Evolution of Civil Rights Movement is Black Lives Matter Movement

Kendria Haley
Staff Writer/Practicum

It has been over 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed freeing more than 3 million slaves. However, many African-Americans, as well as other minority groups, believe that inequality among the races still exists. The Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and Black Live Matter (BLM) spawned from these beliefs.

Minorities over the years have spoken out against these acts with peaceful protests, as well as forms of civil disobedience. But the question is, how do these two movements differ?

Robert Luckett, associate history professor and director of the Margaret Walker Center, explained his take on the similarities and differences of both historical movements.

“It’s not Civil Rights Movement vs. Black Lives Matter Movement. It’s an evolution. They are the same historical trajectory,” said Luckett.

During the interview, Luckett explained that although the Black Lives Matter movement and the Civil Rights Movement were during different times, they were one in the same. Believing that the Black Lives Matter movement started from police sanctioned violence, an ongoing issue shared with the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.

“The Black Lives Matter movement is a modern-day version of the same movement,” Luckett said.

Opinions on the topic vary greatly on campus.

LeKeyla Norris, a graduate student majoring in reading education from Jackson, Miss., said, “I think the Civil Rights Movements and Black Lives Matter Movement have similarities. They both are movements that are focused on equal rights for everyone.”

Some students think that the movements have similarities but feel that the Civil Rights Movement, benefit minorities more.

Ashlee McGaw, a senior special education major from Clinton, Miss., said, “I think the movements have similarities and both ultimately strive for the same outcome but the Black Lives Matter movement hasn’t been as successful as the Civil Rights Movement.

McGaw believes that the major differences in the movements are involvement and effectiveness.

“One big difference is the fact that the CRM involved everyone. Everyone was effected by the fact that they couldn’t vote, sit at lunch counters, or do anything that they wanted to do. There were no rights. Now, BLM is only mentioned when something happens. It isn’t a constant movement. It doesn’t affect anyone but black lives. As soon as the next big thing happens, the movement is over until another unarmed black male is killed,” McGaw stated.

Although there are some differences in the movements, it is safe to say they both have the same outcome in mind, change. Through fear and determination people of all walks stand together for one common goal. Luckett stated that students should be the change they want to see in the community.

“I think that we glorify the Civil Rights Movement. There were not millions of people, only a select few that stuck their neck out. So, when you notice there may not be that big of a turnout at protests, this is typical. People were scared then, and they are scared now,” Luckett said.

Luckett added: “The fact that we can have this discussion without being afraid is evidence that things have changed in a positive way.”

While the debate on the effectiveness of both movements will continue to be discussed, most agree that the fact that the discussion is still necessary is why the Black Lives Matter movement is ongoing.

As we celebrate Black History Month, turning points that led to both movements can be found below:

1619: A year before the Mayflower, the first 20 African slaves are sold to settlers in Virginia as “indentured servants.”

1789: Constitution adopted; slaves counted as three-fifths of a person for means of representation.

1831: Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia.

1857: The Dred Scott decision: The Supreme Court rules against him, saying African-American people are regarded as “so far inferior…that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

1861: The Civil War begins.

1863: January 1, Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

1865:

• The Civil War ends.
• Ku Klux Klan organized in Pulaski, Tenn.
• The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified

1868:

• Fourteenth Amendment, making African-Americans full citizens of the United States and prohibiting states from denying them equal protection or due process of law, is ratified.

1870:

• The Fifteenth Amendment enacted, guaranteeing the right to vote
• The first “Jim Crow” or segregation law is passed in Tennessee mandating the separation of African-Americans from whites.

1896: The Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, rules that state laws requiring separation of the races are within the bounds of the Constitution as long as equal accommodations are made for African-Americans.

1910: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded by W.E.B Du Bois, Jane Addams, John Dewey and others.

1954: In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules deliberate public school segregation illegal, effectively overturning “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson.

1955:

• On Aug. 28, 14 year old Emmett Till is beaten, shot and lynched by whites after allegedly saying “bye, baby” to a white woman in a store in Mississippi.
• On Dec. 1, Rosa Parks refuses to up her bus seat to a white man, precipitating the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

1956: Montgomery bus boycott ends in victory.

1957: Efforts to integrate Little Rock, Ark., Central High School meet with legal resistance and violence. On Sept. 24, federal troops mobilize to protect the nine African American students at the high school from white mobs trying to block the school’s integration.

1960: Feb. 1, Lunch counter sit-in by four college students in Greensboro, N.C. begins and spreads through the South. On April 17, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded.

1963:

• Over a quarter of a million people participate in the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, and hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech.
• Medger Evers, NAACP field secretary in Jackson, Miss., murdered on June 12, 1963.
• A Birmingham church is bombed on Sept. 15, killing four African-American girls attending Sunday school.

1965:

• The Voting Rights Act passes and is signed into law on Aug. 6, effectively ending obstacles used to disenfranchise African-American and other minority citizens.
• The Watt’s section of Los Angeles erupts in five days of rioting after an African-American woman is killed by a fire truck driven by white men.

1968: The Supreme Court, in Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (Virginia), rules that “actual desegregation” of schools in the South is required.

2012:

• Feb. 26: Trayvon Martin is shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. The Black Lives Matter movement officially starts when Zimmerman is later acquitted of murdering Martin.
• Nov. 23: 17 year old Jordan Davis is shot at a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla. by white man Michael Dunn after a verbal argument about the volume of the teenagers’ music, Dunn shoots 10 rounds into their car, killing Davis. Dunn is sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

2013:

• Nov. 2:Renisha McBride, 19, is shot dead in Detroit after a car accident when she knocks on the door of Theodore Wafer’s. Wafer fatally shoots her through his door. 

2014:

• July 17: Eric Garner, 43, is killed by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo after being put in a chokehold on the side of the road. A bystander films the footage of the 43-year-old father gasping for air and saying “I can’t breathe” before turning limp. The phrase becomes a key part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Aug. 5: John Crawford, 22, is shot dead by police after being seen with a toy gun, which he picked up in the store.
• Aug. 9: Unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by officer Darren Wilson outside of an apartment complex in Ferguson, Mo.
• Aug. 11: Just two days later on August 11, Ezell Ford, who according to his family has a mental disability, is killed by Los Angeles police officers while walking in the street.
• Oct. 20: Laquan McDonald, 17, is shot 16 times in 13 seconds by police officer Jason Van Dyke after he refuses to drop a three-inch knife in Chicago, Illinois.
• Nov. 23: Tamir Rice, 12, is seen pointing a gun at random people Cleveland, Ohio. A call is made to police. The caller says the gun is “probably fake”, but the information is not relayed to the attending officers.

2015:

• April 12: Freddie Gray is arrested in Baltimore, dies after sustaining injuries in police custody
• Nov. 16: Jamar Clark, 24, is shot in the head by police, with some witnesses claiming he was handcuffed at the time. The Black Lives Matter movement protests outside the Fourth Precinct police station for 18 days.

2016:

• July 5: Anton Sterling is shot five times in the chest at close range by police
• July 6: Diamond Reynolds uses Facebook Live to stream the fallout of her boyfriend Philando Castile being shot by police in Minnesota.
• July 7: Five police officers are killed by a sniper at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas.
• July 22: Unarmed black man Charles Kinsey is shot and injured in Miami while lying on the ground with his arms raised in the air and pleading with officers to hold their fire.