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5/3/94
Harded Fleming Award 513
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
1
Colin Green
2
Maggie
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Melanne, Patti, and Maggie
FROM:
Anne
of
1. grants for 2.jus " lose dan
for a year to review
DATE:
January 21, 1994
RE:
SCHEDULING HRC to Present the Fleming
7. 40th Award to Henry - history
Hampton
3. Board has diversified
significantly trice #RC
THE INVITATION
lolin ade whensherms there)
4 sought other tun's
Colin Greer, the executive director of the New World Foundation,
has invited HRC to present the Harold Fleming Award of $25,000 to
Henry Hampton in memory of Mr. Fleming's vision and in
celebration of the NWF's 40th Anniversary. The presentation will
be made on May 3 anytime between 6 and 9 p.m. that is convenient
to her schedule during the Annual meeting of the Council on
Foundation in New York city.
HAROLD FLEMING, HRC, and NWF's 40th ANNIVERSARY
I was told that during HRC's tenure as Board Chair at New World,
she had the opportunity to work with Harold Fleming and see first
hand his life-long commitment to exposing and overcoming barriers
which inhibit equal access to and full participation in American
democracy. New World supports organizations working for
increased political participation in communities in color and
other under-represented communities around the country. In
memory of Mr. Fleming's inspirational and important work and in
celebration of NWF's 40th Anniversary, New World has created an
award of $25,000 to honor lives spent in distinguished service to
the cause of equal electoral access and civic participation.
HENRY HAMPTON, THE FIRST AWARDEE
A panel of leaders in the foundation community (including past
and present NWF Board members such as myself, Peter Edelman,
Betty Hamburg, as well as James Joseph, Norm Brown, and Adele
Simmons) selected Henry Hampton to be the first awardee of the
Fleming Award.
Best known for his critically acclaimed documentary "Eyes on the
Prize" about the Southern civil rights movement, Hampton has
given new life to a critical time in America's history. He also
received wide critical acclaim for his documentary, "The Great
Depression." I am told that HRC knows Hampton through their
joint work at CDF and she has high regard for him as does Maggie.
THE EVENT-THE COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS
The Fleming Award will be given during the Council on
Foundation's Annual Meeting in New York city on May 3.
Historically there have been approximately 1,500 people in
attendance who are involved with foundations in some way. This
is a significant national and grassroots constituency, giving HRC
an important forum to talk about the significance of foundations
as well as of equal electoral access and civic participation.
THE EVENT-THE AWARD CEREMONY
The event is scheduled from 6 to 9 pm. There is planned not only
the Award Ceremony but also a panel discussion moderated by Bill
Moyers on "Civic Participation: Removing Barriers and Expanding
Political Participation." The focus will be the importance of
having active participation of local citizens to resolve
community, regional, and national problems and the need for
support from the philanthropic community. HRC presenting the
Award can be scheduled any time that is convenient to her.
COLIN GREER
Colin has helped us in many ways. Following are the most
prominent:
Campaign
Worked with Melanne in the summer and fall of '92 to
develop a strategy to involve the philanthropic
community in issues relating to the media
Transition
Worked with Harold/Ickes to avoid a labor confrontation
with the President-Elect during the Renaissance
Weekend, '93
Identified people of color for Maria Echaveste in her
work at Personnel
Post Inauguration
Secured funds for the National Service Office as well
as provided policy consultation, other consultants, and
legal memoranda for work in developing public-private
partnerships for the National Service Office
Discovered the Fellowship and is helping with the
funding for our Intern, Nicole Rabner
Instrumental in helping to design the White House
Presidential Internship Program with Maggie and me, has
provided funds and will continue to raise funds for the
Internship Program as well as Chair the Presidential
Internship Program Committee, thereby taking a large
part of the responsibility for it from the start
Through his work with the editors of "Parade," assisted
in creating the special issue on HRC in "Parade"
magazine as well as ensured that the piece by
President Clinton was completed on time
Wrote a feature piece for "Parade" magazine on women in
the Administration, highlighting the diversity and
commitment of the new team, two of whom were Maggie and
Maria Echaveste
APR-26-94 TUE 14:50
P
Board of Directors (current.)
Anne Bartley
Haywood Burns
Adrian W. DeWind
Herbert Chao Gunther
Sophia Bracy Harris
David B. Harrison
Donald Hazen
Sylvia I. Hill
Myrna M. Rivera
reggy Saika
N. Jean Sindab
Anthony Thigpenn
Robert B. Zevin
Officers (current)
David B. Harrison, Chair, since 1909
Peggy Saika, vice Chair
Colin Greer, President
Robert B. Zevin, Treasurer/Chair of Finance Committee
Sylvia I. Hill, Secretary/Chair of Frogram Committee
Elena B. McCormick, Assistant Treasurer
Patricia Coleman, Assistant Secretary
PAST Chairs
Maria Echaveste, 1988.89
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 1987.88
Peter Edelman, 1983-87
Karl Mathiasen III, 1979-83
Harold Fleming, 1978-79
Anne Blaine Harrison, 1954.77
ytaff
Colin Greer, President
Ann Bastian, senior Program Officer
Erica Hunt, Senior Program Officer
Alta Starr, Program Officer
Elena B. McCormick, Associate for Finance and Administration
Patricia Coleman, Grants Administrator
Minnette Coleman, Assistant to the President
Ananda Kaymen, Program Intern
Joel Zarrow, Program Intern
afficials Come
ARR-26-94 TUE 14:44
P.01
THE NEW WORLD FOUNDATION ONW
100 EAST 85TH STREET. NEW YORK. NEW YORK 10028
FAX (212) 472-0508
(212) 249-1023
FAX TRANSMITTAL
TO: Anne Bartley
FROM: Joel Zarrow
DATE: 4/26
Number of pages including this 16
MESSAGE:
H1 Anne --
The following includes:
1. Colin's interview with Bill Moyers on political participation
2. The Program for The Fleming Award meeting which includes:
A. The sequence of events
B. Description of Selection Committee process and a list of members
C. Brief bio of Harold Fleming and Henry Hampton
D. Description of Funders' Committee with list of members
3. List of current Board Members and Officers (staff list also)
4. List of Board Members and Scaff who will be at the Tarry Town Hilton
on Saturday, April 30th.
If you need any more information, please give me a call at (212) 249-1259.
Thanks,
Idel Zarrow
If this transmission is garbled, please call 212/249-1023
APR-26-94 TUE 14:44
Funding Citizen Participation SPRING
1994
THE FUNDERS' COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
Invitation from the Chairs
O
n behalf of the Funders' Committee for Citizen
Afro-Amcrican Studies Program. Princeton University.
Participation. we invite you to participate in our pro-
Following the panel. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
gram on May 3, 1994, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., during the
former chair of the New World Foundation's Board of Directors.
1994 annual meeting of the Council on Foundations. Our discus-
will present the foundation's inaugural Harold C. Fleming
sion. "Civic Participation: Removing Barriers and Expanding
Award, which honors lives spent in distinguished service to the
Political Participation," will be moderated by Bill Moyers. the
cause of equal access and full participation. This year's honoree
broadcast journalist and president of the Florence and John
is Henry Hamptoa, executive producer of Eyes on the Prize:
Schumann Foundation. Other panelists include Antonia
America's Civil Riglus Years (1934-1965) and the sequel, Eyes
Hernandez, president, Mexican American Legal Defense and
on the Prize: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965-1985). His
Educational Fund: Linda Kaye Stout, executive director,
most recent production is America's War on Poverty. In addition
Piedmont Peace Project: and, we hope, Cornell West. director,
continued on back page
Why Participation Matters:
An Interview with Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is well known for
together to think about barriers to electoral participation, with
E 1
his popular television shows on
special concern for poor people and people of color. who are so
PBS. Less well known is his
often underrepresented in the electorate. And. over the years. we
work in the philaruhropic sector.
recognized a relationship between electoral participation and a
as president of the Florence and
wider sense of civic participation-this wider sense of participa-
John Schumann Foundation.
tion. we became convinced. is 8 necessary context for citizens to
Colin Greer, president of the
feel motivated to vote. What is your feeling?
New World Foundation and for.
Bill Moyers: I think recognizing that relationship is vitally
mer co-chair of the Funders'
important. Too often, political participation is understood to mean
Committee for Citizen Partici-
just voting. That's much too narrow. Active citizens are the sine
pasion, talks wish Mayers about
qua non of democracy. We have to promote and support that kind
participation and the role foun-
or activism in communities all over the country. But at the same
dations can play.
time, we shouldn't underrate the critical significance of voting.
Colin Greer: In our ten years of existence, the Funders'
Elections are the process through which the national commu-
Committee has been very troubled by the downward trend in
nity has been and continues to be widened. Our diverse nation
voter turnout rates in US elections. We've brought foundations
can only work with this shared participation in the public sphere.
continued on page 10
APR-26-94 TUE
4356096
Moyers, cont'd from page 1
65701
P.03
The issues we struggle with-education, environment. health
speech-is to say that people with little money have no voice. So
care-all depend on elections. If the political class owes its allc-
the public sphere is robbed of strong debate. and we live with the
giance to very narrow interests, then the public interest in all
illusion of competition in politics as the media and politicians
these issues cannot be advanced.
present the questions of the day as though they were answered
Greer: What do you mean by the political class?
once raised. In a more democratic society, money would not be
the arbiter of choice.
Moyers: I mean the elite class of professional politicians and
staff, lobbyists. political consultants, campaign contributors.
Greer: What other barriers to the breadth of national debate
think tank staff. media pundits. all of whom together dominate
political participation do you see?
our government. They give as the illusion of dialogue and debate.
