The Lakestown Rebellion: Justice And Grassroots Struggle

Response Paper 1 Think of any relevant social justice movement happening today and you will find out that they began as a grassroots organization. A grassroots organization, as defined in Kate Capeheart’s article “Justice and Grassroots Struggles,” is one that “[provides] free spaces in which the victim moves from being a bystander to participant in the social struggle for justice” (qtd in Capeheart 176). When thinking about this definition, it is important to focus on the process one goes through that allows for the transition of victim to participant. This process however, is not a onetime deal and is constantly undergoing changes. According to Capeheart, this can be attributed to the fact that “…as activists engage in the process of demanding justice, they are also developing their own understandings of justice and building their own processes for expressing justice” (160). For the characters in Kristin Lattany’s novel, The Lakestown Rebellion, their individual development of their understanding of social justice …show more content…
In terms of justice, this would be a shift from individual justice to communal justice. McGary notes that even for great leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X their movements were not working to their full potential until each leaders understanding of social justice “expanded beyond their original concerns for justice for African Americans and became concerned with justice in general” (McGary 164). Lukey comes to this same conclusion at the town meeting when he realizes that the highway will not only displace families but will also eradicate the historic site that is Lakestown. At the town meeting, Lukey reminds the mayor that Lakestown was the “first northeastern stop on the Underground Railroad” and in turn finds a new reason for saving Lakestown