Where Do We Go From Here

By the mid-1950s, the civil rights movement had spanned a decade-long struggle for equal social and political rights. Protests organized by several Black activists in the South generated national momentum and led to fundamental changes to the US Constitution. In 1964, the U.S government issued the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 followed. Martin Luther King Jr, as one of the emblematic leaders of the movement, supported nonviolent resistance as a key practice in the racial struggle. However, as a wave of violent uprisings against racism in American cities throughout the 1960s made clear, the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act did not put an end to racial injustice in the US. Violent clashes between police and protestors in Northern cities illustrated that the issue of race relations remained unresolved and was not confined to the Jim Crow South. Civil rights leaders proclaimed that the struggle for equality continued and began to address matters beyond legislation. For many Black Americans, integration and nonviolent resistance were not enough to counter the systemic discrimination and racism that perpetuated Black people’s powerlessness. Many leaders voiced the necessity for radical changes.

Dominant historical narratives have depicted the civil rights and the