Social and Legal Issues in the
Civil Rights Movement
Gus and Kaveh
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was one whose goal was to eliminate racial discrimination against African Americans. This is a very broad statement; it is not necessarily specific to any aspect of discrimination. The different ways that people were discriminated against included educational, immigration, political, economic, social, and legal discrimination. This section will be discussing the social and legal issues of the Civil Rights Issues and will be focusing on the Jena Six incident and affirmative action. (Click here to go to Affirmative Action page). These two topics will help answer the essential question of whether or not the Civil Rights Movement has ended.
In late 2006, a series of incidents led to the beating of a white teenager named Justin Barker. The first and most important of these events was one that took place at Jena High School. There is a tree where the white student of the school would typically spend time. One day, during a school assembly, a black student asked if he could sit there, and the principal of the school replied that he could sit anywhere he wanted. The next day, three nooses were hung from that same tree. This racist act was responded to with merely a slap on the wrist from the school authorities. Many people believe this act was a hate crime, and it created racial tensions that ultimately resulted in the beating of Justin Barker and a long trial that would only sharpen racial lines. Evidently, the Jena Six beating up the white student shows that there is much racial tension between people today even though the Civil Rights Movement has officially ended. The legal system has also been called unfair for presenting Mychal Bell with possible jail time until he was thirty nine years of jail after being sentenced as guilty. His verdict created a lot of stir in Jena, Louisiana, and the protests represented the number of people who were appalled that a mere teenager could possibly be punished like an adult when children were getting away with hate crimes at the school. Later on it was decided that Bell would not be tried as an adult. Below is Kaveh's take on an image taken at one of the protests. 
Overall, it is quite obvious that the Jena six incident shows how the Civil Rights Movement has not ended just yet. There is still a lot of ground to cover. If the Civil Rights Movement were over, such hate crimes would not exist. In the ideal world, one would not even hear about such stories in the news. The Civil Rights Movement has the potential to end as soon as people can live together without have to provoke each other because of race or ethnicity. Unfortunately, it will be a long time and many generations before the world will be able to complete this goal. Project Sources Articles: Encyclopedia of Affirmative Action Websites: Multimedia: Documents: |