Moyers: I see two kinds of barriers beyond money and politics.
but they close off conversation for most of the public. Money
For the longest time people didn't vote because it's been so hard
makes the pot boil. There is a wall of cash that is as surely a bar-
for them to do it. You know. registration laws. intimidating loca-
rier to democracy as the Berlin Wall was Ironically, the Berlin
tions, complex procedures. outright harassment-all meant
Wall is down. but the cash wall in democracy keeps getting high-
voting was out of the reach of many. This continues to be too
and stronger. We've got to tame the influence of money in pol-
much the case today. It's true that technical barriers to voting
ides. Money directly affects who competes in and wins elections,
coming down. Motor Voter is a real triumph. Foundations that
how elected officials behave in office. how new policies are
worked on this are to be congratulated, but they must not become
advanced or ignored, how the political culture sets priorities, who
complacent That work is not over. The actual implementation of
gets heard. Almost every issue foundations care about hits the
Motor Voter and public registration is running into a where
same obstacle-an electoral system controlled by and mainly
poor people are involved because the participation of public
benefitting the interests who can and do fund IL Do you know
agencies as registration sites is still to be achieved in many parts
that every single member of the House of Representatives who
of the country. So there are the technical conditions. and there
voted against legislation to cut the sugar subsidy received more
are the conditions of life that make voting difficult when there
than $15,000 from sugar interests? That the nuclear industry
isn't a strong motivation to get out there and vote. And there
spent $13 million on campaign funding, while environmental
won't be strong motivation when over and over it seems that the
groups spent $1.5 million? The Wall Street Journal recently
narrow. two-party system and the political class fail to solve
reported that one senator has to raise the equivalent of $22,000 a
problems and continue with business as usual.
day in the final year of office to be ready for re-election cam-
The media, too, have numed elections into entertainment. It's
paigning. This is not how politicians should be spending their
3 spectator's sport. So you can watch discussions. interviews.
time. Our taxes are paying them to pander to donors.
commentary. and returns without doing anything yourself to par-
Greer: Are you saying that the campaign finance question
licipate. The educator Herb Kohl has said that we are
should be the focus of activists and funders interested in expand-
becoming a nation that knows how to choose between different
ing the electorate?
brands of wilet paper but has no idea how to make informed
choices on the public issues of our day, much less how to
Moyers: I think it should be a high priority, not an exclusive pri-
with the major social and economic problems that are tearing
ority. What I said about citizen participation is equally relevant
America apart.
to this issue. Citizens concerned about their community have to
recognize how their issues are diminished by the force of money
Greer: And that other kind of barrier you wanted to identify?
in politics. But. that means we have to support citizen activism
Moyers: There's both an indifference to and a cynicism about
on the issue as well as research and public education. Electoral
our political culture that leads even active citizens, those
reform is too important to be left just to the lawyers. lobbyists.
engaged in community organizing and advocacy, not to vote.
and politicians-the insider traders whose interest it is to rig the
They've given up on a process they sce as rigged by the two-
rules in their own favor.
party system and by candidates' frittering away their stewardship
Greer: By the electoral question you mean once again campaign
for calculations of monetary support. People feel impotent. there-
finance reform?
fore. they don't vote, and because they don't vote. the status
gets more and more rigid.
Moyers: Yes and no. Obviously, I think that's crucial. What
we've done by allowing the cash wall to he buill-and the
Greer: Are you inclined toward third parties? There are now
Supreme Court legitimated this in its ruling that money is
several being organized?
SPRING 1994
10
APR-26-94 TUE 14:46
Moyers: I'm for many parties. not third parties. I'd like to see
Moyers: 1 would like to see foundations continue to fund the
proportional representation and a lot of new options. I'm for
removing of barriers. to help expand the electorate. particularly
opening up the process as much as we can. The closed process
to include the excluded parts of our population. I'd like to see
we have is so detrimental we have to risk testing some alterna-
foundations fund community organizing and advocacy, so that
Lives. It has been said that to govern a democracy you require
where Americans are involved in lively and committed participa-
constant vibrations from the population. We will suffocate from
tion, they are encouraged to continue in that direction. And. I'd
narrow options. You know, the US has always come reluctantly
like to see 8 new and strong emphasis on democratically financed
to greater electoral democracy: women in 1928. the Civil Rights
election campaigns. The Keuering Foundation has done ycoman
Act in 1964. Some will argue that we suffer from 100 much
work in helping us to identify 8 breakdown in public discourse.
democracy now. Baloney! These are the people who preach
V.S. Pritchett warns that America today is being turned into a
power, not participation. They preach control, not contribution.
vast crowd, a permanent audience waiting to be amused. Pritchett
It's ironic to hear people who believe in the marketplace for our
said we look on more and more and join in less and less. It is crit-
economy argue that competition should be limited in politics.
ically important for foundations to support Americans' joining in
Our challenge is to keep the gates of citizenship open and the
more and more, especially but not only at election time.
playing field as level as possible and to trust in the collective
Grees: I expect you know how difficult it is to get foundations to
decisions that then prevail. I don't know any other way to find
common ground on which to build a shared moral view.
make grants together. Do you imagine more of this kind of
shared grantmaking?
Greer: You place a lot of faith in wide participation-what you
call expanding the conversation.
Moyers: I understand that foundations cherish their autonomy
and independence and that each one has a peculiar mandate
Moyers: Absolutely. The heart and soul of democracy is civi-
growing from its own origins. And I value the benefits of that.
lized conflict. That's where we test our ideas and methods face to
There are arcas, such as the environment. where foundations
face. find out what's really important and what we can agree on,
have done pooled grantmaking. But of course. pooled grantmak-
advance intellectually. and forge our national identity.
ing is not the only way for funders to work together. Groups like
Environmentalists talk about the commons as public space for
the Funders' Committee, to name one example. have been impor-
community life. Well, this is what the greening of politics should
tant in providing a way for foundations to share what they do and
be about-a public sphere where democratic principles play
to bring important opportunities to the attention of colleagues
themselves out.
without giving up their individual autonomy. I know at
Greer: What would you like to see foundations do?
Schumann we find these kinds of collaborations very valuable.
-After Motor Voter: What's Next? Cons'd from page 5
education, values, leadership training, government accountability.
urgently needed participation work."
community forums-actions to restore the faith of the American
Models for nonpartisan electoral participation are highly
people in the electoral process."
developed in the United States. and the organizations doing the
Marlene Cohn. associate director of the League of Women
work are among the best in the world. Ironically. people in the
Voters and longume leader of the league's voter participation
US are often quicker to recognize a pressing need for broad par-
work. sees activists at an important crossroads. "Motor Voter has
ticipation in elections in other countries than they are LO see the
freed up organizations and foundations to use resources in a dif-
same need here at home. "We can raise more money to do work
ferent way," she says. While warning that implementation of the
in South Africa or Nicaragua than in South Texas or Alabama."
bill is not to be taken for granted. she comments, "We've had to
Jarvis of the National Coalition says. and Hemandez user almost
devote tremendous resources to voter registration. Now, we'll get
identical words describing Southwest Voter. Yet. with voter dis-
3 large pool of registrants who do not necessarily have the tools
satisfaction reaching astonishing highs in the US, it is clearly
to vote-motivation. confidence, information about candidates.
time for more. not less, citizen participation.
Our local leagues around the country-people who unul now
have been out there registering voters in shopping malls and pub-
lic centers-are potentially in an excellent position to do other
11
FUNDING CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
APR-26-94 TUE 14:47
P.05
THE FUNDERS COMMITTEE
FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
&
THE NEW WORLD FOUNDATION
HAROLD C. FLEMING AWARD
AT THE
COUNCH ON FOUNDATIONS
UNNUAL MEETING 1994
PROGRAM
THE HAROLD C. FLEMING AWARD
5:30-6:30 P.M.
The innauguration of the Harold C. Fleming Award is pan of
Reception
less World's fortieth anniversary celebration. morating
fortv lears as a social justice institution. Named to honor the
6:30-8:00 P.M.
life's work of past board member Harold Fleming, the award
Panel presentation and discussion
tributes a lifetime of service in the held offerered political
Gwic Participation: Removing Barriers
participation, voting rights, electoral reform and community
and Expanding Political Participation
education against hatred in politics. A Selection Committee
Moderstor:
of 18 leaders in the philanthropic community identified
Rill Moyers
outstanding candidates for the award and then nominated a
Participants:
single candidate for approval by The New World Foundation
Antonia Hernandez
Board of Directors.
Director-General Counsel, Mexican American
NEW WORLD FOUNDATION
2127794342 GARY BLUM
1 egal Defense and Education Fund
Linda Kaye Stout
only
Executive Dinctor of the Piedmont Peace Project
101EARS OF GRANT MANNS
Cornel West
African Amenican Sudies Program
Princelm University
8:00-9:00 P.M.
FLEMING AWARD
THE HAROLD C. FLEMING AWARD
SELECTION COMMITTEE
Music by:
The Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
NWF BOARD MEMBERS
FOUNDATION
with
Are Bardey
COLLEAGUES
00
Tanumy Westbrook, soloist
Sophia Bracy Harris
Nortman Brown
Johnson Flucher, Conductor
David Harrison
Kellogg Foundation
Dorothy Papadakos, Pranist
Sylvia Hill
Peggy Dulany
Introductory comments by
Peggy Saika
Rockefeller Foundation
James Joseph
Robert Zerin
Lisa Coldberg
The Council on Foundations
Charles Reuson. Foundation
365 PPA
NWF BOARD ALUMNI
Introduction of Find Lady Hillary Ratham Clinton br
James Joseph
Council on I crandations
David Harrison and Colin Greer
Maria Fehavesur
The No. World Foundation
Peter Edelman
Adele Summons
Ciura Flening
John D. and Cathoine T.
