8.5/1047 votes#1 - Awakenings, 1954-1956
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/21/1987
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
8.5/1045 votes#2 - Fighting Back, 1957-1962
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/28/1987
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: N/A
8.5/1039 votes#3 - Ain't Scared of Your Jails, 1960-1961
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 2/4/1987
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
8.6/1038 votes#4 - No Easy Walk, 1962-1966
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 2/11/1987
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.
Director: Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney
Writer: Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney
8.4/1045 votes#5 - Mississippi, Is This America, 1962-1964
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/18/1987
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
8.4/1055 votes#6 - Bridge to Freedom, 1965
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/25/1987
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.
Director: Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney
Writer: Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney
The Best Episodes of Eyes on the Prize Season 1
Every episode of Eyes on the Prize Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Eyes on the Prize Season 1!
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...
Genre:Documentary
Network:PBS
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Awakenings, 1954-1956" is the best rated episode of "Eyes on the Prize" season 1. It scored 8.5/10 based on 47 votes. Directed by Judith Vecchione and written by Judith Vecchione, it aired on 1/21/1987. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "Fighting Back, 1957-1962".