Veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement say they're disappointed another generation must take to the streets over injustices they fought against 50 years ago.
Simmons, a usually quiet 18-year-old from Laurel, Maryland, turned to his mother.He was in the crush of the crowd surrounded by people -- Black, white, old, young.“Hands up! Don’t shoot!” he chanted. “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”
The battlefield is different. Back then, there was no Twitter or Instagram to summon others. Demonstrators faced police dogs, fire hoses, beatings and even death.Today's protesters sometimes face rubber bullets, tear gas and tasers. The Deep South was at the heart of the civil rights movement and hostile territory for activists. Young people,that lead to landmark voting rights and civil rights legislation.
“I got bad knees and a bad back, but every chance I get I hobble along and try to keep up,’’ said Smith, whofor six years in the early 1960s. “I got a couple of good marches left in me.” “The mob would attack you and then the police would come and arrest you and charge you with disturbing the peace,’’ recalled Smith, now director of the African American Civil War Memorial Museum.“We lived in fear of our lives 24 hours a day,’’ he said.
Wankenge said it’s because of 1960 civil rights veterans that activists can continue to protest. Earlier this month, her group held a rally near the U.S. Capitol and joined a two-day sit-in across from City Hall.‘I thought we were past that’
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