Many of the same social and political ideals and issues have plagued our country since the first white Europeans step foot on our now American soil. However the idea of justice has reign supreme and has had to constantly alter its definition throughout history to fit the criteria of those who seek it. In recent times the Black community is trying to form a more modern definition. Their definition entails the ability to feel safe walking down the street, riding in their automobiles, and living in their home without the “fear” of being executed. Many in the Black community feel just not long ago that that their grandparents generation marched and fought alongside Martin for civil rights, but yet here it is again. Becoming increasingly clear, the recent generations “Black lives Matter” Movement shows evident that the new movement has used some of the same tactics and strategies that were first laid down by the civil rights movement.
The civil rights movement has many milestones: The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycotts; the start of the sit-in movement at a 1960 Greenboro, North Carolina dinner counter; and The 1963 Birmingham Campaign, which set off a series of lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall and boycotts on downtown merchants to protest segregation. In the times of the civil rights movement many Blacks would invest and buy into Black businesses. In today's current situation those who support the new movement are utilizing protest, sit-ins, and call for big corps to be apart of the solution to help end injustice. Just early in this month More Than 8,000 people have opened up new accounts at Black owned Citizens Trust Bank, according to officials at the black-owned bank in Atlanta to support Black businesses.
Black executives and entrepreneurs have been struck by the Black Lives Matter movement and are demonstrating that black businesses also matter in the fight for social justice. In the past year, a group of two dozen black business leaders donated $1 million to support the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s campaign to promote responsible policing of state and local levels policies to bring more accountability for incidents of police brutality. Both movements in these aspects are expressing the “We’re tired and we’re not going to stand for it” strategy. This strategy is peaceful and nonviolent and the proper way of handling things, but yet there are still a few from these movements that are ignorant extremist that the opposition loves to flaunt and scrutinize.
During both of these fights for justice many men and women were lost to bigotry and senselessness, but still these movements fought strong. When we look back at the footage of violent attacks using high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs on men, women and children in 1963 Birmingham; The crowd of thousands at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; And the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1964 Selma each offering some of the most iconic televised images in history and seeing people coalesce together to fight the disease of bigotry. I like to call this strategy “We are visible and many in Numbers” this tactic is good for getting media coverage and for assembling groups for you cause. The Black Lives Matter many participants have have certainly caught the eye of the media have, but have took their cause to disruptive heights. Several participants within the new movement have been noted interrupt public and private events to gain media exposure. In late 2015 several Black Lives Matter protesters took over a stage at a Seattle rally for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by taking the mic from him and aggressively expressing their own views. July 9 in Atlanta, a large group of protesters walking out in on traffic over Interstates 75 and 85 without notice and were confronted police, then moved into the Midtown business district. Those protesters conducted that event in a very unsafe and disorganized manner.