Presentation of The New World Foundatum
Mac-Brthur Foundation
Harold C. Heming Award by
Beaut Hambung
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Charles Hey Maeure
to
Barl Mathiasen
&
Henry Hampton
Phylis Schless
ST:TT DE. 22 HnH
as
(I
Charles
HAROLD C. FLEMING
Francel
A native Georgian, Harold
Fleming grew up in the
South and was educated in
the public schools of Elbert
County. He headed North
Dimaiti Stuart Foundation, and a
Trustee of the Revson Foundation
to complete a degree in
English literature from
Mr. Hampton is the first recipient
Harrard University. His
of the Heming Award.
studes were interrupted
"The times are too urgen! so have
by World War II where
generations ignorant of ihr
he lead a company of
failures and successes of inst Team
African American soldiers
racial history If there are lessons
in the then segregated
HENRY HAMPTON
to be gamed from these years. ONE
Army-an experience that had a
include helping to develop
starely the importance of histors
prefound effect on his fite.
and launch the US Community
Henry Hampion is the founder
a disenfanchised teople
Upon his return In the States,
Relations Service and the Fqual
and president of Blackside,
Looking back. it is dear to The
Employment Opportunity
Inc., a film and television
Harold began a career devoted to
history 25 the high graind in the
Commission as well as energetically
production company which
tighting. exposing and overcoming
battle for self and withine 2
racism and the barriers which
advocating for compliance of
has been developing highly
sense of self, mes freden 11
mhibit equal access to and full
the new Gril Rights Act
acclaimed dex umentaries for
pnever 17 the bands of when
Harold joined the Board of
the law 26 years.
participation in American
®
democracy. In 1947, be began
Directors at New World in March
Mr. Hampton's extraordinary
documentaries capture the words
BILL MOYERS
working at the Southern Regional
1971 and spent fourteen years
Council where be developed
guiding the Foundation,
and actions of citizens as they
With more than 20 Emmv
the Voter Education Project
including one year as Board
struggle for justice and equality in
Awards, Bill Moyers is one of the
a program which did vital voter
Chair. Upon his retirement,
America. As the creator and
most influential commentators
registration work In 1961 Harold
Board member David Harrison
executive producer of the award-
on America 10 have worked in
E
moved to Washington, D.C. to
remarked, "Harold constantly
winning civil rights documentary
television. In 1986, Mr. Movers
=
become a founder and leader of
T
challenges our thinking and our
Eyes on the Price, Ms. Hampton
established Public Affairs
the Potomac Institute for 31 years
direction His life has been a
has reminded older generations
Television which quickly
His credibility with both civil rights
passionate commitment to civil
and educated younger ones about
became known for is excellence
leaders and kev government
rights, both here and abroad
America's past and continuing
in documentary production He
officials enabled him to play a
He leaves us with much
uruggle towards a more equal
has been a Trustee of the
central role in the development
accomplished and with call
and just society.
Rockefeller Foundation, director
of new federal initiatives during
sights on work yet to be done.
Mr. Hampton is a Board
of The Council on Foreign
I
the 1960s. A few of Harold's
We will miss his vome of reason
member of the Children's
Relations, a director of the
R
numerous accomplishments
and his wealth of experience."
Defense Fund and the Carol
Harte Hanks newspaper group
Far
A
00
0
he Funders' Committee for
Citizen Participation and
The New World Foundation
would like to thank The Council
on Foundations for the opportunity to
engage the foundation community
in a discussion about the importance
and an advisor to Cos
of supporting the areas of electoral access
Communications He now serves
and civic participation.
as president of The Plorence and
John Schumann Foundation.
The Funders' Committee is an affinity
-Too often political participation
group of foundations committed to
25 understend to mean just voting.
broadening the base of financial suppor!
ATE 1899
That's much too narren Adre
for nonpartisan citizen participation
isluens are the sme qua non of
programs, especially those with an
democracy. We have to promote
HILLARY RODHAM
emphasis on undersepresented people
and support that kind of activism
111 communities all over the
CLINTON
of color, women, love income and south
country But as the same time W
As a Board member for The
THE FUNDERS COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
shouldn't undersate the crudal
New World Foundation for nearts
significance of voting Eleaions
Peter Benda
Geraidine P.
six years. with one year spent "
Pa. Ountable True
are a barameter of our democracy's
Camage Cap
Board Chair, First Lady Hillan
health Voting 15 the way olizens
Marsha Bonner
Vincent McGee
Rodham Clinton helpec to guide
lawn Dumond Foundation
Address Commend Foundation.
si), 1 am here I count."
the Foundation in its grantmating
Scth Bargos
John Moyers
Celebrating Mrs. Clinton's
Uniteriam Universales
The Forence and
tenure at New World, fellow
Society Veatch Program
john Schonann Foundation
Board member Maria Echaveste
buries Browne
Scou Nielsen
said, "Her concern for children,
Tides Frundation
The John D. and Carrenne T.
education and for those less
Tames Datan
MacArthor Foundation
fortunate was and is a driving
Pas Overitable Trusts
Anthony D. Romero*
force in her evaluations of grant
Martha Cershun
The Ford Foundation
365 P05
recommendations and proposals."
Rochefiller Family Fund
Janer Shenk
Lisa Goldberg**
The Arca Foundation
"We improve the lives of all
Charles H. Rason Foundation
Marsha Smith
Americans by expanding access to
Colin Greer"
The Forc Franklation
and participation in public num
the 1a Winds Fountation
Wayn: Walnets
such as education and veling and
Larry Hanser.
The Ford Foundation
by advancing the principle that
National Center
2
equity and democracy an most
in Communication Sandres
securely achieved through an address
Larry Firkman
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Copyright 1992 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
September 12, 1992, Saturday, Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; PAGE A18; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LENGTH: 334 words
HEADLINE: Harold Fleming and I Were Friends'
SERIES: Occasional
BODY:
When friends called last Saturday to inform me of the death of
Harold C. Fleming, I wondered how the life and achievements of
this extraordinarily private man would be remembered. J. Y.
Smith's Sunday obituary [Sept. 6] was a remarkably accurate
portrayal. If anything was omitted, itwas the risks incurred by
any southerner in those days in speaking out against segregation,
hence the courage required to take even the simplest step.
Harold Fleming and I were friends for 46 years, brought
together afterWorld War II as young veterans in Atlanta's
burgeoning liberal community. Together with half-a-dozen others,
we founded in 1946 an Atlanta chapter of the American Veterans
Committee (AVC), which soon grew to more than 500 members. I was
its first president, Harold the second. Unlike other veterans'
organizations, AVC was open to all, and our chapter was about
equally divided between blacks and whites. Our meetings reguarly
were monitored, and attendees were regularly photographed, by
white supremacists. Harold and I, then city hall reporter for the
Atlanta Journal, went to see Mayor William B. Hartsfield, who
assigned police to protect our meetings, and the harassment
stopped.
At Harold's instigation, AVCers listed the stores where any
had charge accounts (rare in those days). Then we systemically
wrote the stores' headquarters protesting the standard policy of
separate toilets and drinking fountains for each race. At first,
only one store painted out the signs reading "White" and
"Colored" -- a courageous move in 1947. It also was a small,
symbolic first stop through which Harold, with so many others of
both races, began learning and feeling our way toward the
structural changes that would be necessary to bring down legal
segregation. Fortunately, Harold went on to his great work behind
the scenes nationally to change the structure for all of us.
Harold Fleming's decency and courage, and his commitment to
racially equality, never flagged.
ODOM FANNING Bethesda
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1992 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
September 6, 1992, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO; PAGE B7; OBITUARIES
LENGTH: 664 words
HEADLINE: Harold Fleming Dies;
Promoter Of Civil Rights
SERIES: Occasional
BYLINE: J.Y. Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Harold C. Fleming, 70, the president emeritus of the Potomac Institute, an
organization devoted to eliminating racial discrimination, and an influential figure in
the civil rights movement for more than 40 years, died of an apparent heart attack
Sept. 4 at his Washington home.
A white Southerner, Mr. Fleming used to say that he came to his life's work in race
relations through nis-experience of commanding-black-troops. during World War II.-
"I was pretty shocked, traumatized by the whole experience," he said in a 1985
interview. "I really came as close as anyone can come to realizing what it was like to
be black in those days, because I was intimately involved in these men and their
treatment and on the receiving end in a sense myself. It amounted to being a straw
boss in a very ugly, discriminatory system which is rarely remembered today."
After the war, Mr. Fleming went to work for the Southern Regional Council in
Atlanta, an anti-discrimination organization of blacks and whites.
"I was ripe for this work," he said. "I didn't know there was anybody in the South,
anybody white, who had any egalitarian values or wanted to see society move away
from segregation and discrimination."
In time, Mr. Fleming became executive director of the council.
In 1961, at the behest of philanthropist Stephen R. Currier, he moved to
Washington and established the Potomac Institute. Funded by the Curriers and their
Taconic Foundation, its purpose was to develop policies promoting racial justice and
equality.
Mr. Fleming sought to achieve these goals through persuasion rather than
confrontation. Although he was unknown to the public, he was a familiar figure in
high government and policy councils. His basic message was that promoting civil
rights is in everbody's best interests and that real change is impossible until equality
is realized.
During the Johnson administration, he spent a period as acting deputy director of
the U.S. Community Relations Service, and he was a special White
House consultant in 1965 and 1966.
Affirmative action and housing policy were areas to which he gave particular
attention, and the Potomac Institute published several papers on the subjects. Mr.
Fleming also made several trips to South Africa.
Harold Curtis Fleming was born in Atlanta on July 27, 1922. He went to Harvard
College. His studies were interrupted by Army service in World War II, including
service in the Okinawa campaign. He later returned to Harvard and graduated.
In 1947, he joined the Southern Regional Council. He was executive director of the
Potomac Institute from 1961 to 1967 and president from 1967 until 1987, when he was
named president emeritus.
