2008 Woodie Awards
Copywrighting Our Way to Erasing the Past
Ownership Rights Threaten Black History Education
Richa Agarwal
Issue date: 2/4/05 Section: Arts & Features
|
February is Black History Month, but it seems history is becoming increasingly difficult to retell with any sort of consistency. Over time, artifacts from the past decay, and information is continuously fabricated in order to meet modern social demands. Our relationship with the past becomes more and more distant.
But technology was supposed to make history more accessible, right? The advent of recording devices has made documenting history so much easier; now we can pop in a video and see for ourselves what truly happened. It would seem that the era of the American Civil Rights movement, in which African Americans circa 1950 to 1970 struggled to end racial discrimination and segregation, would be, given its temporal proximity, an easy history to remember. But unfortunately, technology cannot help us there ... or can it?
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965) is an extremely comprehensive documentary series capturing footage from the American Civil Rights Movement. It originally aired on PBS in 1987 with six parts ("Awakenings," "Fighting Back," "Ain't Scared of Your Jails," "No Easy Walk," "Mississippi: Is This America?" and "Bridge To Freedom"). Eight more parts were broadcast in 1990 as Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965-1985). This important historical document was produced over twelve years by Henry Hampton and his Boston-based company, Blackside, Inc. The film received over 23 awards, including two Emmys, the duPont Columbia Award, the Edward R. Murrow Brotherhood Award for Best National Documentary and the CINE Golden Eagle, to name a few. Clearly, film critics and professionals warmly received this work, but more importantly, its use as an educational tool was applauded by historians and educators alike. While the series documents landmark events such as the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it also brings to light the efforts of individuals in a movement largely propelled on a grassroots level - a phenomenon that often goes overlooked in historical textbooks.
Unfortunately, this documentary is no longer commercially available because it has faced a tangle of copyright issues on the photographs, television news footage, and music used in the documentary. Filmmakers must pay licensing fees for each copyrighted work - including songs, photographs and video clips - within the film. One scene in Eyes II shows Martin Luther King on his 39th - and, sadly, last - birthday, with his colleagues singing "Happy Birthday" to him. The 1935 copyright on "Happy Birthday" will not expire until 2030, and Time Warner, which bought the rights in 1988, owns the song until then. The writers of the song, Patty and Mildred Hill, are no longer alive, yet Time Warner profits off their creation - even though, in theory, copyright exists to prevent that from happening.