Civil rights veterans are praising today's young protesters for continuing the fight against police brutality, injustice and discrimination.
WASHINGTON — Jordan Simmons noticed the young Black woman next to him had stopped chanting, breaking down in tears. She had been leading fellow protesters outside the White House to repeat the names of Black Americans killed by police. “I want to do a chant, but I’m nervous,” he said.“You take the lead and I’ll follow,” Elaine Simmons coaxed.Simmons doesn’t know how many times he shouted. He just remembered the crowd repeating the words. “It felt like it was the right moment,” he said.
“What’s amazing to me is these young people who are the age we were … you see the same passion and that same sense that they really do believe they can change things,” said Judy Richardson, 76, who worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi from 1963 to 1966.
“I got bad knees and a bad back, but every chance I get I hobble along and try to keep up,’’ said Smith, who served as a SNCC field secretary in Mississippi for 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.
“If I was 30 years younger, I’d be out there,’’ said Hicks, a 75-year-old activist in Washington, D.C. “I’m not young enough to run and to dodge tear gas.” Activists led by Ella Baker, a legendary civil rights organizer, relied on a network of supporters. For example, when activists were arrested, they would call contacts who would then reach out to local officials, including sheriffs, to demand their release.
Today, protesters turn to Twitter and Instagram to summon people and attract media attention. Freedom Fighters DC, which started in May, has 12,000 Twitter followers and nearly 27,000 on Instagram. Rickey Hill was arrested and expelled from Southern University in Louisiana in 1972 for helping lead a campus protest over inadequate services and funding. Police shot and killed two unarmed students. Hill said Southern has offered degrees to some students who were expelled. The student union is named after the students who were killed.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
They overcame police dogs and beatings: Civil rights activists from 1960s cheer on Black Lives Matter protesters leading new fightVeterans 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.
Read more »
Review: John Lewis' lifelong fight for civil rights is hailed in a new documentaryJohn Lewis marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and fought for civil rights for six decades; the documentary 'John Lewis: Good Trouble' is a warm tribute.
Read more »
Video: This Day and History: LBJ Signs Civil Rights ActON THIS DAY: In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act. The landmark legislation declared it unlawful to discriminate against any individual because of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Read more »
Selma's 'Bloody Sunday' bridge is named for a racist. But some civil rights veterans don't want it changedResidents of Selma, Ala., are among critics of a bid to rename the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights marchers were beaten in 1965.
Read more »
“We’re already feeling it cast a chill over civil and political life”—Beijing’s new law in Hong Kong“We’re already feeling it cast a chill over civil and political life.” Our columnist tells “The Intelligence” how Beijing’s new law will affect Hong Kong’s democracy activists
Read more »
They overcame police dogs and beatings: Civil rights activists from 1960s cheer on Black Lives Matter protesters leading new fightVeterans 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.
Read more »