Mr. Fleming was chairman of the National Committee Against Discrimination in
Housing, a founder of the National Urban Coalition and a member of the boards of
the U.S.-South Africa Leader Exchange Program, the Center for the Study of
Democratic Institutions, the Center for National Policy Review, the Compliance
Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Equal Opportunity
Advisory Committee of the Council on Foundations.
A characteristic that colleagues noted in Mr. Fleming was an ability to make
unblinking assessments of the facts. In 1985, he offered this view of his own work:
"Our national trait is a short attention span. The things that are front stage today
are forgotten tomorrow, and it is assumed the problem is solved. But I think the
things that are achieved in a field as complicated as [civil rights and race relations]
are achieved by people who stay with it."
His marriage to Jane P. Fleming ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Virginia de C. Fleming of Washington; two children
from his first marriage, Gary P. Fleming of Mineral, Va., and Anthony H. Fleming of
Bloomington, Ind.; two stepchildren, Peter Frank of New York and Lisa Scarsella of
Fairfax, Calif.; a brother, Howard H. Fleming of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico; and a
grandchild.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1992 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
October 15, 1992, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIAL; PAGE A30; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LENGTH: 431 words
HEADLINE: Harold Fleming's Bridge Building
SERIES: Occasional
BODY:
When a mutual friend called and informed me of the death of Harold C. Fleming,
it struck me as though I had lost a close relative. And when I read the well-written
article by J. Y. Smith [obituaries, Sept. 6], it caused me to think back to the time when
I first met Harold. It was at a public forum in Atlanta back in the middle 1950s.
There was this lone, young white man sitting in the midst of a group of black people
taking part in a discussion on civil rights. And that is where you could almost always
find him, among people who were seriously engaged in discussions about the change
in race relations in the South.
Atlanta was a segregated city then, as was the case in many other cities in the
South, and blacks by law were not allowed to sit and eat with white people in the
same restaurants. Most other public facilities also were closed to them, including
public libraries and veterans' organizations. But for Harold Fleming, this was wrong,
and he made it his practice to show up at any gathering, especially where the topic
was civil rights and how to build unity between the races.
It was through his efforts that the American Veterans' Committee was organized in
Atlanta, which at its inception established a policy of accepting members without
regard to race or religion. A veteran of World War II, I was among that first group of
blacks accepted into the ranks of AVC in the 1950s. It was also through Harold's
quiet efforts that I was invited to speak before the all-white Junior Chamber of
Commerce, a practice not generally accepted at that time. This was followed with the
invitation to write a series of articles for the New South, the official organ of the
Southern Regional Council, where he was the deputy director at that time.
Harold became the "bridge-builder" between the leadership of the black and white
communities in Atlanta. Working with others, he was able to help smooth the way
for my visit to the republic of South Africa back in 1959 when that government was
refusing the entrance of black Americans into the country. For many years he and his
wife on the Fourth of July invited people of all colors and races to visit their home in
Virginia to share in the celebration of that day of independence.
Above all, I found Harold to be a compassionate, unprejudiced, accepting and
forgiving person. It was early this June when we met and had lunch together, and he
was still pursuing his dream of "bridge building." There may be others around the
country like Harold Fleming, but he was one I got to know. WILLIAM GORDON
Silver Spring
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1993 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
October 24, 1993, Sunday, City Edition
SECTION: ARTS & FILM; Pg. B27
LENGTH: 967 words
HEADLINE: Hampton makes history again;
Brother, can you spare the time to recall the Depression?
BYLINE: By Ed Siegel, Globe Staff
BODY:
How uplifting is the Depression? Or to cut right to the
chase, do you reallywant to spend seven hours watching, thinking
about and in some cases reliving a period that is not exactly the
happiest in American history?
The short answer is, yes, I think you do. The main reason is
that "The Great Depression" (which begins at 8 p.m. tomorrow on
Channel 2) was made by Henry Hampton and his Blackside
production company, which made one of the best documentaries in
PBS history, "Eyes on the Prize." The longer answer has to be
more qualified because while the new series has almost all the
same signature stylistic virtues as "Eyes," it lacks the earlier
production's emotional wallop.
To a large extent, that's unavoidable. The civil rights
movement was a clear struggle between one group of people seeking
freedom and another seeking to deny it to them. Even ideological
conservatives acknowledge today that they were wrong to battle
civil rights on the grounds of states' rights.
When it comes to the Depression, the shoe is on the other
theoretical foot. Even though conventional wisdom has it that
Herbert Hoover started the Depression and Franklin Roosevelt
ended it, today it's liberals who are apologetic for being too
dependent on New Deal-style government spending. Roosevelt is
still the patron saint of American liberalism and a hero to most
of the people who lived through the Depression, but Roosevelt's
legacy of government relief through taxation is the hot-button
issue in the country where, ironically, Martin Luther King's
legacy of nonviolent opposition to racism is virtually
uncontested.
It also becomes increasingly clear as "The Great Depression"
continues that this is a story with more victims than heroes. It
took a world war to end the Depression; demonstrations and
governmental response didn't. Although those efforts are
certainly covered thoroughly and dramatically, they didn't have
the impact on ending the Depression that they had on ending
apartheid in America.
The other comparisons to "Eyes" are favorable. "The Great
Depression" uses the same basic methodology of storytelling that
worked so well in the previous series - great narrative voice at
once dispassionate and mournful (this time, it's Joe Morton) ;
eyewitnesses rather than analysts commenting on events;
eye-popping archival footage marvelously restored; off-center
case studies (Upton Sinclair's run for governor of California), ;
and last and by no means least, a spectacular sound track of
period music ranging from Woody Guthrie to Billie Holiday.
Its other great virtue is its strong and confident point of
view - no "on the one hand, on the other hand" pabulum here.
Hoover does not come off well tomorrow night; nor does big
business in subsequent installments, as the bosses attempt to
break unions and unduly influence elections. Roosevelt is no
hero, either, though the hardest hits he takes come from the left
rather than the right - lack of support for Sinclair,
antilynching laws and sending German emigres on the S.S. Saint
Louis back to death in concentration camps.
Though "The Great Depression" is pointed, it is entirely free
of cant. The series does not tell us that massive government
intervention is the way to go - then or now. In fact, the weakest
part of "The Great Depression" is that after tomorrow night's
installments (which slaps trickle-down economics around), it
doesn't find a better way of weaving the economic story into the
political story.
Tomorrow night's two programs - "A Job at Ford's" and "The
Road to Rock Bottom" - are the best (so if they don't draw you
in, you might as well go back to "Murphy Brown" or football on
subsequent Mondays). The first hour uses Henry Ford and his River
Rouge plant in Michigan to illustrate the boom-and-bust nature of
economic life in the late '20s and early '30s, first with Ford
workers saying they had never seen so much money and driving away
from the plant with new Model T's and then with the dark side:
the anti-Semitism, the layoffs, the demonstrations, the deaths.
"The American bargain lay shattered on Miller Road."
Things don't get any better in the second hour, as one might
expect from a program titled "The Road to Rock Bottom." Here, as
elsewhere in the series, Hampton's producers do a remarkable job
of giving texture to history with luminous archival footage that
brings an era to life as clearly as if it had been shot on
videotape yesterday. Watching Douglas MacArthur lead an attack,
in defiance of Hoover's orders, on the Bonus Army is as chilling
as watching the beatings of Rodney King and Reginald Denny. But
just as memorable are the little things - Hoover and his staff
working out with a medicine ball to relieve stress.
It's in this episode, however, that "The Great Depression"
betrays a trait that will get it into trouble in later programs -
meandering off and staying too long in peripheral areas. The
cases of Pretty Boy Floyd (tomorrow night) and Sinclair (next
week) are certainly parts of the story, but the volume of
attention they get builds texture at the price of slowing
momentum.
When we get to Joe Louis, Walter White and Charles Houston in
Episode 6 ("To Be Somebody," still a couple of weeks away), the
story seems to be more of a prequel to "Eyes on the Prize" than
the penultimate statement of this series. Too bad, since it does
such a good job of weaving the story of blacks and other
minorities into the main fabric of the story that "To Be
Somebody" seems out of place.
These and other complaints, though, shouldn't deter anyone
from tuning into four nights of television that make history come
alive as certainly, if not as grippingly, as did "Eyes on the
Prize" and "The Civil War." This may not be a great "Depression,"
but it's a remarkably good one.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, 1. Survivors of the Bonus Army of 1932.2.
Arkansas sharecroppers organize a union to fight for the rights
given them under the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
LOAD-DATE-MDC: October 27, 1993
Copyright 1993 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
Sacramento Bee
October 25, 1993, METRO FINAL
SECTION: SCENE; Pg. D1
LENGTH: 1934 words
HEADLINE: TIMELY LOOK AT THE GREAT DEPRESSION
BYLINE: Bob Wisehart, TV Columnist
BODY:
It does not stretch the point to say that Henry Hampton
represents everything that is good about public TV.
Despite six Emmys and an Oscar nomination for "Eyes on the
Prize, his inspiring 14-hour 1987 documentary on the civil
rights movement, Hampton's profile is relatively low. He is
certainly not the celebrity that fellow documentarian Ken Burns
("The Civil War") is, for example.
Hampton's company, Blackside Inc., is one of the most
successful independent TV production companies in the country.
With Hampton's track record, it would be logical to assume
that getting money to finance his work is no problem.
But, of course, it is. This, after all, is public TV.
The subjects Hampton takes on -- civil rights, his newest
documentary, "The Great Depression," which begins tonight (at 9
on Channel 6), and his next project, six hours of "America's War
on Poverty" -- aren't subjects-that public TV's usual sugar
daddies are inclined to flock to. Nature shows and imported
British TV are safer.
