Eyes On the Prize documentary-- Interview responses

1. The Civil War created what freedoms for black American citizens?
Sophia: They didn't have to work as slaves anymore against their will. They got some more rights.
Grace: That was about making the slaves free in the south.
Eli: It freed them from slavery

2. What was/is segregation?
Sophia: It's splitting up black and whites in stores, buses, water fountains.
Grace: When the Blacks have different water fountains than the whites, and have to go to different schools. It separates them.
Eli: It's the separation of races-- in this case black and white.

3. What did it look like/feel like in every day life for:
Black folks in the South?
Sophia: Blacks felt excluded. It felt mean. Like they didn't belong there.
Grace: They just didn't like it. Confused. They didn't get as much good things as whites. They probably felt it wasn't fair. They couldn't sit at lunch counters.
Eli: I don't know. They were made to feel inferior. Unfair.

for White folks in the south?
Sophia: Some liked it and some didn't.
Grace: Different for some than others. Those who liked it probably thought blacks were gross. They thought the (Whites) should have all the better stuff.
Eli: Depends on the white person.


4. What are some examples of how people exerted pressure to change the segregated South?
Sophia:They did boycotts and just sat down in white waiting rooms and restaurants, they sat down in the front of buses. Water fountains too. They went to white schools.
Grace:They sat at lunch counters and wouldn't get up. They wouldn't fight back. They protested and boycotted the buses for about a year. They were just walking to work. Martin Luther King made speeches.
Eli: Boycott and march.


5. Why did many whites resist the change?
Sophia: Because they grew up like that and thought it was supposed to be that way.
Grace: I don't know. They had segregation for all those years, it had always been that way, been in their families. Their moms and dads didn't want change.
Eli: They resisted violently. They hadn't grown up with it and couldn't change now.


6. How did those white citizens justify resisting integration?
Sophia:They thought black people were okay with the way things were.
Grace:
Eli:


7. What did activists risk in being involved in this movement?
Sophia: Going to jail, getting hurt or killed, fined.
Grace: They could be put in jail, or be killed: shot or bomb their houses. Getting beat up.. Or if they talked to a white person, someone coming to get them and kill them.
Eli: Imprisonment. Death. Getting hurt



8. What is nonviolent resistance?
Sophia:It means making signs, boycotts and just sitting down in places.
Grace: Protesting and not fighting back.
Eli: Not fighting back physically.



9. About how long after the Civil War did segregation start changing?
Sophia: A long time. Was it 100 years or so?
Grace: About 100 or 60 years later.
Eli: A long time.