Here is my recommended song for this blog post.

So, since coming back from Christmas we have been beginning a new unit in PLP. In the typical pattern we have been following the historical timeline of our world. We have begun a Civil Rights unit. Looking at the movement from mid 1950 to late 1960.

We began at the very beginning and learned about the history of African American rights leading up to the time. Then we have begun looking at the events that sparked the movement.

As part of the overall unit we have to create two blog posts looking into the relation between a past events or situation and current contemporary events. This is the first of those blog posts.

Overall through this unit I’m noticing a huge connection between the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s and modern day. It’s the mindset of people. Today you see cops use the story of “I thought he was reaching for a gun, so I shot them to protect myself.” That can be brought down to stereotypes and the way people view others and that all comes from mindset. Now that same mindset was present in the 50’s but it was a lot more broadcasted and accepted. People have, for hundreds of years, had a racist mindset and there have been movements, like the civil rights movement, to try to tackle the material racist systems but nothing has quite changed much by way of mindsets. That is the next step in creating change in the field of racism. That is the longest process and it is slowly happening but it, like most things, takes time. That is what I’ve noticed in the events of three very violent situations involving the death of an African American youth. They are so similair in the outcomes and situations that it begs the question, has anything changed?

Now, let me give you some background on the events I chose to explain what lead me to formulate that opinion.

 

First off is the trial of Emmett Till. This event was really one of the true beginnings of the civil rights movement. If you’ve never heard of Emmett Till here’s a brief low down on what happened.

Emmett Till was a young boy who lived in Chicago. He went to go visit his extended family in Mississippi. There was a divide between the north and south of America in terms of racism and general views on African American rights. In the south things were a lot more segregated and there was a huge sense of power in the white population. While in the north things were slightly more equal but still segregated and imbalanced. So, when Emmett went down to Mississippi he visited the local corner store with his cousins and friends and while he was in there he supposedly whistled at the store owners wife. Which in those times was really not ok especially because Emmett Till was an American American boy while the store owner and his wife were both white. After this event occured the store owner and his brother abducted Emmett Till and took him to a farm where they brutally beat him and killed him. They then took his body and attached it to a weight and put him in the Tallahachi River. They were then prosecuted but later found innocent by an all white jury. A couple months after they interviewed for a magazine and confessed to the crimes. Since the case was officially closed it was never reopened with the new evidence.

Now the one thing I found interesting in the whole event was the court trial. It was interesting to learn about the testimonies and what the factors of the outcome were. Some key things I found were that there was an all white jury, the African-American people who testified had to flee the state and their testimonies were completed ignored and thought to be false.

Now we have also been reading a book called Dear Martin (very good book) and while I was reading it I noticed a connection right away with a trial that went on. The situation was there were two teens playing loud music while they were driving and an off duty cop was beside them at a stop light. He asked them to turn it down which then ensued a back and forth and one of the boys went to turn down the music, the cop mistakingly thought he was pulling a gun so he grabbed his and shot and killed one of the boys. The trial then followed after that and the other boy testified but the all-white jury of course took it another way and determined the result of the trial. The end was a mistrial with no future trial date set.

 

When I read that segment of the book i immediately thought about the Emmet Till murder case how it was white against coloured and the all white jury pretty much sided with the convicted. It made me question if things had really changed since the civil rights movement. If the author of Dear Martin decided to include that aspect in the plot then would it not hint or address the fact that that situation still happens today.

So I began researching about real life stories along the same lines as what happened in the book.

I found one that was quite similair to the situation in Dear Martin, the shooting of Jordan Davis in Florida. He was parked at a gas station with some friends and they were playing loud music in the car. A man with a permit for concealed firearms parked nearby while his wife went to go buy some food. Then an argument ensued where the man asked them to turn the music down. There was a back and forth and then the man pulled his gun and fired shots into the car, hitting Jordan 3+ times. The teens then fled the scene and reported to police. The man was eventually caught and charged. After two trials the jury ruled that he was guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison on first degree murder.

 

Now from those events, and the relations that I picked up on between them, I found two big things. First is the issue of gun laws in the US. Now that’s a very big and controversial issue that I won’t touch on much because that can pretty much be turned into another blog post. Second is that all of the current/contemporary events are so similair to the Emmett Till case that it made me wonder what has changed since the civil rights movement? What hasn’t changed and why?

What I have here is a comic reflecting and comparing the different events and it’s outcomes. I used photos from all of the events, except Dear Martin (it’s not a picture book). I focused the comic on comparing the specific court cases and how those played out, compared to the actual situation as those do have some connections but I found the court cases to be slightly more similair.

 

Like I said I won’t touch too much on gun laws but I believe they are a factor into what has been happening with some of the shootings in recent years. The fact that guns are so easily accessed, guns more lethal and powerful than just a basic hunting rifle, play a factor into the amount of violence and really give people the means to violence. Due to the huge amount of people with firearms of course you’re going to get gun violence. Gun violence against African Americans though is a slightly different story. I’m sure you’ve seen in the news when another black teen is shot or there is a police brutality case. The basic plead that it was for self défense because they thought they were pulling a gun or a weapon. That goes back to a civil rights issue. Why are African Americans being stereotyped for having guns and being with a gang or something along those lines. That’s where I ask the question, have things really changed in people’s minds since the 1950’s?

 

Now of course people have different views on this subject but I’m going to talk about my take on it. I believe that the civil rights movement was a huge step in African American rights which I believe should be just as equal as everyone else. It says so in the constitution and really is just right. We are all people on this earth we all deserve to live equally and freely. Despite the huge step the movement took, many people still carry the views from before that time. Now it could be from how they have been raised or other varying factors, but that racist mindset is still around in people. That is where the next step in getting equal rights lies. It’s changing how people think and view others. That can only be changed over time but it’s those views that are killing so many good people out there.

What I’m really trying to say is that some people’s views haven’t changed since the 50’s and it shows. There are still people stereotyping or sharing racist views. It can be seen in the correlation between all of those events I described earlier. People still have views that have been passed down from their parents, which received them from their parents, etc… Those views can be changed over time. It is a slow process but it is one that needs to happen if change is to occur. It is the continuous work of activists and committed people who want to fight for their rights and the rights of others.

Laws and practices were changed in the 50’s, mindsets and views are the things that are going to be changed next but they may take some time.