So Hampton, burly, bearded and vaguely 50-ish, makes the
rounds, going hat in hand to anybody who might be willing to
cough up a few bucks worth of support.
Interviewed recently in Los Angeles, he ruefully admitted, "I
can't convey to you how difficult it is to walk into a major
corporation and say, "How would you like to be part of "The Great
Depression. ' "
While "The Civil War," for example, was underwritten by
General Motors (as is Burns' next project, a history of
baseball), no fewer than eight sources are listed as "major"
contributors for "The Great Depression," including the Lotus
Development Corp., a computer software manufacturer, and Camille
O. and William H. Cosby. Yes, that Cosby.
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
If it hadn't been for timely support from a few key
underwriters, Hampton said, "We would still be walking the
corridors" asking for money.
As usual with Hampton's work, the result is worth the trouble.
"The Great Depression" isn't flashy, just thorough and
compelling, seven-hour series that continues on four consecutive
Monday nights through Nov. 15.
Narrated by actor Joe Morton, "The Great Depression" looks at
a familiar subject with fresh eyes and a new perspective.
As Morton says in the opening, "Somehow, in the hardest of
times with America slipping away, our parents and grandparents
found the courage to fight their way out. Nothing turned out
exactly the way they planned
But by the time the Great
Depression was over, they had done better than simply save
America. They had made a new America. These are their stories."
Part of what drew Hampton to the subject is its relevance to
our own time, though the documentary begins during an era when
"government" usually meant City Hall, not Washington, D.C.
"We're grappling with many of the same questions that
confronted Americans in the 1930s," he explained.
"Everything from our standard of living to the state of the
environment and the basic rights of citizenship. Our witnesses
(the everyday citizens interviewed in the documentary) have much
to teach us about the consequences of our choices.
"The same set of issues continues with us today. It's called
welfare, it's called poverty, it's called government initiative.
What are the responsibilities of government to citizen and
citizen to government?"
"The Great Depression" opens with the story of Henry Ford, who
symbolized the good times leading up to the Depression,
In the mid-1920s, Ford was voted by Americans as one of the
greatest men in history, after only Napoleon Bonaparte and Jesus
Christ.
By 1927, he controlled the most important business in the most
important industry in a booming economy. He offered a simple
bargain -- high wages ($ 5 a day) for loyalty and hard work.
But the bargain began to unravel when Ford stepped up
production to keep profits up, which forced assembly-line workers
into an increasingly frenzied work rate, then organized a private
police force to spy on his employees, in his mind, for their own
good.
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
Ford, a man of equal parts genius, greed and bigotry, never
understood the social forces rising in the land, and when the
Depression overtook his company in 1929, Ford, a symbol in good
times, became a symbol in hard times, too.
Hunger marchers died in a bloody battle at the gates of the
Rouge, Ford's showcase plant, and machine-gun emplacements
guarded Ford's own home.
While subsequent hours examine such well-known figures as
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joe Louis, Upton Sinclair,
Fiorello LaGuardia and Pretty Boy Floyd, "The Great Depression"
is at its best when it lets everyday people do the talking.
Detroit resident Virginia Nicholl, who was just a child at the
time, explains quietly, "I felt that we weren't going to make it.
I was convinced that I was going to die one night."
Another woman remembers how her mother would give food to
starving strangers who came to their back door. "I don't ever
remember being afraid of them," she said.
If there's a unifying theme to Hampton's work it's what he
called "the power that people have to create change in their own
time, a thread that winds through both "Eyes on the Prize" and
"The Great Depression."
"People took their lives in their hands and moved forward," he
said.
"It was a great surprise to me to watch the liveliness of the
people as they went through this terrible toil and upset.
"It was actually a very satisfying feeling to watch how people
were not victims. They were, in fact, taking control of their
lives, though I don't mean to be Pollyanna about it because there
was surely great pain."
Anyone who watches "The Great Depression" will be struck by
how so much of the footage -- especially images of the homeless
-- foreshadow today's problems.
Hampton saw that, too, of course, and suggested that one
difference between then and now is that there is a real question
about whether the country would have the will to survive a
similar calamity today.
As violent and awful as the Depression was, there was also a
general, though unfocused, sense that we were all somehow in it
together and change for the better was possible, if only we could
figure out how, and "government," led by the new president,
Roosevelt, would help.
Now, government is regarded not as a help, but as a hindrance.
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
As Hampton sees it, most Americans are oblivious to their own
history, and knowing virtually nothing about the past makes
today's problems seem even worse than they are because they exist
without context.
"I think people need reservoirs of history and memory around
issues that seem insurmountable today," he said.
British writer "G.K. Chesterton offers us the notion that,
"Good history is the ability to walk to the top of a tall hill.
From there we can see not only what existed in the past, but the
power of what is to come. "
THE GREAT DEPRESSION 9 TONIGHT ON CHANNEL 6
BOB WISEHART is The Bee's TV columnist. Write him at The Bee,
P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento 95852, or call (916) 321-1142.
GRAPHIC: World War I veterans and their families camped in
Washington in 1932, demanding government assistance.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE-MDC: October 26, 1993
PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
Copyright 1993 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
October 31, 1993, Sunday, City Edition
SECTION: FOCUS; Pg. 82
LENGTH: 1332 words
HEADLINE: "It's important for people to see what happens when a
society begins to come apart at the edges";
HENRY HAMPTON TALKS ABOUT THE LESSONS OF HARD TIMES;
HISTORY
BODY:
Independent television producer Henry Hampton won acclaim
for "Eyes on thePrize," his study of the civil rights movement.
His new series, "The Great Depression," debuted Monday on WGBH-TV
(Ch. 2) Like "Eyes on the Prize," "The Great Depression" is
about "America coming apart at the edges," Hampton says. He
refuses to be described as a historian; producing a TV series, he
says, is too collaborative a venture to rate such a lofty job
description. Nevertheless, "The Great Depression" is "history
shot on the wing" in the words of the project's book collaborator
T. H. Watkins. In the South End office of his production company,
Blackside Inc., Hampton discussed three favorite topics with
Chris Reidy, the Globe Focus writer: "The Great Depression,"
democracy and history shot on the wing.
Q. What lessons can be drawn from the Great Depression? What
should we learn about how poverty and despair affect people?
A. One lesson is that people without food, jobs and housing
are dangerous people, dangerous to the status quo, dangerous to
the nation. A nation best pay attention to the pain caused by
economic dislocation.
The Depression tells us many things,
and one of them is that a maldistribution of wealth is a cancer
within a democracy. It cannot be tolerated for very long without
risk.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King, people can't long
endure that kind of disparity. People without hope threaten the
overall good.
Q. Do you see parallels between Herbert Hoover's
administration and the politics of the 1980s?
A. We hope people will watch the show and draw their own
conclusions
It's important that people see a broad-brush
picture of what happens when a society begins to come apart at
the edges. It has a direct impact on how they treat one another,
how they treat people who are different than them, what happens
with immigration and what happens with their approach to
leadership and government.
Perhaps the most powerful lesson
is that people got through the Depression because they had the
internal grit to become aggressive about changing their lot. They
refused to become victims
American history often treats
people as victims, as people buffeted by grand forces they can't
do anything about. That's not true. You find that there is power
within individuals to change their own lives.
Q. After "Eyes on the Prize," why did you choose the Great
Depression as your next subject?
A. It was almost inevitable
After "Eyes", we began to
talk about what are we going to do next
And if you look at
what happens to most of those people involved in the civil rights
movement and where their energy went, it went to President
Johnson's war on poverty. As we began to research a series on the
war on poverty, which is one we're also doing now, all the
antecedents could be traced back to the '30s
And we began
to see that this was history that had not been told very well.
Most people remembered it in very flat terms. They thought of it
as the stock market crash. More often than not, the history of
the Depression gets told in a cultural way, through music and
films. It is also rare that you find an opportunity to look at
that big a section of American history where you have witnesses
still alive. Then there was the great footage, this being one of
the first periods in America where newsreel cameras and radio
were playing a role. And it was attractive because one of the
things we like to do here is to focus on periods that change the
course of American democracy.
Q. You were involved in the civil rights struggle as a
participant. What was it like to have more emotional distance
from the events you were studying?
A. "The Great Depression" was different because I had been
living "Eyes" in my gut for so many years before I actually got a
chance to make it.
But as we did the initial interviewing
in anticipation of "The Great Depression," I began to fall in
love with it because of the voices you can hear. I'm sure in your
family you have a grandfather or grandmother that if you sat down
with them and said "The Great Depression," they would have a
stream of imagery, memory and story. Some people were ready to
talk about it. For others, it's too painful, still, after all
these years. But we've tested the films now, and one of the
wonderful things that happens is that you get the people, the
older people, who react immediately. They watch the films, and
the reaction they want to talk about is their own stories. That
is the best of television, when you create in an audience
connections between a history and various generations.
Q. Would you describe yourself as a historian with a camera?
A. I have great respect for historians. But I don't call
myself one because a truly polished and practiced historian has
been at it for years and has usually been focused in a given area
and I think that deserves a level of respect. I will accept that
I'm a history teller. What I want to do is to encourage people to
look backwards. If we're ever going to solve some of these issues
that are hounding us as a country, as a city and as a world,
we're probably going to find many answers buried in this period
and others. The kind of history telling in "The Great Depression"
is a way for viewers to understand, not academically, but
viscerally, what happened to people.
I get my greatest
satisfaction from watching viewers take this material and begin
to talk about it, to begin to integrate it into their own lives
and to create a dialogue within families.
Q. Didn't some historians initially resist the idea of a black
producer doing a project like this?
