Picturing life in the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks is difficult; picturing it in the midst of the civil rights movement is even more difficult.

But the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration planning committee hopes to change that with the "Eyes on the Prize" film series, running from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today through Wednesday in the HUB Auditorium.

"[Showing the films is] so important now because we have so many people who knew nothing of Dr. King, who were not alive yet when Dr. King was killed," said Thomas Poole, chairman of the committee and associate vice provost for educational equity.

"I think many people have grown up in a society that has benefited from the civil rights movement without truly understanding the struggle it took to get there."

The first six one-hour segments of the documentary series were made in 1987. They focus on the civil rights movement from 1952 to 1965, including the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the leadership and assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1990, eight more segments were added to the previous six, covering the evolution of civil rights in America from 1965 until the making of the second installment.

"One of the anomalies about American society is that so much of our history is sort of disposable," said Larry Young, Paul Robeson Cultural Center director.

"We live off clichés about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but the details get lost. There's certainly a sense of national embarrassment when it comes to the racial history of America. Ignoring that simply means we could go back to a time when those things could exist again."

In addition to the danger of history repeating itself, Young said recent events associated with Penn State show a lack of knowledge on the part of the students at University Park.

"When you have, for example, students at this university trivializing organizations like the Ku Klux Klan at a Halloween party, it means that they don't understand that that group of people is involved in murder, rape and bombing across this country," he said. "Only people who are ignorant of that history could think there is something humorous about that."

Charles Dumas, associate professor of theatre and African and African-American studies, said "Eyes on the Prize" is an invaluable depiction of the civil rights movement, and he shows the film series in one of his classes.

"All students should be exposed to it," he said. "People don't understand the civil rights movement and how much conflict existed in America at the time. They think of affirmative action or something. But this was mobs in the street, people being killed."

The film series, in whole or in parts, often shocks viewers because it depicts the kinds of domestic conflict that are unfamiliar to those who did not live through it, Dumas said.

"When we see those things happening in a foreign country, we cry out," Young said.

"The same thing was happening to students in this country simply because their skin was black -- it resonates with [viewers]. This is not black history -- it is American history, and Americans need to know their history."