Does the Civil Rights Movement have an Effect on the Way Minorities are Treated by Authorities?

Abstract

The civil rights movement was a mass popular movement to secure for African Americans equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. While the roots of this movement go back to the 19th century, its highlighted movements were in the 1950s and 1960s. African American men and women, along with white American’s and other minority citizens, organized and led the movement at national and local levels nationwide.

The civil rights movement centered on the southern American states.

That’s where the African American population was concentrated and where most racial inequality in education, economic opportunity, and the political and legal processes existed. The movement in these instances addressed primarily three areas of discrimination: education, social segregation, and voting rights.

They pursued their goals through legal means, negotiations, petitions, and nonviolent protest demonstrations. State and local governments passed segregation laws, known as Jim Crow laws; they also imposed restrictions on voting qualifications that left the black population economically and politically powerless.

The civil rights movement was largest social movement of the 20th century in the United States. It influenced the modern women's rights movement and the student movement of the 1960s.

INTRODUCTION

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

African-American’s have fought for equality in several aspects of citizenship. Over the course of time, we have witnessed several social movements like the civil rights movement and Black Lives Matter, which have over time, questioned the theory of minorities being treated inadequately by authorities. To this theories justification, several examples of killings to unarmed African American citizens have been documented. Most of which are due to “heated confrontation” between a black citizen and Caucasian authority.

For decades now black citizens have fought on various occasions for equality. One of the major focuses in the community of African-American was to change the perception that colored minorities are looked at as criminals. For over a decade young black men and women have been mistreated up to and including murdered for minor to no offenses in the United States of America.

PURPOSE OF STUDY

In order for the United states to proactively find a solution for the mistreatment, that can be theoretically incited by authorities, It’s important that we get pass the origin of racism, slavery and black liberation. We will focus on actually gaining the buy in from our governing authorities that black lives actually do matter. The analysis of equality for African Americans from the perspective of authorities, which are majority white America, is that after Jim Crow, slavery has been abolished and they are free.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Does The Civil Rights Movement have an effect on the way minorities are treated by Authorities?

HYPOTHESIS

From the perspective of the African American Citizen, freedom is indeed an act. However, when it has been superseded by prejudices and racism, by those who are suppose to protect you. In these movements demonstrated by African American citizens ranging from the mid 1950’s to present day, Black citizens have fought to demonstrate and over come discrimination, education, social segregation and for voting rights.

Demonstrations have ranged from negotiations and petitions to current day protests and social activism on mainstream media. In this study, we will demonstrate several examples and of mistreatment with authorities toward the African American community, evaluate social movements, and for theories propose a resolution.

SIGNIFICANCE OR IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

News about police brutality though hasn’t lessened in the last few years.

There is a continuous struggle for human equality among African Americans in the United States. The Black Lives Matter Movement addresses some of the same issues that previous Black liberation movements addressed: Black people are seen as criminal, and Black bodies are seen as expendable.

Both movements have been exposed to racism as well as systemic oppression. Many see Black Lives Matter as the new civil rights movement. That movement, from 1954 to 1965, demanded basic equality for African Americans in the 20th century. Black Lives Matter has focused on the police brutality of African Americans.

UNIQUENESS OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to undertake a comparative analysis of the BLM Movement and the civil rights movement (1954-1965). As 67 social movements, both have evolved out of the need to continue the Black liberation struggle for freedom.

It all began in the form of a hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, in 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, which leads to riots in the town, saw the first in-person protest by the BLM movement.

While researching, I found emotions to play a key functionality in comprising opinions and information, within this methodology of Qualitative and Qualitative Data. When we research social movements and the effects on minorities through disparate treatment within multiculturalism, emancipation, assimilation and victimization, they all seemingly surface issues with damaging impact to the minority. In various cases of the civil rights movements, instances involving police brutality highlighted the relevance of minority communities and the responsibility of political leaders who oversee the actions of the police force.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

The language and terminology can be used as a tool to measure these instances as well as leverage stereotypes and narratives presented by traditional media by enabling community members to share their own experiences, knowledge and traditions through social media and other universal platforms.

DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Several tweets will been collected from social media platforms using hash tagged #BlackLivesMatter and other civil rights platforms. Data collection will be facilitated using Google, Facebook, twitter, and Instagram. Hashtags in the data set will consist of posts from April 2012 and March 2019. This information will be collected using an Excel spreadsheet, under columns that will indicate the specific details connected to each tweet.

Black Lives Matter launched their #BLM Campaign, protesting outside of police headquarters.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

In general, the tweets extracted from social media are viewed as very racial, with evolving issues and themes that correlate. They highlight and critique instances of police brutality towards black individuals, and specifics to the minority experiences.

In the case of BLM (Black Lives Matter), users circulate “blacktags” alongside their tweets. Blacktags are defined as hashtags that tend to focus on black issues and civil rights narratives that fight for equality. Some of these blacktags are linked to civil rights campaigns like #BlackLivesMatter or a specific event and or movements like #civil rights that fight for equality.

Hashtags are associated with social movements and can attract critics and opponents, particularly as the hashtag becomes increasingly well known and widely used throughout social media. Information is created, filtered and then distributed among others through these hash tags. People recognize public discourse develop and participate in using these hashtags if they so choose.

MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES

Most of the tweets that will be researched and could be placed in one of the following categories:

1. Conveying of an opinion
2. Social circulation
3. Resource retention and conveying
4. Calls for accountability, and agenda-setting

SAMPLING

News about police brutality hasn’t lessened in the last few years. There is a continuous struggle for human equality among Minorities in the United States. The Black Lives Matter Movement addresses some of the same issues that previous Civil Rights movements addressed: Black people are seen as criminal, and Black bodies are seen as expendable.

RESEARCH METHODS

Both movements have been exposed to racism as well as systemic oppression. Many see Black Lives Matter as the new civil rights movement. That movement, from 1954 to 1965, demanded basic equality for African Americans and minorities in the 20th century. The data extracted for equality for minorities like #blacklivesmatters will focus on the police brutality of minorities Americans.

PLAN OF ANALYSIS

In my analysis, I look for the “#” and the “@” symbol as key indicators of civil rights and social issues throughout social media. The hashtag appears to be an important factor in generating network participation and wide circulation on social media for social injustices on minorities. I will leverage these platforms to compile and compare these quantitative and qualitative data in an Excel worksheet. While in senior seminar this worksheet will be used to disseminate my findings, and convey them within my research project.

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