Juan Williams details 2nd civil rights movement in ‘New Prize for These Eyes’

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• Geoff Bennett:

  In 1987, journalist Juan Williams helped illuminate the civil rights movement with "Eyes on the Prize," a groundbreaking book that brought history to life and became an essential chronicle of the fight for racial equality.

  That book was paired with a groundbreaking PBS documentary of the same name. Now, nearly four decades later, Williams returns with "New Prize For These Eyes," a powerful and timely update on this MLK day that looks at the new 21st century civil rights movement.

  I recently spoke with him about it.

  Juan Williams, welcome to the "News Hour."

  Juan Williams, Author, "New Prize For These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement": My pleasure, Geoff. Thanks for having me.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What about this current moment inspired you to write a follow-up to your 1987 book, "Eyes on the Prize"?

• Juan Williams:

  You know, boy, 1987, that's a way back.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Almost 40 years ago.

• Juan Williams:

  Yes, exactly.

  So, 40 years ago, I wrote "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years." And it was accompanying a PBS special of the same name. It was a great success.

  So now, 40 years later, here I am, and I'm saying to you, I think we're in the midst of a second civil rights movement. And I have written a book called "New Prize For These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement."

  And the key here is that, if you think about "Eyes on the Prize" and the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, in some ways, it could be summed up three words: We shall overcome. And then the focus there is on attaining basic rights through legislation, people marching in the streets.

  OK, fast-forward to 2025, and here we are with Black Lives Matter. And what do we see? Black Lives Matter, in terms of marches, well, goodness gracious, thousands of marches with millions of people, as opposed to, say, even the great March on Washington with Dr. King, which had 250,000 people.

  So we're seeing right now a movement that's much larger, and it's 24/7. It's on the Internet. It's tweets, it's memes, it's viral messages, viral images, and all about living while Black. If you think back to the George Floyd case, what really got that going was the video image of the nine minutes of the policeman with his knee on George Floyd's neck.

  So, in this moment, I thought there's a lot going on here that people don't think of as a civil rights movement. And this movement is distinct from the first movement. It's all about not passing legislation, but about people gaining voice and saying, this is what it's like to be Black, to be Latino, to be a woman in this age.

  And it's changing the way we think about America because these people are having their own voice. It's a new conversation. It's a new movement.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Distinct and new, but what historical patterns and parallels stand out to you?

• Juan Williams:

  Well, obviously, I mentioned marching.

  Obviously, the marches of back then were meant to have an impact, and you see marches today. So there would be some parallel there, although, as I pointed out to you, this — marches today much larger and have in some ways, I think, much more impact.

  The conversation we're having now, as compared to then, is not about, can we pass a Civil Rights Act? Can we pass a Voting Rights Act? Can we get enough votes to do it? Now the conversation is, and this is pushing forward, what is the norm for America? Where are we going forward on this conversation of race? Is it OK to have a conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion in terms of hiring?

  How about in terms of cultural representation? Do we need to have that conversation? What about curriculum and what goes on in the schools? Should we be teaching people about oftentimes disturbing, even unpleasant, and cruel history, or is that something that's going to make children upset, and we don't need to do it?

  Do we have in the politics a real conversation? The Republican Party right now is overwhelmingly a white people's party. It's 80-plus percent white. Look at the vote for Donald Trump, overwhelmingly white. Look at the vote for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, strongly Black. We saw some decrease in terms of Black men and Latino men, but, still, it's like 80 percent of Black and Latinos, Blacks anyway, voted for the Democrats.

  So, yes, these conversations have parallels, but you see the emerging difference from that first movement.

• Geoff Bennett:

  One of the takeaways from the last election is that many of the efforts to advance social justice struck many Americans as too confrontational, too judgmental, that many of the activists and advocates misread and miscalibrated where the American public stands on a lot of these social issues.

  You did a lot of the writing and reporting of this book well before the election, but what have you picked up in your conversations, and what are your takeaways on that front?

• Juan Williams:

  You know, Geoff, that's such a fascinating question, because I'm a journalist, basically. I'm not an historian.

  Oftentimes people, I think, not just a journalist, but just a casual observer of the news, you lose focus, because things come so quickly, especially these days from so many different sources.

  But I think that right now, if you focus and say, oh, I see the dots connecting, I see how things are impacting us, you would have to say that we are moving towards a moment where that,if there is a second movement, there has to be a third movement, because right now, people seeing Donald Trump's election and seeing all the arguments that, well, too much of this identity politics and too much of this DEI, diversity, inclusion, that you would say, well, how do they reinvent that circle or that machine?

  I can't necessarily tell you that story, but I can tell you this, that, based on what I have seen, the politics have to change. Oftentimes, activists in the past have been sort of discontented with politics and politicians, even a great one like Barack Obama. But now they're going to have to understand what compromise means.

  Now they're going to have to start to work to build alliances. Now they're going to have to work to see where it is that you can reach out to the majority of Trump voters and say there's common interest in understanding why the races, the ethnicities come together to form one America.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What do you envision as the ultimate prize for this new movement and what does achieving it look like?

• Juan Williams:

  So one of the interesting things — and this goes back to what we were talking about early in the conversation about media and so many voices emerging — is the living-while-Black or Latino quality of it, that people, young people, my kids, your kids, would have a sense, you know what, I have an equal opportunity in this country.

  I don't feel put upon or stigmatized by the color of my skin or my name being foreign sounding or anything like that. I think that that is the prize is that you would say, in America, it doesn't matter who you are, where you came from. If you have the heart and the drive and the mind, you — and the spirit, you can do it.

  The common humanity, I think that remains the prize.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The book is "New Prize For These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement."

  Juan Williams, it's great to have you here. Thanks for coming in.

• Juan Williams:

  Geoff, thanks for having me here. As you know, "Eyes on the Prize" was a PBS product.

• Geoff Bennett:

  That's correct.

• Juan Williams:

  So I am so pleased to be here.

• Geoff Bennett:

  A full circle moment.

• Juan Williams:

  I tell you.

  (Laughter)