Episodes of Eyes on the Prize

Every episode of Eyes on the Prize ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Eyes on the Prize!

Binge this in 14h 0m•Peaking at 8.8/10

The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a

Airs on
PBS
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons2

All12

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Click to reveal
    Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 5 - Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More, 1964-1972
    8.8/10(23 votes)

    #1 - Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More, 1964-1972

    S2:E5

    A call to pride and a renewed push for unity galvanize black America. World heavyweight champion Cassius Clay challenges America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, a minister of Islam who refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., fight to bring the growing black consciousness movement and their African heritage inside the walls of this prominent black institution. Black elected officials and community activists organize the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, in an attempt to create a unified black response to growing repression against the movement.

    Director:Sam Pollard
    Writer:Sam Pollard

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 4 - The Promised Land, 1967-1968
    8.7/10(21 votes)

    #2 - The Promised Land, 1967-1968

    S2:E4

    Martin Luther King stakes out new ground for himself and the rapidly fragmenting civil rights movement. One year before his death, he publicly opposes the war in Vietnam. His Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) embarks on an ambitious Poor People's Campaign. In the midst of political organizing, King detours to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis, where he is assassinated. King's death and the failure of his final campaign mark the end of a major stream of the movement.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 6 - A Nation of Law?, 1967-1968
    8.7/10(26 votes)

    #3 - A Nation of Law?, 1967-1968

    S2:E6

    Black activism is increasingly met with a sometimes violent and unethical response from local and federal law enforcement agencies. In Chicago, two Black Panther Party leaders are killed in a pre-dawn raid by police acting on information supplied by an FBI informant. In the wake of President Nixon's call to "law and order," stepped-up arrests push the already poor conditions at New York's Attica State Prison to the limit. A five-day inmate takeover calling the public's attention to the conditions leaves 43 men dead: four killed by inmates, 39 by police.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 2 - Two Societies, 1965-1968
    8.6/10(20 votes)

    #4 - Two Societies, 1965-1968

    S2:E2

    Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) come north to help Chicago's civil rights leaders in their nonviolent struggle against segregated housing. Their efforts pit them against Chicago's powerful mayor, Richard Daley. When a series of marches through all-white neighborhoods draws violence, King and Daley negotiate with mixed results. In Detroit, a police raid in a black neighborhood sparks an urban uprising that lasts five days, leaving 43 people dead. The Kerner Commission finds that America is becoming "two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." President Lyndon Johnson, who appointed the commission, ignores the report.

    Director:Sam Pollard
    Writer:Sam Pollard

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 3 - Power! 1967-1968
    8.6/10(23 votes)

    #5 - Power! 1967-1968

    S2:E3

    The call for Black Power takes various forms across communities in black America. In Cleveland, Carl Stokes wins election as the first black mayor of a major American city. The Black Panther Party, armed with law books, breakfast programs, and guns, is born in Oakland. Substandard teaching practices prompt parents to gain educational control of a Brooklyn school district but then lead them to a showdown with New York City's teachers' union.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 7 - The Keys to the Kingdom, 1974-1980
    8.6/10(22 votes)

    #6 - The Keys to the Kingdom, 1974-1980

    S2:E7

    In the 1970s, antidiscrimination legal rights gained in past decades by the civil rights movement are put to the test. In Boston, some whites violently resist a federal court school desegregation order. Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, proves that affirmative action can work, but the Bakke Supreme Court case challenges that policy.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Eyes on the Prize

    READ
  7. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 8 - Back to the Movement, 1979-mid 1980s
    8.6/10(20 votes)

    #7 - Back to the Movement, 1979-mid 1980s

    S2:E8

    Power and powerlessness. Miami's black community -- pummeled by urban renewal, a lack of jobs, and police harassment -- explodes in rioting. But in Chicago, an unprecedented grassroots movement triumphs. Frustrated by decades of unfulfilled promises made by the city's Democratic political machine, reformers install Harold Washington as Chicago's first black mayor.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. Eyes on the Prize Season 1 Episode 1 - Awakenings, 1954-1956
    8.5/10(53 votes)

    #8 - Awakenings, 1954-1956

    S1:E1

    Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till, and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.

    Director:Judith Vecchione
    Writer:Judith Vecchione

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. Eyes on the Prize Season 1 Episode 4 - No Easy Walk, 1962-1966
    8.5/10(43 votes)

    #9 - No Easy Walk, 1962-1966

    S1:E4

    The civil rights movement discovers the power of mass demonstrations as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges as its most visible leader. Some demonstrations succeed; others fail. But the triumphant March on Washington, D.C., under King's leadership, shows a mounting national support for civil rights. President John F. Kennedy proposes the Civil Rights Act.

    Directors:Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney
    Writers:James A. DeVinney, Callie Crossley

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. Eyes on the Prize Season 1 Episode 6 - Bridge to Freedom, 1965
    8.5/10(60 votes)

    #10 - Bridge to Freedom, 1965

    S1:E6

    A decade of lessons is applied in the climactic and bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. A major victory is won when the federal Voting Rights Bill passes, but civil rights leaders know they have new challenges ahead.

    Directors:Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney
    Writers:James A. DeVinney, Callie Crossley

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. Eyes on the Prize Season 1 Episode 2 - Fighting Back, 1957-1962
    8.4/10(52 votes)

    #11 - Fighting Back, 1957-1962

    S1:E2

    States' rights loyalists and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High School, and again in James Meredith's 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi. Both times, a Southern governor squares off with a U.S. president, violence erupts -- and integration is carried out.

    Director:Judith Vecchione
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. Eyes on the Prize Season 1 Episode 5 - Mississippi, Is This America, 1962-1964
    8.4/10(50 votes)

    #12 - Mississippi, Is This America, 1962-1964

    S1:E5

    Mississippi's grass-roots civil rights movement becomes an American concern when college students travel south to help register black voters and three activists are murdered. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the regular Mississippi delegation at the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City.

    Director:Orlando Bagwell
    Writer:Steve Fayer

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. Eyes on the Prize Season 1 Episode 3 - Ain't Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961
    8.3/10(45 votes)

    #13 - Ain't Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961

    S1:E3

    Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement as lunch counter sit-ins spread across the South. "Freedom Riders" also try to desegregate interstate buses, but they are brutally attacked as they travel.

    Director:Orlando Bagwell
    Writer:Steve Fayer

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. Eyes on the Prize Season 2 Episode 1 - The Time Has Come, 1964-1965
    7.6/10(25 votes)

    #14 - The Time Has Come, 1964-1965

    S2:E1

    After a decade-long cry for justice, a new sound is heard in the civil rights movement: the insistent call for power. Malcolm X takes an eloquent nationalism to urban streets as a younger generation of black leaders listens. In the South, Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) move from "Freedom Now!" to "Black Power!" as the fabric of the traditional movement changes.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Best Episodes Summary

"Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More, 1964-1972" is the best rated episode of "Eyes on the Prize". It scored 8.8/10 based on 23 votes. Directed by Sam Pollard and written by Sam Pollard, it aired on 2/12/1990. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Promised Land, 1967-1968".