INTRODUCTION
Beginning in the year 1619, African-Americans were used as slaves to aid Caucasian landowners and work on their plantations. In 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was founded, a group that opposed the granting of civil rights for African Americans through murder, lynching, and many other notorious acts. In the 1870s, the Jim Crow laws were introduced, enforcing racial segregation between Caucasians and African-Americans. In the year of 1941, Emmett Till, an African-American teenager, was lynched for flirting with a white woman. In 2012, the first African American was shot and killed by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch volunteer. After all of this fear and hatred that was faced for centuries by African-Americans, change needed to happen and the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement was created to do so.
KEY EVENTS …show more content…
In the year of 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin was on his way home from a gas station when he was approached by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, who had made a 911 call told the dispatcher, ”A real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around” (Bothello 2). Shortly after this call to dispatch, neighbors of Zimmerman were panicking upon hearing a loud commotion followed by a gunshot (Botelho 2). Zimmerman had shot and killed the unarmed black
Beginning in the year 1619, African-Americans were used as slaves to aid Caucasian landowners and work on their plantations. In 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was founded, a group that opposed the granting of civil rights for African Americans through murder, lynching, and many other notorious acts. In the 1870s, the Jim Crow laws were introduced, enforcing racial segregation between Caucasians and African-Americans. In the year of 1941, Emmett Till, an African-American teenager, was lynched for flirting with a white woman. In 2012, the first African American was shot and killed by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch volunteer. After all of this fear and hatred that was faced for centuries by African-Americans, change needed to happen and the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement was created to do so.
KEY EVENTS …show more content…
In the year of 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin was on his way home from a gas station when he was approached by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, who had made a 911 call told the dispatcher, ”A real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around” (Bothello 2). Shortly after this call to dispatch, neighbors of Zimmerman were panicking upon hearing a loud commotion followed by a gunshot (Botelho 2). Zimmerman had shot and killed the unarmed black