A. I learned a long time ago not to let somebody's ill-based
notions dissuade me. There was some feeling among a few people
that I should have been doing the history of blacks during the
Depression. And I always had to say, "No, what we're doing here
is the history of Americans during that period.' Black and
African-America were part of the story. And so were Latinos,
Hispanics and Asians and Native Americans. And one of the things
I think we do well in this series is to show multiple voices who,
by their experience and backgrounds, bring different
perspectives. Ultimately, this history is more powerful because
we do that. Viewers get the sense that truly this is an American
story. And
I think those historians will probably now feel
comfortable that if you're an African-American filmmaker or
historian, you can surely treat any material and probably make it
more powerful if you're sensitive to the particular issues that
minorities face in this country.
Q. What message would you hope a person unemployed today would
take from "The Great Depression"?
A. I'd like them to think about the kind of leadership that
emerged (during the Depression) from below and from the top. FDR
and New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia provided public works
projects. And I think it would be useful if people saw that it's
important to establish work.
After "Eyes," people would
call me to say that when they get depressed or angered by racial
stuff, many of them would go back and look at an episode, which I
have to admit I do myself now and then, because there you see the
power of the moral act.
Hopefully, "The Great Depression"
will show the people who are suffering today that they should not
allow themselves to become a victim to it. But rather, they
should stand up
and push hard for real solutions. And
perhaps the most important lessons of this whole series is about
the relationship between government and citizens: There are
responsibilities we have as American citizens to the government,
and there are, obviously, responsibilities the government has to
its citizens. And I think if you're going to have a discussion
about welfare and poverty initiatives in the 1990s, you had best
understand what happened before because it will empower you, I
think, to make stronger and better remedies.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, 1. Henry Hampton / GLOBE STAFF PHOTO / MICHELE
McDONALD 2. A homeless couple advertise for work on Freeport
Street in Dorchester last June, more than 60 years after Robley
D. Stevens, 30, of Baltimore, tried to stand against the tide of
joblessness during the Depression, which was already two years
old in 1931. / GLOBE STAFF FILE PHOTO/WENDY MAEDA AP FILE PHOTO
LOAD-DATE-MDC: November 2, 1993
Copyright 1994 SOFTLINE INFORMATION, INC.
The Ethnic NewsWatch
Bay State Banner
January 13, 1994
SECTION: Vol. 29; No. 17; Pg. 7a
LENGTH: 734 words
HEADLINE: Boston filmmaker found inspiration through King
BYLINE: Shahan, Catherine
BODY:
Boston filmmaker found inspiration through King.
Catherine A. Shahan
Boston filmmaker Henry Hampton, the "Eyes on the Prize"
producer who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. from
Selma to Montgomery, says King's influence on him can be seen
both on camera and off.
"Dr. King had a subtle influence on me but a very important
one, said Hampton. "Most of us have models, people who are
affluent, people who are athletic -- but we have very few moral
role models. King in the '60s, and now in memory, stands as one
of the true moral role models we have.'
Hampton founded Blackside, Inc., the nation's oldest
black-owned film company, in 1968 as a means of providing
minority media artists a way into the business and a way to reach
out, specifically to black viewers.
"I became aware of the importance of the media in the late
1960s," Hampton said. "I wanted to do projects that had direct
influence on black people."
Prior to creating Blackside, Hampton attended Washington
University in his hometown of St. Louis, where he received a B.A.
in pre-med and English literature. He then took a job as a press
officer for the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston.
It was while employed by the UUA that Hampton participated in
the 1965 Freedom March to Selma with King.
"I was there, but I was not with Dr. King," said Hampton. "I
was there working as a UUA press officer because one of our
ministers was killed.'
The minister, James Reeb, was a 38-year-old white Bostonian --
and the father of four -- who was clubbed to death in Selma
during a week of bloody racial confrontations in March of 1965.
Hampton included the story on Reeb's death in the
multi-award-winning "Eyes on the Prize."
It was during the Freedom March, Hampton said, that he became
aware of the extraordinary ability King had to inspire blacks to
push themselves to strive for civil rights.
"I think King would probably consider himself one of the
ordinary people," Hampton said. "He was a man, and he was
uncertain at times. What was magnificent about this was that he
kept going. For me, he symbolizes all those people who persisted
and made civil rights possible. And that's something we need to
keep in our sight every day."
Hampton did keep King's dream in sight. He began working on
"Eyes on the Prize" to record the civil rights movement as a part
of black history, and continued to overcome tremendously
difficult odds to finance the initial six episodes, at a cost of
roughly $3 million, of the documentary series.
Hampton paid for the project through independent funding when
the film was rejected by all of the commercial networks,
syndicators, and even Boston's own channel 7, which Hampton
partly owned at the time.
It took eight years, but "Eyes on the Prize" was completed and
aired nationally on public television in 1987.
"Eyes 2," an eight-hour continuation of the series, aired in
1990.
"It's a continuation of the history," said Hampton, "what
happens after segregation is dismantled, after the easy stuff has
been accomplished.
Ironically, even after the acclaim of the original series,
Hampton continued to have some difficulty financing the project.
"After a number of years of doing other peoples' projects,"
said Hampton following the release of "Eyes 1, I wanted to do
something in my middle years. Something that I could leave behind
and something that I could care desperately about.
"Eyes on the Prize" fulfilled Hampton's goal, winning him
widespread acclaim and receiving its own accolades for skillfully
spotlighting many of the unsung heroes of the civil rights
movement -- "all of those people on the Edmund Pettus bridge," as
Hampton put it.
In addition to Hampton's chronicle of the civil rights
movement, Blackside has produced or been responsible for some 50
other major films or media projects.
Next month, public television viewers will see Blackside's
long-awaited television biography on the life of Malcolm X. And
just last fall, the busy production company aired another
national public television series, "The Great Depression."
King's influence, Hampton said just before the release of
"Eyes 2," is present in much of his work.
"Dr. King, he really symbolized all the people who were
risking their lives for civil rights , as much as our parents
were, he said. " King's work influences you and comes back later
on -- to help you. "
ETHNIC-GROUP: African-American
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE-MDC: March 7, 1994
Copyright 1993 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
October 29, 1993, Friday, City Edition
SECTION: LIVING; Pg. 49
LENGTH: 1919 words
HEADLINE: HAMPTON: BACK FROM HARD TIMES;
Fighting cancer, filming 'Depression,' he never took his eyes off
the prize
BYLINE: By Wil Haygood, Globe Staff
BODY:
The word ricocheted almost like gospel music breaking through
church walls. Henry's sick. The esteemed documentary filmmaker lay
flat on his back in a Boston hospital. It was that old monster
word that just comes out of nowhere and starts descending.
Henry's quite sick, the cry went. Cancer.
A lot of folks - from the old days, when his dream was just
reams of newsreel footage about the civil rights movement and a
lot of uncertainty about what even that meant - came to visit.
Old days and old dreams.
Henry Hampton has always been private, and what was there to
say to thisson of a doctor, who knew full well both the miracle
and limitations of medicine?
Lying there, he told himself they would remember his first big
effort. They would remember that footage, words humming out of
the mouths of common brave people and going right into history
and time itself. Yes, they would remember "Eyes on the Prize.
"A hundred civil rights stories had been told, but it was
always black people being saved by whites. In 'Eyes' we brought
our people up in history," he says.
Now 53, he has no children, no wife. The voices of children
coming through the hospital room doors, well, that would have
been a thing of beauty, he admits. But there's never been time
for anything other than the dream of his independent films.
It's joyous enough now for the world to know: Henry has
survived. And the disease, the lung cancer, has gone out to sea.
It's as if the surgery and the resilience and the doctors and the
praying all converged, crushing everything in their path.
Of course work itself can be like a good strong tonic, like
its own religion. Terry Rockefeller, a senior producer at
Blackside, Hampton's independent film production company, looked
up one day and saw Henry, prematurely back at work, wobbling
along the hallways. It was ghostly. "That actually amazed me,"
she recalls.
Hampton's back, and his seven-part series, "The Great
Depression," which premiered Monday on PBS, has been universally
and critically acclaimed. "Another Prize," proclaimed Time
magazine.
At times there had been doubts it would get completed. Not to
mention the long, grave doubts about Hampton himself.
The illness took something out of him, and yet, he's still big
like a teddy bear, especially in the chest. There's no more
cigarette smoking now. He had climbed some stairs to his office
at Blackside the other day. The cane, the breathing, the
childhood bout with polio; you could hear him coming like
something through a forest.
His office quietly hums of history. There's a photograph on
the wall: "To my friend Henry Hampton, Best Wishes, George C.
Wallace. There's a sign that says "We Serve Colored Carry Out
Only. Books are everywhere.
The work is, simply, his life, and for a time so much of the
work became hostage to the illness.
It was in 1990 that it began. He was on a plane gliding toward
New Hampshire for a Thanksgiving weekend. It began small enough,
a cough. Then came sonnets of pain in the lungs. Friends told
Henry he was working too hard, that "The Great Depression" was
already taking a toll.
The X-rays showed more than exhaustion. "There was this
massive tumor in my right lung, he says. "They did a biopsy.
It's one of the fastest-growing cancers you can have."
He didn't know what to do. His parents are dead, so there was
no reaching out in that direction. "At first you don't want
anybody to know about it." He shuffled papers, worked feverishly,
worked until he couldn't work anymore.
When he looked around a couple of months later, he realized he
was, in a way, fortunate: He was in Boston. There are excellent
doctors all over the place. Hampton benefited from them,
especially Dr. Anthony Elias of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Since 1985 Elias has been treating a select group of cancer
patients with a high-dose chemotherapy treatment supported by a
bone marrow transplant. "There's an elegant way to do it and a
radical way, says Hampton. He was told the radical procedure
might be the best, and opted for it.
Time and time again Henry Hampton looked into Elias' eyes and
told him that his work was everything; that he had to survive;
that another film was already under way. "He took some
persuading," recalls Elias. "He's a very intellectual man and
very occupied with his life's work."
