THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS IN THE USA & THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
BLACK LIVES MATTER
An international activist movement
by Sarah Maalouf
WHAT IS BLACK LIVES MATTER?
Black Lives Matter is a member-led activist movement whose goal is to raise awareness upon the subject of inequality and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. It was formed to be more of a human rights movement rather than a civil rights movement, in 2013.
THE ASSOCIATIONS AFFIRMATIONS AND PROMISES
The association affirms the lives of african-americans in LGBTQ+, disabled, undocumented people, with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. The network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.
WHY WAS BLACK LIVES MATTER FORMED? The association campaigns against violence and systemic racism african-americans endure daily in the United States, such as police killings of black people, and broader issues such as racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system.
Black Lives Matter
by Carmelina Tsangaris
Black lives matter is an organization formed by three very ambitious and brave African American women its purpose being to defend the rights of African pupils and put an end to racial discrimination. The founding of this association initiated from a hashtag: #blacklivesmatter that went viral, on July 13th 2013. African people have always been victims of racial discrimination and have often been perceived as inferior to the Caucasian community. Admittedly, nowadays those inequitable separations are not as common as before thanks to many manifestations and revolutionary associations such as Black lives matter. BLM was founded in the United States of America, however it is an international movement defending all African pupils rights. The campaign battles against racial discrimination, police brutality and killings of African people, racial profiling and judiciary dissimilarity in the USA. Its manifestations mainly take place in the USA.
The founders of this remarkable campaign are as I mentioned previously, three African American women, namely: Patrisse Cullors (to the left), Alicia Garza (in the middle), Opal Tometti (to the right).
Three notable women are treasures to our society as their stories and achievements go way beyond the founding of this association.
§ Alicia Garza is a civil rights activist who has bravely fought for the injustices concerning many controversial issues of health, student services and rights, rights for domestic workers, police brutality, anti-racism, and violence against trans and gender non-conforming people of color. She is also an editorial writer.
§ Patrisse Cullors is an activist defending very heavy matters specifically racial discrimination, queer rights and prison abolition. She is also a writer.
§ Opal Tometti is an activist advocating for human rights issues and racial justice worldwide. She has also campaigned for advancing human rights and migrant rights.
Today, in 2020, it has been 7 years since the campaign was founded and its accomplishments are clearly outstanding as well as astonishing. To begin with, in 2015, over 120 communities nationwide have some form of civilian review board according to the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement and the strongest reform on police militarization of any state in the USA has been signed. Additionally, the police officers who were responsible for racial violence against African citizens are being charged for their crimes and held accountable for shootings. Finally, police departments have been banned from obtaining certain military equipment from the program, such as tracked armored vehicles. These achievements certainly are of the outmost significance for the justice for African pupils and are things that probably could not have been done without the help of Black Lives Matter.
“A raisin in the sun”, which is the play we are currently studying in class is about an African American family in the 1950s and how they manage their lives. It depicts their money struggles, the way the black community is set apart from the rest of the American society and how the family copes with all of this. The members of the Younger family suffer quite a bit from these racial segregations and most certainly should not, as all humans are to be equal and have the same rights regardless of their social status or background. The play takes place in the 1950s which obviously was a very different time and racial discrimination was a lot more present in the world back then. The 1950s were certainly better for the African community than the centuries prior to that when African people were slaves and thus treated worse than animals, but it was still very hard for them to live peacefully alongside the Caucasian community and equality amongst all humans had not yet been established. Today in 2020, African pupils are much more accepted, and people nowadays know that all humans are equal. There still are some cases of racial discrimination but whoever disrespects any other person in any way is sure to be punished considering the gravity of his actions. For that, we can only thank the people who manifested and bravely fought for the equality of all humans as well as the associations such as “Black lives matter”, and as I mentioned earlier our society would be much more different if it weren’t for these outstanding pupils.