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 Famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote, "Power concedes nothing without demand." THE DEMOCRATIC PROMISE: SAUL ALINSKY AND HIS LEGACY is the story of ordinary people making demands for the power to govern their own lives. Narrated by Alec Baldwin, the documentary examines both the history of community organizing - through the work of Saul Alinsky - as well as the current state of community organizing, as shown by contemporary organizations in New York and Texas. In a larger sense, the program is about the restoration of American democracy through shared public participation in civil life - a vital antidote to an era of increased citizen alienation and voter apathy. The first half of the program focuses on Alinsky's techniques and philosophy, chronicling his work with three influential organizations: The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, The Woodlawn Organization and FIGHT. Started in 1939 in Chicago's blighted stockyards community, The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council was an organization comprised of neighborhood groups, small businesses and labor unions. By forming an unprecedented coalition between the Catholic Church and the Meatpackers Union, the Council was able to force several landmark concessions from the meatpacking industry. In 1959 Alinsky helped found The Woodlawn Organization on Chicago's south side, which brought the struggle for civil rights to the North and challenged Mayor Richard J. Daley's powerful Democratic machine. In the mid-'60s in Rochester, New York, the FIGHT organization took on Eastman Kodak over the issue of racial hiring, resulting in a series of impressive victories and a transformation of race relations in that city.
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