Shortly before the procedure, Hampton had some staff from
Blackside over to his house. He wanted to encourage, to tell them
the work must go on, and not to worry about him. But that was
difficult for all there that night. Henry had founded Blackside;
Henry was Blackside. "He's basically calling you to a place and
moment - to not get weepy," says Orlando Blackwell, who came to
Blackside two decades ago. "Henry said, 'You don't have time for
that. You have to get to the business at hand. "
When Henry said his surgery was going to be like Paul Tsongas'
surgery, someone said, "That's what we're afraid of, Henry. That
you 11 get better and want to run for president."
The staff at Blackside kept humming. There were film projects
in the works. But a pall certainly settledover the place.
"Overwhelmingly there was this sense of, was he going to be OK?"
says Terry Rockefeller, a senior producer at Blackside.
Rockefeller says the staff felt both "uncertain and afraid."
But they had to work, to do what Henry wanted them to do. "We
found ourselves asking what Henry always asked: 'What makes good
television?' "
Hampton's chemotherapy went well, but there were weeks of
isolation to guard against infection. When he could, he got
himself home. But that wasn't good enough, and so he got himself
over to the offices of Blackside itself. Rockefeller had been on
the phone one day with a representative from the National
Endowment for the Humanities. That organization has funded some
of Blackside's projects. Word had swept far and wide of Hampton's
illness. "How's Henry?" the endowment representative asked. Grant
officials want to know if the captain of the ship is going to be
around. That particular day Rockefeller just happened to look up
and right there stood Henry, weak and wan, but Henry in the
flesh. "Hold on," she said, surprised, "I'll put him on."
"During those first cycles of chemotherapy," says Rockefeller,
"it was astounding that he was here."
Orlando Blackwell, another senior producer, would see Hampton
in the hallways and rush over. "Henry, are you OK?" he'd always
want to know.
Hampton's chemotherapy was completed in late 1991. There were
waves of optimism. "Statistics are pretty good if it doesn't come
back that first year, he says. And it didn't.
Hampton survived the ordeal. It was over just in time for the
beginning of filming the interviews for "The Great Depression."
Hampton says it was inevitable he would do "The Great Depression"
following "Eyes on the Prize. " "It doesn't take 10 minutes to
understand the antecedents of the movement, " he says about the
1960s. "The miracle of the civil rights movement's 10 years is
people were amazed how quickly it happened. But you and I know
better.
"
That 1960s movement, Hampton says, stretches back 30 years. In
a way the '30s rolled over into the '60s. "Where did it begin?"
he asks about the '60s. "It was in the 1930s, with those people
who came to Washington with FDR in the 1930s. Hampton reels off
names of figures who achieved renown in the 1930s: A. Philip
Randolph, Marian Anderson, Fiorello La Guardia, Joe Louis. If the
times were harsher, the figures also seemed larger.
The '30s were "also a landmark moment in the nation's
history, " Hampton adds, "a moment in which history can go in a
lot of different directions."
For a long time Henry Hampton has thought that the 1930s were
recalled too much around a gnashing event that became almost a
metaphor for that ruinous decade: the jumping off of roofs, those
suicide flights away from financial ruin. "It was too often
looked at as the stock-market crash, he says of the misery that
ignited the suicidal flights. That was experienced - "mostly by
the middle class and rich" - but much else happened: survival,
for one. The drama is not those who gave up, but those who
pressed on, Hampton believes.
"The real power lies in people's power and aggressiveness. The
'30s was a time to show people were aggressive socially. That's a
much different story than showing people jumping out of windows. "
During that decade of woe, Hampton says, a million little stories
got buried.
The little stories:
A White House butler by the name of Alonzo Fields remembering
the several presidents he had served, remembering the '30s
catching fire and the ' 60s exploding; Margaret Hoover Brigham,
granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, remembering her grandpa being
reviled; little Maya Angelou remembering parents in her Arkansas
hometown taking children from church to church, parading them on
Sundays and talking so pridefully about their school grades;
daughters remembering fixing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
and taking them to vagrants; sharecroppers remembering the feel
of the sun on their backs and the emptiness in their pockets.
At the beginning of 1933, the unemployment rate in America was
25 percent. It had never been higher. Four years earlier
President Hoover had said, "I have no fears for the future of our
country. It is bright with hope.' Hampton's staff went looking
for those who were there in the 1930s. Fields, that White House
butler, was found in Medford. "The witnesses are a key in our
storytelling," says Hampton. "We wanted to get to them."
Rockefeller herself is proud of "The Great Depression" for the
same reason it takes on much of the character of "Eyes on the
Prize": It lifts the little people into history's full view. "We
never wanted to be telling history from the top down,
Rockefeller stresses. "It's history from the bottom up."
Hampton is passionate about such an approach, and spreads it
as gospel. "The history often elevates people and gives them, if
you will, their 15 minutes of fame."
He's proud of Blackside, believes the legacy now is firmly set
in motion. "I think we're a very unusual group. We bring passion
to our work. Even in a 500-channel world, it's still a key
element."
Blackside is certainly one of the most integrated working
environments one might find in New England. The diversity
enriches all, Hampton says. "We move the viewfinder a little
differently, and I love it."
There are still money woes, but it's not like the early days,
begging with hat in hand. "It's been easier because we don't have
to answer the question, 'Can we do it?' " he says.
In the end he got the money to make "The Great Depression,"
but he had to hustle to get it. Financial institutions - banks
and corporations - that he thought might be interested in funding
such a film series about the 1930s balked. He did get major
corporate sponsorship from Lotus, the Cambridge-based company,
and he's proud of that.
"I feel OK, except for not having the energy I need," Hampton
says. He has other dreams now. He talks of Hollywood, going out
there, on his own terms of course, and pursuing some film
projects. Blackside has just begun work on another documentary
film project, "The War on Poverty." That be about
Lyndon Johnson's onslaught of governmental programs to feed the
hungry and help the oppressed. "I think the War on Poverty was a
wonderful idealistic movement that has been taken away in many
ways, Hampton says.
Hs.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
LOAD-DATE-MDC: October 30, 1993
Copyright 1993 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday
October 24, 1993, Sunday, ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: FANFARE; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 1499 words
HEADLINE: The Depression;
The producer of 'Eyes on the Prize' documents one of the landmark
events of the 20th Century
BYLINE: BY VERNE GAY. STAFF WRITER
BODY:
HENRY Hampton's voice is barely a hoarse whisper over the
phone.
Flu, explains the executive producer of "The Great
Depression," the seven-part PBS documentary that premieres
tomorrow night (WNET / 13 at 9). It has forced him to scrap a
trip to New York, where he hoped to do a few rounds of
interviews, so the phone will have to do.
But even if it has reduced his voice to a croak, this bout of
the flu must come an enormous relief to some colleagues who
feared worse. Two years ago, Hampton was stricken by a
particularly virulent form of lung cancer, but he underwent a
revolutionary bone-marrow transplant at a Boston hospital and
hasn't had a recurrence in two years.
"It made me stop to think, " Hampton says, "that if you have
the power to believe in yourself then you can confront these
things. But if you give up on your country, or yourself, then the
answer's right there - you won't change anything."
That, say friends and colleagues, is a philosphy that has
guided Hampton for his 53 years; he embraces a belief in the
power of the individual to overcome tragic circumstances, and the
power of the individual to change the course of history. This
was the guiding principle of his epic series on the Civil Rights
movement, "Eyes on the Prize, and even though he was born at a
time when the Depression was coming to a close, it is the reason
he was drawn to that era in American history. That the idea of
the individual man or woman battling circumstances that seem
insurmountable holds great appeal for Hampton is not surprising,
say colleagues - it's his life's theme:
When Hampton was a high-school junior, he went swimming and
felt a numbness in his legs a few hours later. Polio would
confine him to a wheelchair for a year - until the day he stood
and walked to the front of the auditorium to receive a highschool
diploma, amid a standing ovation from fellow students. Though his
left leg is supported by a brace, he has walked ever since.
As a young, struggling producer in Boston, his production
company, Blackside, nearly went belly up twice. Money woes almost
scuttled "Eyes" many more times than that. Hampton kept the
company and the series afloat single-handedly for two years,
before both were rescued by cash infusions from some 300 donors,
including Capital Cities and Bill Cosby. "Eyes on the Prize,"
which covered the years 1954 to 1965, and "Eyes II" (1965-85),
would ultimately earn Hampton six Emmys, a Columbia-DuPont
"Golden Baton,' 11 honorary university degrees, and worldwide
acclaim. The 12-hour series, which aired in 1987 ("Eyes I") and
1990 ("Eyes II") on PBS, is widely considered television's
definitive history of the Civil Rights era.
From his refurbished red-brick building in the South End
section of Boston, he and a handful of producers who worked with
him on "Eyes" are among the most prolific documentary makers in
the country. Blackside is preparing documentaries on Malcolm X
and the 1960s war on poverty. And Hampton is looking for funds to
begin new series about Reconstruction and one on major scientific
discoveries by minorities.
"The Great Depression," six years in the making, is the first
big Blackside project since "Eyes II." Also a detailed portrait
of a tortured period in American history, it's based almost
entirely on first-person accounts of those who lived through the
Depression (or their relatives) or people who forged government
or labor policies at the time.
In "The Great Depression" Hampton and his producers again
reveal a world torn by tragedy and factionalism, but the main
focus ultimately falls on the individual person who somehow
manages to transcend his circumstances.
"The kind of history people around here like doing is landmark
history, and we like to do it from the multiple perspective of
ordinary people, he says. "Sometimes they lead, and sometimes
they follow but there are times when they change the course of
the nation; the Depression is one of those periods."
