The article “Civil Rights Activists Tap New Media” shows the launch of activism through technology. This includes Twitter, e-mail, Facebook, and blogs. A very successful website creator is James Rucker who has created a lot more awareness of the Civil Rights problems today. He created ColorofChange.org which has an email list of 800,000 people. This organization was able to raise $285,000 from donors to pay for lawyers for six young black men in Louisiana who were charged with attempted murder to a white classmate. With all of these people uniting together for the cause, the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor. It is thought that there was too harsh of a charge given because the men were black.
Color of Change also led a boycott against commentator, Glenn Beck when he called the president a “racist”. There was a large amount of controversy over his words and through this Beck realized he was wrong and made a public apology where he expressed his strong approval of the organization.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is another example of a successful media advocacy. Two years ago there were only a couple thousand followers of the website which was then revamped. Now, there are over 400,000 members of the online advocacy. NAACP created awareness of two black girls who were charged with double life sentences in 1993 for only an $11 armed robbery. Supporters of this cause through NAACP though this sentence was not fit for the crime because of their race.
Historically, this ties in with the “sit-ins”. The “sit-ins” happened during the early 1960’s at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. On February 1st, 1960, 4 black students from North Carolina sat down at the local lunch counter. The lunch counters were “white only” and blacks were not allowed to sit there. Although they were not served they sat at the lunch counter for the day. The next day twenty-three students showed up at the counter and by 1961, 100 southern cities were participating in lunch ins. This spread to “kneel-ins” at churches, “sleep-ins” in hotel lobbies, “swim-ins” at public pools, along with many other places that were segregated. Within a few months four theaters and six lunch counters were desegregated showing that this was making an impact. Between 1961 and 1963, 20,000 people were arrested for these non-violent acts and within just 1963, 15,000 were imprisoned. People participating in this, mostly young people were beaten up and arrested. They would be spit on by white people and even had shakes poured on them. Although all this mistreatment, they remained non-violent.
Probing Question: Do you think a public display of activism on the streets or an easier access to activism through technology is more effective? Why?
Sources:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/01/02/civil_rights_activists
http://socialistworkerorg/2010/02/01/sit-ins-that-ignited-a-movement
