Civil Rights have been a sensitive and controversial topic in this country through many decades dating back to even before 1650. According to History.com, the first African slaves came through the Middle Passage in 1619. In 1865 slavery officially ended. (At least legally.) For many years to come though, many Africans and African Americans were forced to work for low or no pay whatsoever. A few years after the abolition of slavery, black codes are put in place. These codes have essentially no change except they were not called slave codes anymore. In 1870, the rights for African Americans to vote are now allowed. This does not mean they are now equal though. In order for black people to vote, they must complete a very unfair literary test and recite the constitution. Years later in 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the constitutional government states that separate but equal is fair and right. The only problem is that they are not equal. Many black schools are in horrible condition for good education while white schools are very superb for the time and exceling in condition. It is not for almost 60 years later that Brown v. Education stated that it is unconstitutional for schools to be segregated. This being said, the Little Rock Nine are walked in to school with guards escorting them to every class for their safety. Even though this is some more progress, one year later, a young man named Emmett Till is brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman and the two murders are acquitted by an all white jury. Additionally, months later, the murderers boast about the crime and this caused a lot of outrage. Like this uprising, the 1966-1969 riots all were because of an outrage. The people participating in these riots are becoming overwhelmingly upset with the injustice in society. They don’t like the injustice in the justice system, in the education system, in the employment system. They don’t like the inequality in housing and pay. As seen throughout this website, violence was a big problem in this time. Black people were fighting for their rights through violence and the police system was unfairly arresting people and using unnecessary force.
The descriptions of these riots have uncannily similar to recent riots that have happened in Ferguson Missouri and Florida. These riots are very much similar to the riots in the 60’s because many police officers are making unfair arrests, inaccurate accusations, saying racial statements, etc. Ferguson is a city known for the riots that happened in 2014 over the death of the young man named in the picture above, Michael Brown. He had just left a convenience store after stealing some items when a police officer called to the scene came up and shot him. The whole incident is controversial because according to New York Times, the police officer, Darren Wilson, claimed to shoot in self-defense because Brown was charging after him He was not armed and in this picture shown below, shows the scene of the crime. There were 12 bullet casings found. This means that Wilson attempted to shoot Brown 12 times. Brown was shot about six times, two in the head. Below shows the report of the bullet wounds found on Michael Brown. In the Trayvon Martin case, Martin was on school suspension and was traveling to see his dad’s fiancé at her house in Florida. One night, he was walking around the neighborhood and according to Zimmerman, a member of the neighborhood watch, he looked suspicious and looked like he was going to break into some houses. (Trayvon Martin pictured below.) The part not many articles tell though, is that Zimmerman had called numerous time to the police describing black men as suspicious looking. Below is a copy of the entire conversation between Zimmerman and the dispatcher on the night of Martin’s murder:
Many aspects are similar to this one as they are in the 1960’s riots and the Ferguson rioting. The similarities between these riots are not why we study them though. We study these because the Civil Rights movement was a time of hope and frustration. We study these riots because even though we are integrated and equal, some populations in society still don’t feel that we are all equal. We study it because police officers still get away with racial comments and biased arrests. We study this to understand the frustration and the dangerous risks that black people took in this time to gain equality. We study this to understand the feeling of the neighborhoods these protests are taking place. We study this to learn about the fear throughout the cities. Most importantly, we study this to understand why the country is the way it is. Because of these riots (and many things leading up to it), the laws on what officers are allowed to do are restricted. Cop cars have cameras. People now record encounters with police officers in hope that they will catch the injustice. Our cities are formed from their history. Looking around Omaha, you know that North Downtown Omaha is mostly black people. You look and see that South Downtown Omaha is mostly Latino people. This isn’t due to comfort zones; this is due to redlining. Redlining is when a certain area of a city is too poor to receive loans and are too low to be expected to move up the financial and social ladder. This being said, realtors wouldn’t show black people houses past 16th street in the fear of integration.
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Why?In the comments below, please tell us your thoughts and how you think these riots have shaped America. Why is it important that we study this in school? Sources
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