A soft-spoken man whose hobbies used to include golf,
wheelchair basketball and flying before ill health forced him to
curb them, Hampton was born in St. Louis and attended Washington
University, where he studied English and medicine - the latter a
concession to his doctorfather. But he says he was bored, so he
went to Boston, drove a cab and became a public relations man for
the Unitarian Church. While accompanying the ministers to Selma,
Ala., at the height of the 1965 voter-registration drive,
Hampton's idea for "Eyes" was born. "It was the one time in my
life when I was prophetic," he recalls. "With the cameras, the
reporters from all over the world, and the marchers on one side
and the arch-villains on the other, it didn't take a genius to
say this is great stuff
It was clear to me the world was
moving and I had to get on the bandwagon."
He quit the church position in 1968 and started Blackside,
which produced government and industrial videos. But the grand
vision was "Eyes," which took close to a decade to complete.
During the production of "Eyes," Hampton also realized that
there were dozens of stories about the civil rights struggle that
had their roots during the Depression. But instead of expanding
that earlier project, he decided to work on an entirely new
series. He got a grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities to produce a one-hour program on the Depression that
aired in 1990.
"When I came in 1987, one of the proposals was to do something
on Joe Louis and some of the other antecedents of the civil
rights struggle," says Terry Rockefeller, senior producer of "The
Great Depression."
"But Henry just sort of stopped and said, 'No, we're not going
to do these little films; there's a whole series here. "
Hampton worked to raise approximately $ 4 million from private
and government sources to produce the series ("Eyes" cost just
over $ 3 million). Meanwhile, he and Rockefeller (no relation to
the dynasty) assembled producers to write scripts, interview
sources, and gather archival material. The objective was to
reconstruct the entire era - from the crash of '29 to the outset
of World War II - from those who experienced it first-hand.
With the Great Depression, Hampton says, "You find historical
moments that are immediate lessons into our own time
People were hungry or not well-employed, and that continues to be
one of the tensions of our society."
And he adds, sounding more like a professor than a TV
producer: "I think history is a prescription for hope. If you can
give it in a way that is accessible and not a litany of fact and
analysis, then it can be enormously powerful. It's critically
important for people to understand what the process of democracy
is and how it fixes itself."
A GUIDE TO 'THE GREAT DEPRESSION'
HERE'S AN episode-by-episode guide to "The Great Depression":
Tomorrow, 9 p.m., WNET / 13: "A Job at Ford's": Former workers at
Ford's River Rouge factory in Detroit recall the glory days
before the stock market crash threw everyone out of work and
caused unprecedented unemployment.
Tomorrow, 10 p.m., "The Road to Rock Bottom": Gangster Pretty Boy
Floyd is
lauded as a hero in poverty-racked Oklahoma, while in Washington,
D.C., President Herbert Hoover remains oblivious to the nation's
growing problems. Troops under Gen. Douglas MacArthur are called
in protect the Capitol from veterans demanding their bonus earned
from service during World War I.
Nov. 1, 9 p.m., "New Deal / New York": A must-see for New Yorkers
who were around to remember the earthy and effective style of
Fiorello LaGuardia. LaGuardia always had a hand held out to FDR,
who usually came up with money to help the city. But NYC plunged
into deeper depression when the president - angered by Robert
Moses' insults about Eleanor's physical appearance, among other
slights - shut down the gravy train. Nov. 1, 10 p.m., "We Have a
Plan": The series switches to California, where author and
socialist Upton Sinclair nearly wins the governorship. FDR signs
the Social Security Act into law.
Nov. 8, 9 p.m., "Mean Things Happening": Labor begins to assert
itself; this program features a littleknown union created by
black and white tenant farmers in the Arkansas River Delta
country.
Nov. 8, 10 p.m., "To Be Somebody": The Depression spurs shocking
racial violence, particularly lynchings in the South (there were
28 reported in 1933 alone). Yet FDR still refuses to pass
anti-lynching law because of political pressures. Joe Louis
emerges as a figure who becomes a powerful symbol of the nation.
This show also discusses his fight for racial justice outside of
the ring.
Nov. 15, 9 p.m., "Arsenal of Democracy": Things get worse before
they get better. A severe depression within the Depression occurs
in 1938, but the bad times draw to a close as America arms itself
in preparation for World War II. This one also features some
fascinating color film of the 1939 World's Fair in New York.
GRAPHIC: 1) Color Photo- The producer of 'Eyes on the Prize'
documents one of the landmark events of the 20th Century. Photos-
2) Detroit's boom gone bust is chronicled in 'A Job at Ford's,'
the premiere hour of 'The Great Depression,' tomorrow night at 9.
3) This 1936 portrait of a widowed migrant worker will be
featured during the series' seventh and final installment. Henry
Hampton's seven-part 'The Great Depression' runs four consecutive
Mondays beginning tomorrow night on Ch. 13. 4) World War I
veterans and their families marched on Washington in 1932 to
demand bonuses due in 1945. Chart- A GUIDE TO 'THE GREAT
DEPRESSION'
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1993 The Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times
October 25, 1993, Monday, Home Edition
SECTION: Calendar; Part F; Page 1; Column 3; Entertainment Desk
LENGTH: 862 words
HEADLINE: OVER OBJECTIONS, HENRY HAMPTON KEEPS HIS EYES ON
ANOTHER PRIZE
BYLINE: By JUDITH MICHAELSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
BODY:
For filmmaker Henry Hampton, making "The Great Depression"
-- his new seven-hour series for PBS about America during its
hard-luck, "brother-can-you-spare-a-dime" era of the 1930s -- was
a natural progression backward.
It is his first work since "Eyes on the Prize" and "Eyes on
the Prize II," the epochal twin series on race and civil rights.
And "Eyes" led him to it. While doing research for those series,
Hampton began to see "linkages, the people on whose shoulders"
the civil rights movement rested "and I began to have this notion
of the continuing history -- not only going forward but coming
backward."
"The Great Depression," a $4.2-million work, begins airing
tonight and continues for three subsequent Mondays, following
reruns of the Southern civil rights drama "I'll Fly Away. The
first three Mondays feature two-hour programs; the last one, on
Nov. 15, is one hour.
"One of the curiosities I had for many years was why the
(civil rights) movement happened (when it did), Hampton
explained by phone from his offices at Blackside, Inc. in Boston,
"and how it happened so quickly. While it seems like a miracle of
social change, it was really based on (people like) those
Southern (tenant) farmers" -- black and white sharecroppers seen
forming a union in the show's fifth hour -- " (Northern union
leader) A. Phillip Randolph and Charlie Houston (the lead NAACP
lawyer in a Maryland integration case). People had been at the
barricades for a long time."
An African-American, Hampton was born in St. Louis in 1940 as
the Depression was fast disappearing in the wake of the arms
buildup for World War II. His father was the chief surgeon in the
city's black hospital. So Hampton had no seminal experience to
bring to the project as he did in "Eyes on the Prize," having
witnessed the 1965 clash between Alabama troopers and civil
rights activists at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the march from
Selma to Montgomery.
But the subject appealed to him for much the same reason: The
Depression and the civil rights movement are "landmark moments,
those crucial points when America shifts gear, he explained.
"The Depression, which has basically been reduced almost to a
one-dimensional notion of a (1929) stock-market crash, is really
a full-bodied, boisterous, active time."
To "The Great Depression," Hampton and his producer teams
bring a multicultural, multiregional approach. (Unlike Ken Burns
of "Civil War" fame,
Hampton rarely goes out on interviews, instead overseeing the
work of his field producers.) The first hour is set in Detroit
with massive layoffs due to overproduction; the second hour
concentrates on rural Arkansas and Oklahoma. In the third, it's
New York City, which began to thrive under the influx of New Deal
money -- in Harlem, however, unemployment reached 50% -- then on
to California in the fourth hour -- migrants from Oklahoma,
movies, socialist Democratic gubernatorial candidate Upton
Sinclair and all.
In each episode, the Depression's impact on disparate groups
is shown, and the sixth hour charts the dual increase in
lynchings and anti-Semitism.
"One of the continuing lessons of the series," Hampton said,
"is that when economic times get tight, we push democracy up
right against the wall."
The series' themes are relevant today, Hampton said, citing
race, class, welfare, immigration, civil rights and the
environment as examples, along with "the role of government, the
responsibility of people to that government, the importance of
leadership."
Yet he didn't find making "The Great Depression" depressing.
"In spite of the imagery and all the problems or the sense of it
being a bad time, Hampton said, "I really was surprised at
people's grit and their capacity to fight it."
Talk about grit. In the years before the first "Eyes on the
Prize" in 1987, with cutbacks in government support for
documentary filmmakers, Hampton came close to bankruptcy: "I
still remember those lean days." He laughs. "I wasn't smart
enough to know I was bankrupt. A lot of people in the Depression
operated just that way."
After "Eyes II" in January, 1990, Hampton, who had been
stricken with polio when he was 15, was found to have lung
cancer. He got a bone marrow transplant in June, 1991. By August,
he was attending what senior producer Terry Kay Rockefeller calls
"boot camp" with college professors lecturing on the Depression
at Tufts. Hampton said it's been two years since his last sign of
disease.
When Hampton first sought funding for this project, there was
resistance to his tackling the Depression. As he told the
magazine Emerge: "It's funny, black people aren't supposed to do
American history
(Some people) get kind of huffy and they
say, 'Well, wait a minute, he's doing Okies, F.D.R. and national
politics. "
As for those who objected, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to
keep them unnamed,' Hampton said recently. "It's not an uncommon
academic feeling.
As long as this kind of thing does not
interrupt my intent, it's relatively harmless. Just as many fine
white historians told a lot of strong black history, I think you
can be black and have a useful perspective on American history."
GRAPHIC: Photo, Filmmaker Henry Hampton: "When times get tight,
we push democracy up against the wall." ERIC ROTH / WGBH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH