Comparing Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter

Racial discrimination has always been a part of American history. The racial dynamics have been constantly evolving over the nation’s history.

Wherever there has been racial inequality, there have been movements protesting for justice. Most recently, the Black Lives Matter movement has exploded on the scene and has captured the national media’s attention. The Black Lives Matter movement is often compared to the Civil Rights Movement in the media for the similarities in message, tactics and influence. In this essay, I will examine the similarities and differences between the two movements. I will focus on tactical strategies, political influence and response of government and media to analyze the movements.

To gain context of the two movements, it is important to briefly explain the movement’s founding. The Civil Rights movement was a social movement which spanned and evolved from the mid 1950’s to late 1960’s. The movement’s goal was to end racial segregation and discrimination against African-American people along with securing federal citizenship rights. Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community that campaigns against violence toward African-Americans.

The movement was created by the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. The movement became nationally recognized in 2014, for its street demonstrations after the death of two African-Americans in the hands of the police. The movement is active with its goal being to bring freedom and justice to all African-American lives.

A major component of a movement’s success is its strategic actions to instigate change and disperse the message. Both the Civil Rights Movement and BLM have utilized many different non-violent strategies to be heard and influence change. Both movements have used boycotts as a tool to raise awareness and further their goals. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one of the most well known examples in American history. After civil rights leader Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to obey segregation laws, the Montgomery Improvement Association organized a citywide boycott. The boycott involved 42,000 people, lasted 381 days and economically crippled the municipal bus service which resulted in the the successful integration of all city buses.

The BLM movement has recognized the power of boycotts and has organized some of their own. In 2014, BLM joined Walmart workers to boycott shopping at Walmart on Black Friday which resulted in a 11 percent loss of sales over that time period. BLM organized a similar boycott campaign this year, demanding companies divest from the private prison industry, releases an annual corporate racial justice report and hire local residents to ensure racial representation. The boycott this year has been estimated to cause a $1.5 billion loss in sales on that day.

Although both movements used boycotts as a tool to achieve their goals, their methods were very different. For example, After the arrest of Rosa Parks, many prominent ministers and civil rights activists gathered in person to organize the boycotts and handouts were made the following day urging blacks to stop using the city bus. This is the flier that was handed out to gather support for the boycott:

This flier obviously is not very aesthetically pleasing but contains all the information that was needed to spread their message. The BLM boycotts on the other hand were organized by the online campaign known as #NotOneDime. This is an internet post from the campaign;

While this flier is much more visibly appealing and likely to gather attention, it is much less informative than the Civil Rights flier from more than 50 years ago. This flier was specifically created to be dispersed online instead of in person. The difference in messaging strategy and technology is representative of the differences between the two movements. Where the Bus Boycott spread information through handouts and word of mouth, BLM shared information to millions through Twitter hashtags and Facebook posts. The difference between the effectiveness of both strategies is interesting to consider. The Montgomery Boycotts was focussed in just one city, yet they made a profound impact. On the other side, social media allows supporters of the BLM boycotts to participate all over the world.

Social movements throughout history that have tried to change the political structure of society are usually met with resistance by government. The Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements are no exception. One of the most turbulent times for the BLM movement was the Ferguson Unrest. There were large protests after the shooting of 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown, at the hands of a white police officer. Things got violent after protesters were met by riot squads and militarized police who established curfews on them. The U.S. Department of Justice later determined that the Ferguson Police Department had engaged in misconduct for discriminating against African-Americans and applying racial stereotypes. The excessive force used by police gained national media attention. The events in Ferguson lead to President Obama requesting federal funding for 50,000 body-worn cameras for police officers. In addition the White House has moved to reform the way local police can get heavy-military-style weapons and equipment.

The Civil Rights Movement protests were met with police violence every step of the way. One of the most influential cases is in Birmingham 1963, when a march was organized for the youth. Kids marched downtown signing “We Shall Overcome.” The kids were arrested and sent to jail until the jails overcrowded. The next day more children showed up to march and were met by firefighters turning high-pressure hoses on the young non-violent protesters. Journalists captured footage of these events which would go on and shock the nation. The attention lead President Kennedy to propose and eventually pass a civil rights bill which made sure blacks were included in all public facilities.

These two events have a lot in common in the way they were met with violence by authorities but eventually achieved some level of political reform. A key player in both of these scenarios was the role of the media. The coverage of the two events greatly raised public awareness of the racial problems within the Criminal System. The awareness of the issue lead to both Presidents at the time to speak on the issue and offer political reforms. The difference in origin of the two events are symbolic of the differences between the two movements. BLM protests tend to be more reactionary than those of the Civil Rights Movement. Organizations within the Civil Rights Movement organized marches that were ongoing with the expectation of conflict which would gain national attention. The Black Lives Matter protests on the other hand usually happen as a reaction to some racial injustice. For this reason, BLM protests are much more unpredictable with many experts saying that many cities have the right social conditions for large scale protests.

A key instrument of change for of the Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement was the role the media played. In both previous examples, it was only after the media covered the protests and raised public awareness and opinion on the issue that the President actually passed any policy. Both movements had similar message but had very different ways of gaining national attention. The difference in technology plays the largest role in the difference in how these organization gained attention.

The Black Lives Matter Movement was born on social media and has used it as a tool in every facet in its organizations. Because of social media, BLM does not need to rely on traditional news outlets to spread and control their message. Through the use of Twitter and Facebook, BLM is able to spread information to hundreds of millions of people around the world. The internet also makes it easier for activist to share articles from their perspective to the general public. In addition to using social media to share news information, it is also used to organize local and national supporters for events. The Civil Rights Movement obviously did not have access to such revolutionary tools. Instead, they had to rely on traditional news sources such newspapers, television and radio. Since they could not generate the news coverage for themselves, the Civil Rights Movement had to rely on different strategies to gain attention. For example marches, speeches and sit-ins were very effective at gaining national coverage. Despite the two movements having different strategies to gain media attention, both have relied on it heavily to achieve their goals.

The goals of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter Movement are both aimed to achieve political change. To discuss the success of these two movements it is necessary to examine their influence on the political sphere. One of the first major wins for the Civil Rights Movement came after multiple lawsuits in 1954, when the Supreme Court ,led by Chief Justice Earl Warren declared the “separate but equal” doctrine unconstitutional and required the desegregation of schools across America. It was a win for the movement but fear of potential violence slowed down progress. It wasn’t until 1957 that school segregation was challenged on a national level, when nine black students were met by violent protesters attempting to enter a traditionally white high school. President Eisenhower was forced to send in 1,000 paratroopers to escort the black students in the school. This scene was captured by journalists and news anchors who brought the racial issue into the national awareness for some of the first times.

While the Civil Rights Movement was fighting against blatant racism through segregation laws, the Black Lives Matter fights are much more subtle. BLM wants to completely restructure political systems such as Law Enforcement and the Prison Industry. These are very complicated systems that can not be easily changed by repealing one individual law or one supreme court decision. The BLM movement is more concerned with changing the framework for how politicians discuss and treat race than it is with changing individual laws. The young movement is already having an impact as John Eligon of the New York Times points out that “Local affiliates of the Black Lives Matter organization have disrupted numerous Democratic presidential campaign events, pushing the candidates to support policies to end mass incarceration and police brutality.” BLM has been able to make race relations one of the most important issues for presidential candidates.

Over the course of the Civil Rights Movement there were many political achievements. Perhaps the largest achievement was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which officially prohibited discrimination based on race. This was a historic piece of policy that many believed would never get passed. This act was followed by the Voting Rights Act which prohibited literacy tests from being used to prevent voters from registering and casting a ballot. Literacy tests were widely used to keep African-Americans excluded from the political process by limiting their ability to vote. On a larger scale, one of the key achievements of the Civil Rights movement was to bring the issue of racial discrimination to the forefront of the public’s eye. It could be argued that without the support of the national public and public opinion, policy change would not have been possible.

Bringing national attention on racial discrimination and influencing public opinion could be considered the biggest achievement of the Black Lives Matters movement. The movement has achieved some policy change but they aim to affect much more. Their current focus as mentioned before is on reforming the Law Enforcement system. BLM has called for ending “broken window” policing, which aggressively polices minor crimes in an attempt to stop larger ones. In addition, BLM has called for ending for-profit policing practices, ending the police use of militarized weapons, having the racial makeup of police departments reflect the communities they serve, and many more (BBC). While they have not yet achieved these reforms, their political actions have influenced politicians on a federal and state level to realize and champion their cause. BLM believes they have the ability to achieve these policy changes in the near future.

Both the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter movement had high political aspirations. They both have been able to achieve some political change through civil disobedience and actions outside of the political system. The Civil Rights Movement has obviously achieved much more so far than the Black Lives Matter Movement.This can mainly be attributed to difference in duration of the two movements. The BLM movement has only been established for two years yet they have had immediate influence. BLM has the potential to create political change on a similar scale to the Civil Rights Movement given the same amount of time. The historic level of change the Civil Rights Movement achieved is certainly influencing the aspirations of BLM.

Black Lives Matter has received much criticism for some of its tactics and message. On numerous occasions BLM has protested during presidential candidates speeches. Most notably are the protests during Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders speeches. This upset many supporters within the movement who believed the candidates are supporters of the movements cause. This represents a core tenant of the BLM strategy which is to remain unaffiliated with any political party or candidates, although many leaders in the movement disagree with this stance. These actions were not only criticised by supporters, but also liberal media that generally is in support of the movement. A large BLM criticism from conservative media has been that of #AllLivesMatter (Bedrick, David). Many conservative opinion leaders have argued that the name Black Lives Matter is divisive and excludes other races from the conversation. BLM founders responded by saying that “All Lives Matter implies that all lives are equally at risk, and they’re not.”

The Civil Rights movement also encountered much criticism from the media. Many of the protests, sit-ins and boycotts received criticism from politicians, citizens and media. They believed that the movement was being too disruptive and using the wrong tactics to achieve their goals. Much of the violence that the marches encountered was blamed on the protestors In many cases, the media chose not to cover the protests at all. For example, the day after the Birmingham marches, the Birmingham News described it as “about 100 negro demonstrators singing and strutting were dispersed with fire hoses and police dogs.” This is obviously a completely watered down version of the event. Non coverage of the Civil Rights events were almost more harmful than criticism since the movement relied on news coverage to share their message with the country.

In conclusion, There are many similarities and differences between the Black Lives Matter and Civil Rights Movement in terms of strategies, political influence and response by government and media. The two movements have shared similar strategies such as marches, protests and boycotts. However, the difference in technology required the Civil Rights Movement to rely much more on in-person meetings, word of mouth and gaining attention through traditional media channels. Both movements were able to gather enough public support to influence politicians and reform policy. The goals of the two movements were different nonetheless in that the Civil Rights Movement aimed to end segregation laws, whereas Black Lives Matter is attempting to reform structural system. Both of these movements were met with resistance by governmental forces such as police. The internet however allowed Black Lives Matter to capture and share their treatment with the world whereas the Civil Rights Movement depended on journalists to capture the events. Media played a huge role in both of these movements and received their fair share of criticism. The Civil Rights Movement had little power to influence the framing of the national media, where Black Lives Matters is able to have input as well as control of the conversation. Overall, despite the many differences, it is appropriate to compare the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter because of the over arching theme of racial inequality in their message and goals.