Black Lives Matter, a movement that continues to be a dominant headline in today’s news. It is a movement that promotes the rights of African Americans. That is right. Marches and protest promoting civil rights and bringing to light the social injustices of the current times. This sounds very familiar to when Martin Luther King Jr. led his peaceful protest for the rights of the black community to vote. African American people in America have had a long and hard road in history when it comes to civil rights and voting. In Robert A. Pratt’s book “Selma’s Bloody Day,” He goes through the history of the transgressions and measures used by white supremist to make sure they could keep their power and prevent further rights from being given to the black community. He then walks through how the black community then protested and demanded their rights which opened the door for the …show more content…
The march from Selma to Montgomery drew a lot of attention. Some negative and some positive. The book said that ten doctors and nurses flew to Selma and there was ambulance close and available. There were also reporters there and as the police and other authorities advanced on the peaceful protestors, cameras were catching the action. On every front-page paper in America, pictures of tear gas and beaten marchers showed the nation the ugly truth that was the total racism in the South. Roy Reed, a reporter at the scene described what he saw. Reed’s story was brutal just like every other witness that gave their story that was there and after these stories were published the outrage spread (p.60). After Selma, Pratt said that the movement was able to take off. He said that Dr. King was able to be taken serious (p.98). This is why things were able to get done. With the support of the majority of the nation behind them, the voting rights movement took off. It is why the voting rights act was signed on the sixth of August
On the first day of the march, nicknamed Bloody Sunday, the activists made it to the Edmund Pettus Bridge before being stopped and brutally beaten by police officers. The activists persevered after the beatings, returning the two days later chanting “we’re gonna march!” (March Book Three 212). Their hope far outweighed any fear of being beaten again. Finally, two weeks after Bloody Sunday, they were allowed to march all the way to Montgomery. The perseverance of those who still marched to Montgomery after all of the violence that had been committed against them shows that the hope they had far superseded any doubts or fears they
It helped the marchers by, after all that marching, they got the Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the 36th president of the United States. After what all the marchers went through, like getting beat up, called names, the lost of lives, shotgun shells, clubs, barbed wire, the marchers actually did something. Before they all went to march, a few percent of blacks could vote. They separated whites from blacks. White’s had their own water fountain, bathroom, and other stuff from the blacks. The Voting Rights Act did not help end whites and blacks from being separated, it helped let or give a chance for blacks to have the right to speak freely. The first march that they went on, the marchers did not have any sort of weapon, protection, or anything to keep them safe. The second march, they didn’t have anything again. The third march, they had federal protection. Years later, after the successful march of Selma to Montgomery, there was a historic trail created in 1996. The name of the trail was named, Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail. This trail remembered those who walked just to fight for the rights of African Americans that could not
Over 200,000 demonstrators participated in the March on Washington in the nation’s capital on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to gain civil rights for African Americans. There was a wide diversity in those who participated, with a quarter of all the demonstrators being white (Ross). Even southern people came to contribute, which caused them to be harassed and threatened for coming to the march. The March on Washington became a very successful event for the rights of African Americans, and amended several peoples’ view-points towards the topic, even President John Kennedy’s.
Black lives matter is a social media movement that went of the Ferguson, Gardner cases etc. Also very rapidly it was to show as a opposition to the police and cops. Somehow when saying black lives matter it was like saying all life matter don’t matter. It’s a touchy subject due to why people view things and for most case I can understand. I feel that the person that made black life’s matter didn’t mean for it to be just all about black life but to inform others around the nation that there is a special problem that is only happening in the African American community and we have fix that issue . we as a society has to recognize this that the African American are not making this up this its not something being politicalized its real and there’s a history behind it so we have to seriously.
One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.
People who said that that the voting right was a result of Selma also said that the events that went in Birmingham, Alabama in April and in May of 1963 produced the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In more than one occasions black civil right people were lead by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and were met with outrageous law enforcements tactics. In the Selma march demonstrators were always peaceful, but the officers would use weapons on them even though the Selma demonstrators never did anything harmful. On March 7th a day after the bloody Sunday, dozens of speakers said that t...
