Back in the 1950s and 1960s, people were fighting for equal rights under the law and within society. These people received unfair treatment and violent actions because of the color of their skin. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, these people believed that they would be treated with dignity and respect. For many years, our country progressed in regards to racial equality, but today we live in a world filled with racial injustice that people refuse to acknowledge. If you take a look back on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s you can clearly see similarities to the events occurring today.

Over my spring break, I had the opportunity to go on a Civil Rights Bus Tour. It was an extremely enlightening experience not only because of the rich history we visited but also the people along the way. We met tour guides, historians, an original Freedom Singer, an original Freedom Rider and women connected to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. They all had different experiences and different backgrounds but they all had the same message. We are living in a world that isn't just or fair and we are the generation that have to do something about it.

Here are some similarities between the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the American society today.

1. Violence

Then

In Birmingham, beginning in the 1950s, violence towards blacks was commonplace. Starting in the 1960s, they were marching for the right to vote. They were imprisoned, beaten, and killed for their acts. In the picture, it shows a young boy being attacked by a police officer and his dog. Violence was the response of the government to control the protests and the black community. Violence was the government's message of the movement.

Now

This picture shows a man being arrested after protesting a Trump rally. He was punched by a Trump supporter and then escorted from the rally. The man who punched the protester said he had no regrets ( NY Daily News ). The violence surrounding the Trump campaign is just part of the violence occurring in the country today. The man that was attacked did nothing violent at the rally but was treated with violence regardless. Encouraging violence is not the way to support a nation riddled with racial injustice. Violence will only lead to my next point, death.

2. Death

Then

Viola Liuzzo was a housewife and mother of five from Michigan that became part of the movement when she saw the footage from Bloody Sunday. She participated in the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965. After the march she drove marchers back to Selma from Montgomery and on one of these trips was run off the road by the Ku Klux Klan and killed. She is just one martyr from the movement.

This statue of four little girls is dedicated to the girls that lost their lives in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. They were innocent girls attending church when they became victims of the KKK's violence. The Southern Poverty Law Center honors 41 martyrs of the movement, who were either innocent bystanders or actively involved in the movement. They range anywhere from an eleven-year-old girl to men in their 60s. Some were black, some were white. They all came from different paths of life. There was a politician, a housewife, a minister, and more (Southern Poverty Law Center). No one was safe from the violence.

Now

In 2015, a young white man walked into a prayer meeting at a historically black Charleston church and killed nine people. This man, Dylann Roof, would supposedly tell people about how he thought blacks were taking over the world and discussed how he would kill people (CBSNews). We still live in a world where people are stuck in their opinions and only view the color of someone's skin. This results in killings of innocents by those that believe they are just. Some other killings are of Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier on Christmas, Sandra Bland in a Texas jail, Freddie Gray in police custody, and Laquan McDonald in Baltimore (USA Today). These killings won't stop until the gap is bridged between those that only see color of skin and those that are of color.

3. Protests

Then

This picture shows the Greensboro Four, who were normal college students who took it upon themselves to try and segregate the white-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They started a movement of sit-ins in Greensboro and across the south to protest the segregation of white-only lunch counters.

One of the successful aspects of the movement was the nonviolent marches put on by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and others. These marchers showed that the activists would not back down in their fight for freedom and equality. The most important aspect was that they were nonviolent. This is what they made them so effective because the marchers weren't causing any harm or disturbance. Their peacefulness emphasized the unnecessary, violent treatment they received from law enforcement.

Now

In contrast to the nonviolence seen by activists in the 1960s, protesters against racial injustice have become violent in their protests today. After the verdict in the shooting of a black teen, Ferguson erupted in a night of violence seen in the picture above. The teenager's family and President Obama called for calm and peaceful protests. More than 80 people were arrested in the rioting and chaos. Cars were set on fire, businesses looted and destroyed. Police officers had to respond with tear gas and smoke because of the protestors attacking barricades and throwing glass bottles (BBC). This is not the time for violence. Violence will not solve any problems America has. If activists in the 1960s had resorted to violence would they have had the same response to their demands?

4. Inequality

Then

In the 1960s, blacks marched for the right to vote in Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery, and other southern cities. They were legally allowed to vote but were treated unfairly when registering. They had to pass an unrealistic test to be able to vote. This consisted of questions about the Constitution, the Supreme Court, or how many bubbles are in a bar of soap. They purposefully made the test impossible to pass for black Americans. This wasn't the only inequality that blacks faced. They were barred from certain jobs, sent their children to segregated schools, and couldn't use the same amenities as whites. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that racial discrimination in regards to voting was eliminated. This was one step towards equality of races in America.

Now

Because of anti-discrimination legislation, blacks now have equality under the law but that doesn't mean there is equality of all races. Today, 10 percent of black men in their 30s will be imprisoned while it is only 2 percent for white men of the same age range. Along the same lines, more than a third of black men between 25 and 49 lack employment. These statistics are similar to the inequality of the labor market in the 1970s (Time). Black Americans still face inequality today as they did around 50 years ago.Previously, we had the Civil Rights Movement. Today, we have the Black Lives Matter movement. Their website states that they are "an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise" (Black Lives Matter). The movement is the rebirth of the Civil Rights Movement fighting the same injustices and inequalities seen over 50 years ago. In a time of violence, we need to connect back to the non-violence of the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Reynolds, a 1960s Civil Rights activist, agrees with the message behind the Black Lives Matter movement but doesn't agree with their approach. She won respectability because of the peaceful protests developed by Martin Luther King Jr. not through the violence that has taken over our generation (Washington Post).

To truly learn from that movement, our generation needs to learn from our past. This movement will not succeed by following the path it has set for itself. Violence doesn't solve anything but only creates more problems. This is why trips, like a Civil Rights Bus Tour, are extremely important for anyone that was born after the 1950s. We are a generation losing touch with our history. People don't know the basis behind the original Civil Rights Movement and how rights were originally won for blacks. Without that knowledge violence and bigotry will continue. Education will fight the ignorance of our generation. Hopefully, it will keep our country from electing a racist president and save the lives of those treated wrongly for the color of their skin.