Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr. And The Civil Rights Movement

It’s 2015 and we live in world that still sees man and judge’s man by the color of his skin. Now let’s step back in time fifty something years ago. The lines have been drawn whites on one side and African Americans on the other. Where would you be standing, would it be on the forefront of the battle lines fighting for equality or shouting from the rooftops racial slurs and spreading hate? We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given to by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”(King, 2).

I am very passionate about this organization because I am half African American, and I hate seeing my race dying over careless acts and not getting the justice they deserve. Black Lives Matter was created in 2012 after the Trayvon Martin case. Trayvon was a teenage black male who was unnecessarily killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida. The shooter shot Trayvon due to “suspicious” behavior in their neighborhood which led to an argument and then Trayvon was shot in the chest. What was so suspicious about Trayvon?

Ultimately, loop-h... ... middle of paper ... ...ther Plessy nor Scott should have had to battle for their rights in court. These cases are still referenced today to show how the US legally implemented institutionalized racism. Dred Scott was deprived of citizenship because his ancestors were slaves and Homer Plessy was denied equal treatment because he was a mulatto. Neither man was treated as an equivalent human being; rather they are both treated as an inferior species. The United States Constitution is abundantly clear in its interpretation and is made to have amendments when necessary as society fluctuates.

Black lives matter does not have a martin Luther King or A Malcolm X. In the 20th century Civil rights movement religious leaders played a heavy role in the fight for justice. Would the backlash of the killing of different African Americans been as strong if not for BLM. Would not the civil right movement have been as abrupt if not for The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), or the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and many other civil rights organization? Many years ago the KKK was labeled a Hate group for obvious reasons.

Despite all these accepted images of successful black people "selling" the idea that the color of a person's skin is irrelevant, racism still exists and will forever exist in America. It is a never-ending phenomenon that is ingrained in American life. Racism is America, just as America is built around the idea of racism. As the civil rights activist and scholar Derrick Bell would say, "Racism is an integral, permanent, and indestructible component of this society." He proclaims that no matter what blacks do to better their status, they are doomed to fail as long as the majority of whites do not see t... ... middle of paper ... ...ard fought battle that is still not near to being over, we as black people continue to fight on.

Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly. “People, including police officers, hold strong implicit associations between blacks, and probably Hispanics, and weapons, crime and aggression," said Jack Glaser. Police brutality statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to be murdered by cops than any other race.

Police are supposed to maintain the law, but how can you differentiate a police officer from a criminal when they themselves are breaking the law and killing innocent people. Police are not just killing people randomly, they are targeting African Americans. African Americans die at the hands of police more than white which proves that U.S. policies are discriminatory. In “Chicago police shot and killed 70 people, most of them black, in five years period ending in 2014” (Peter Katel 2016). Additional African Americans death by police is not just criminal but also innocent and unarmed African Americans.

This is a result of many believing and not simply just African Americans that black lives are being targeted more than any other race. In certain situations this is true according to The Washington Post “unarmed black men are 7 times more likely to die by police gunfire”. This would make a person who’s advocating for Black Lives Matter have a point to get upset about phrases like white lives matter or all lives matter. Race appears to forever become an element once it involves police brutality. When an African American is killed by a white police officer it almost always seems as it gets additional attention then when a Caucasian is killed.

Rodney King a black man who lived in Las Vegas was severely beaten by four white police officers. The officers were brought into court and tried on charges of assault. The officers were acquitted of the assault charges. Immediately protestors took to the streets, to express their angry over the judge’s decision. Protestors found the ruling to be unfair and was fed up with the ill-treatment.

The turmoil and stability of an area are correlated with the crime incidents that take place. In most cases, the extent of such incidents is largely dependent on upon the law enforcement the police practice in that area. The Ferguson incident in 2014 is the best case to demonstrate how the police practice of law enforcement caused a tragedy, and it led to a heated discussion on whether there were police brutality and racial profiling. On August 9, 2014, an 18-year-old black man named Michael Brown was fatally shot by a 28-year-old white police officer named Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. When issues of crime and race emerge, the society comes into chaos.