Essay On The Legacy Of The Civil Rights Movement

The plight of African-Americans, in particular, political and social leaders, within the United States, advocating for racial equity and civil rights, is one that has become mired in notions of conflict and divisiveness. Among the African-American community, debates have ensued and viewpoints formulated, as to the what the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement can be attributed best towards, the separationist activists and advocates, such as Malcolm X, Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael), both of which inspired by Marcus Garvey; or the the integrationist activists and organizations such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The impacts of these activists, both separationist and integrationist

Malcolm X, a Muslim minister, the de facto leader for Separationists, and a proponent of self-defense as a mechanism for justice and protection against the infringement of human rights, civil rights, and civil liberties, rejected Dr. King’s plight for non-violence, claiming that Dr. King embodies a turn-the-other-cheek philosophy in dealing with violent actions upon him and refutes this positioning in stating, “Because if white people get the impression that Negroes all endorse this turn-the-other-cheek cowardly philosophy, then whites are going to make the mistake of putting their hands on a Black man, thinking that he’s going to turn the other cheek, and he’ll end up losing his hand and his life in the try.” Malcolm X is often attributed with radicalized viewpoints, in comparison to Dr. King. Malcolm X embodied a position of self-defense as a means to defend the African-American community against the injustices both violent and systematic that infringed on their human rights. He differs from Dr. King in the sense that, Malcolm X believes that since violent acts are being done to African Americans, that African Americans should be able to defend themselves against these acts as opposed to taking them in stride. “Our people should start doing what is necessary to defend ourselves. This doesn 't mean that we should buy rifles and go out and initiate attacks

Due to a lack of a conviction in a high-profile case such as this, which exploded over social media, this spawned the hashtag, Black Lives Matter, to spread, creating an urgency for social justice, and human rights. “ ‘We Shall Overcome’, the anthem of the 1960’s movement evokes a clear-eyed yet resolute hope-- things will get better, even if we can’t fully imagine that reality. ‘Black Lives Matter’ is both mournful and exasperated in tone-- we haven’t made that much progress, and it is an outrage that the intrinsic value of black lives still goes unrecognized-- yet it’s also a more overt call-to-action, immediate in its demand: we need to overcome, not someday but now.” The realities of this sentiment ring true for African Americans, as the sense of urgency, is at its most immediate. The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement gave Black people the tools to fight a war on two fronts; the first, through legislation and governmental action, that was gained from the interventionists for Civil Rights such as Dr. King, and the second, the will to fight now, the sense of urgency, the sense of Black Nationalism and community, that was gained from the Separationists for Civil Rights, such as Malcolm X. The legacy of the movement is much stronger when the two positions are