Recently, this type of large-scale protest movement has begun to resurface. In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement drew global attention by occupying Zuccotti Park in New York’s Financial District for nearly two months. The Occupy Wall Street movement’s key issues were social and economic inequality. The group’s slogan is “We are the 99%,” and according to their website “The movement…aims to fight back against the richest 1% of people that are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future” (Occupy Wall Street). Even more recently, Bernie Sanders has raised similar issues and been able to bring millions of young people together and encourage them to become involved in the political process. There are a number
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Many of the issues that citizens felt needed to be addressed during this time period had to do with equal rights. The civil rights movement was the most polarizing and highly charged of all of these social issues. African Americans as well as many white Americans fought and even died to end racism and discrimination, so that as Martin Luther King Jr. expressed it, one day we could live in a nation “where people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (King Jr., 1963). Similar battles were fought for women’s rights and gay rights. As a result of the challenges of obtaining racial equality, organizations such as the NAACP, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and many others staged peaceful protests throughout the country, especially in the segregated south. These protests were often met with violent resistance from local citizens and law enforcement, and three Freedom Riders, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, were even killed by the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi (Smith, 2014). Other more militant organizations, such as the Black Panther Party, also formed. The Panthers advocated for self-defense of African-American communities and political opposition to the U.S. government by “any means necessary.” In fact, the party’s original name was the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Despite the generally negative perceptions surrounding the Black Panthers, the organization brought attention to police brutality and established community programs such as health clinics and the Free Breakfast for School Children Program (Nelson, The Black Panthers,
Many of the issues that citizens felt needed to be addressed during this time period had to do with equal rights. The civil rights movement was the most polarizing and highly charged of all of these social issues. African Americans as well as many white Americans fought and even died to end racism and discrimination, so that as Martin Luther King Jr. expressed it, one day we could live in a nation “where people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (King Jr., 1963). Similar battles were fought for women’s rights and gay rights. As a result of the challenges of obtaining racial equality, organizations such as the NAACP, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and many others staged peaceful protests throughout the country, especially in the segregated south. These protests were often met with violent resistance from local citizens and law enforcement, and three Freedom Riders, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, were even killed by the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi (Smith, 2014). Other more militant organizations, such as the Black Panther Party, also formed. The Panthers advocated for self-defense of African-American communities and political opposition to the U.S. government by “any means necessary.” In fact, the party’s original name was the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Despite the generally negative perceptions surrounding the Black Panthers, the organization brought attention to police brutality and established community programs such as health clinics and the Free Breakfast for School Children Program (Nelson, The Black Panthers,