Social Movements and Social Justice
Length: Each question can adequately be answered in 3 paragraphs (1 double-spaced page with 12 size font, 1-inch margins). 4 pages in total.
Format: Attach as a Word, PDF, or Pages document. If you use any other formats, make sure to copy and paste in the submission box.
Quality and the Use of Readings: You are expected to answer the questions separately and thoroughly. You do NOT need an introduction or a conclusion. Make sure to make references to the readings and explain these references and your own arguments in depth. If you use the class readings only, cite the page number but you do NOT need to have a citations page. If you use any resources in addition to class readings, make sure to cite them properly. Any citation style is allowed as long as used consistently.
Questions
1. Martin Luther King interview and Singh reading titled "Civil Rights, Civic Myths", explain the transformation of the Civil Rights Movement from having an exclusive focus on issues of civil rights to a movement that includes economic rights and anti-war global politics. Based on these discussions, explain the multiple aspects of the Civil Rights struggles during the late 1950s and 1960s. Then explain the the backlash against the Civil Rights Movement in the form of "Law and Order” that Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor discusses.
2. SNCC in the early 1960s and the Black Panthers Party later in the 1960s and early 1970s developed forms of organizing the communities that the previous Civil Rights Movements did not develop. Explain the notion of organizing from the SNCC website and the reading and documentary about the Black Panthers Party. Also explain 3 of the following about the Black Panthers Party: the concepts of Black Power, self-defense, anti-imperialist international solidarity, and the criminalization and suppression of the Party by the FBI.
3. Linda Gordon explains the shifts in feminisms in the 1970s. Discuss the different types of feminist movements and organizations that emerged in this era. What were the different concerns/demands/types of work for these different organizations? Did they address the needs and concerns of all women equally? Also discuss their different accomplishments in areas of civil rights, work, culture, sexuality, etc.
4. Ruth Wilson Gilmore and others argue for "abolition" of the prison industrial complex instead of "reforming" the system. Explain. Also the Black Lives Matter movement problematizes the types of policing and the ways the policing hurt Black communities. Explain. Why do these newer movements ask for broader change, more dramatic transformations, than the previous reforms?
Social Movement and Social Justice
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Social Movement and Social Justice
Question One
Martin Luther King embodies resilience against ills of oppression and infringement of fundamental human rights. His notions underpin and encapsulate the ideals of Civil Rights transformation from an outfit that focuses on civil rights to a strive entrenched with economic and anti-global war politics. This section of the paper will explore such transition, multiple facets of the Civil Rights struggle between the 1950s and 1960s, and the backlash that followed Civil Rights Movement strives, as packaged as "law and order," a concept extensively discussed by Keeanga-Yamahtta Tailor.
The narratives about the civil rights movement and struggles are embedded in crevices of history and socio-economic and political contexts. The Civil Rights Movement was advance by liberal ideologists. Martin Luther King Jr. Initially, the movement against oppression was driven by aspirations for better civil rights practice. Was this liberation movement anchored on the need for civil rights only? Or they needed more than merely civil rights acquisitions? Understandably, initial efforts geared towards the acquisition of civil rights were well informed by circumstances surrounding that time.
The black community was denied civil rights, thereby, fail to access equal social opportunities and similar protections under the law, irrespective of religion, age, gender, race, and other individual defining features. For instance, civil rights activists non-violently defied Jim Crow, demanding full citizenship rights in the 1960s (Bloom & Martin, (2016). The ostracized community needs first to overcome impediments that prevent them from accessing equal rights and treatment. The second phase of the civil movement was to fight socio-economic and environmental transformation to guarantee them better lives in terms of economic opportunism and social services access. Martin Luther King captures this description of the civil rights movement and subsequent outgrowth of movement aspirations to cover other areas of human interests. Martin Luther King argues that the black revolution, also called Civil Rights Movement, reflects not only a fight for rights for Negros, but it represents a broader strive to interrogate and challenge interrelated American laws touching on racism, materialism, poverty, and militarism (Singh, 2004).
The Civil Rights Movement, advanced by various social changes, received backlash, which even led to Martin Luther King's assassination. Other assassinations that demonstrate backlash to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s include the assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965 (Bloom & Martin, 2016). In the 1960s, there were many resistances and threats towards the Civil Rights Movements. Some of these civil movement challenges were packed as "law and orders." The civil rights movement encountered several clashes with police, where the black could sometimes do self-defense against the police. Hate groups comprising white supremacists also emerged during the 1960s and launched vicious resistance against civil rights movements. For instance, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) members were killed by the Ku Klux Klan during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. SNCC deployed a more radical approach to black liberalism in the 1960s, where the members considered violence "American cherry pie." An ensuing backlash against this radicalism, SNCC leader, Brown, was arrested in 1967 for incitement to riot.
While revolutionary ideas could not be easily dismissed, increasing confrontations between young armed black people and the police were frequent. The police reflect the notion of "law and order" that was stage to counter rising civil rights activism and continual year for socio-economic and political transitions that guarantee a better environment, inclusivity, and equity. Keeanga-Yamahtta Tailor has consistently argued on the interplay of these issues.
Question Two
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Black Panther Party are fundamental Civic Rights Movements that played fundamental roles in black liberalism between 1960and 1970S. These civil movements organized communities in unique ways that are different from previous civil movements. How did the SNCC and Black Panther party organize themselves in the black community liberation?
SNCC, as a civil rights group, was founded to give younger Black people a stronger voice in the Civil Rights Movement. Contrasting with previous and other existing Civil Rights Movements, SNCC raised the voice of younger African Americans, who yearn for faster progress in civil movement transformation. The younger black Americans had a feeling that other social rights movements, such as the one led by Martin Luther King Jr., were out of younger African Americans. SNCC aspired to a transition from mere integration to broader social change. However, SNCC viewed Martin Luther King Jr. on the principle of non-violence as more a po...