Recently, there is a spike of historical films being released lately. One of the films is an Academy Award nominee for “Best Picture,” Selma. The film, Selma, is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The film shows the struggles of the black community face with the blockage of their voting rights and the racial inequality during the civil rights movement. Selma is about civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. heading to the rural Alabama City, Selma, to secure the voting rights for the African American community by having a march to Montgomery. It shows the struggles from what the African American community had to endured during the 1960s. Selma shows a social significance to today’s current events, specifically
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
“They told us we wouldn’t get here! And there were those who said that we would get there only over their dead bodies, but all the world today knows that we are here and we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, "We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around!” The march from Selma to Montgomery was a major part of history, segregation was really at its peak and African Americans were treated very poorly by the public by getting beaten and abused even by their own Law Enforcement Officers!
African Americans had been struggling to obtain equal rights for scores of decades. During the 1960’s, the civil rights movement intensified and the civil rights leaders entreated President Kennedy to intervene. They knew it would take extreme legislature to get results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the civil rights battle, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches and sit-ins and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama to try and force a crisis that the President would have to acknowledge. Eventually things became heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, which included many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the horror of the world. Finally this forced the President into action and he proposed a bill outlawing segregation in public facilities. The bill became bogged down in Congress but civil righ...
180). The scope of the movement would grow quickly, with the movement revolving around the concept “that [black people’s] lives mean something. That Black Lives Matter” (Cullors, 2018, p. 180). Cullor’s theory of change is encapsulated in the ideals of human rights, which the Black Lives Matter movement advocates fully for. Furthermore, Cullors contends that diversity within the movement is important for a successful execution of the movement and thus her theory of change. She states that the Black Lives Matter movement is being “led by women, Queer and straight, cisgender and Trans”, with it being important for all to raise their voices to prevent anymore tragedies from occurring (Cullors, 2018, p. 229). Cullors recognizes that the execution of this theory of change requires a great deal of work, however, she finds that it is important to always push forward in an effort to create a new “movement culture in which we care for the humanity of the people we’re fighting for and with” (Cullors, 2018, p. 251). The possibility of a world in which everyone’s life is truly regarded as equal is a long-term goal of this theory of change, however, Cullors does note that it will be especially difficult to achieve in the wake of Donald J. Trump’s presidency (Cullors, 2018, p. 252). Through working together, however, Cullors contends that her theory of change and the consequent movement can allow for the potential for a world in which it is clearly seen that black lives do matter (Cullors, 2018, 253). Similarly to how Cullors own experiences helped to shape her world view, my own experiences have also greatly assisted in shaping my view of the
First off Black Lives Matter is a powerful organization that has gained national attention. The movement was started in 2012, after the death of seventeen year Trayvon Martin. A very controversial trial came about, against a police officer named George Zimmerman who had shot the young black man. The main goal of black lives matter is to prevent
Conclusively Fergusons protest turned into a violent conduct in the streets preceding the rage of families who were not convinced that the police officer was truly not guilty and deserved no sentence or charge. On the contrary the 1968 marches in Selma Alabama did not turn to violent uprising in the cities in towns just people who rallied together for people’s rights and freedoms nevertheless the violence used against those who wanted to march the innocent people were bludgeoned, shot, and beaten because they did not want the blacks too be able too vote. In conclusion Selma, Alabama and Ferguson, Missouri both had important marches and protests for people’s lives and their fundamental rights and freedoms. Compared in their cause, their content, and proceeding
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978
When a person thinks about Black Lives Matter, he or she may visualize African Americans fighting for justice and equality. The movement Black Lives Matter was created to bring awareness to systematic racism, police brutality and social injustice that African Americans face on a daily basis. In contrary, All Lives Matter downplays the fact that black people are looked down upon in society. All Lives Matter may seem like an innocent title, but it emphasizes that justice for black people is not necessary. Black Lives Matter is not a movement that believes all lives do not matter; nevertheless, it highlights the fact that black lives are taken for granted by the judicial system.