Phillip Agnew is accustomed to standing alongside civil rights icons. He co-founded the Dream Defenders within the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s dying in 2012 and performed a monthlong sit-in after shooter George Zimmerman’s acquittal in 2013. He was visited and supported by the likes of singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte and lawmaker and activist Julian Bond.
The work of Mr. Agnew and lots of different activists has been chronicled in a follow-up to “Eyes on the Prize,” the landmark documentary sequence that informed the story of the Civil Rights Motion in America from 1954 to 1965. The fashionable-day presentation, “Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Consider in Freedom Can not Relaxation” covers the years 1977 to 2015 and is at present streaming on Max.
Mr. Agnew, a local of Chicago, is prominently featured within the sixth and ultimate episode, which picks up after the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. Mr. Agnew talks about his South Facet upbringing and matriculation to Florida A&M College, offering commentary amongst icons equivalent to author and activist Angela Davis.
Why We Wrote This
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The unique “Eyes on the Prize” was a landmark documentary concerning the Civil Rights Motion. The co-founder of Dream Defenders, who’s a part of a brand new six-part sequence, talks about what the documentary means presently of political upheaval.
“There was one thing about that second, the stewing anger, the animosity. 4 years of a Black president. How might this nonetheless be occurring?” Mr. Agnew says within the documentary, describing the juxtaposition between the Obama presidency and Trayvon’s killing. “Trayvon was an alarm clock for myself and lots of people who had simply been type of sleepwalking by the previous few years of their life.”
Mr. Agnew spoke just lately with the Monitor in a cellphone interview concerning the documentary and what it means throughout a time of nice political upheaval. This interview has been edited for size and readability.
What does it imply to be part of the “Eyes on the Prize” sequence at this second?
I felt a degree of delight and a form of surprise at our occasions collectively as organizers. It brought about me to deeply reminisce and attain out to some people who I hadn’t talked to in a short time, simply to reconnect.
That is an extremely laborious time for us and it’s going to get more durable. … [The current president] has been in a position to masterfully recruit all manners of individuals throughout race, class, and gender into his trigger and his worldview, and into their get together and what they need to see the nation appear to be. It’s a really harmful time for people like us.
Did the documentary present a way of inspiration for you regardless of what’s happening politically and socially?
Trying again on the [documentary], I see a variety of the joy and optimism that I had. I can’t converse for anybody else, however I really feel extra sober and temperate concerning the state of affairs now. Everybody who’s watching the doc doesn’t see all of the issues that occurred earlier than, throughout, and after these moments. It’s nonetheless so much to reckon with and it’s my hope that this undertaking does encourage individuals to analysis the accomplishments, the names, the organizing, the victories.
I watched “Eyes on the Prize” as soon as in class – watched the entire sequence in school. And to know that “Eyes on the Prize III” will in all probability be banned in most colleges is a telltale signal of the place we’re.
What did it imply to have the assist of Harry Belafonte and Julian Bond on the peak of your protest in 2013?
I think about Harry Belafonte a present and previous mentor, irrespective of if he has transitioned. I’ve had numerous completely different alternatives over my life to take a seat down one-on-one to go to with Mr. B. In days and moments once you’re feeling a insecurity in what you’re doing, otherwise you don’t know if the work that you simply’re doing is worthy or well timed, to have somebody like a Mr. Belafonte, or of us from SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] or a former Black Panther member, these are essentially the most helpful to me.
It humanizes a wrestle that if you happen to solely watch “Eyes on the Prize,” you’d lionize these individuals, and they need to be [celebrated], however to have the ability to have their steerage, their recommendation, their means to truly meet the second is invaluable.
What does it imply to have the ability to share your experiences with the subsequent era?
[This series] is a time capsule. And it’s my hope that anyone who watches it doesn’t depart saying, “Oh, I need to be like them,” however says, “I’m them. I’m already the one that is struggling towards this technique.” Viewers could have questions on how this world acquired to be the way in which that it’s, and may be impressed by human beings who simply answered a name, people who aren’t richer, or smarter, or every other qualifier, however individuals they’ll look to for steerage. I believe that is essential. These are the issues I noticed after I watched [“Eyes on the Prize”] in elementary faculty. And a few of it was in black and white, and a few of it was in shade, nevertheless it nonetheless resonated with me deeply.
