The Black Lives Matter Movement and Lessons We Can Learn From the Past to Sustain the Movement Going Forward

Props and Respect Due

For a number of years, I pondered, reflected, and contemplated one singular question.  If my generation of Black folks had to make sacrifices and lead a movement like the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's, to demand our civil and human rights, could we do it successfully?  Would we care more about Track 5 on Beyoncé's latest album?  Would Lil Wayne's beef with Birdman and Cash Money Records command our attention more than marching for our rights?  Would some of us (probably myself included) rather be in a nightclub dancing to Snoop Doggy Dogg (no Snoop Lion for me-not your grandparent's Snoop anymore!), 2Pac, Dr. Dre, Nas, or some classic Notorious B.I.G.?  Would the latest Cookieism from the most recent episode of Empire suck up all of our attention?  What was Olivia Pope going to do next on Scandal?  The list goes on, on, and on! 

Without a doubt, our parent's and grandparent's generation who strategized, mobilized, marched, and lost their very lives to dismantle Jim Crow, is one of the most remarkable generations of humans to live on this planet Earth.  Often, I liken the generation of Blacks who experienced Jim Crow and worse personally as the Moses Generation, God had a sacred pact to lead them to the Promised Land, but unfortunately many of them wouldn't live long enough to live in that land-they got to the top of the mountain and laid eyes over into that mystical Promised Land.  My generation of Black folks, the Jacob Generation, has advanced and made strides, and on many levels we have gotten to somewhat live and roam around a little in the Promised Land.  (Be on the lookout later this week for an important post on the blog about the current economic state of African-Americans to illuminate the somewhat comment I make).  We still have a long way to go.  Certainly, we haven't reaped all of the promises!  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself, invoked the imagery of the Promised Land I speak of in his last public speech in Memphis in 1968, on the eve of his assassination.   

I'll admit, and I've said it privately in discussions with many of my friends and family in conversation, I was more than a little skeptical of Black folks in my generation and the generation below mine and their ability to sacrifice, endure, and fight for a life defining cause.  Yes, I'll now admit my own skepticism in a public forum. 

Sometimes, one of the most remarkable things to happen to a person as they age and gain wisdom and perspective like myself, who's now age 43, is that often life and events on the ground prove you wrong and your own long-held assumptions, prejudices, and doubts come toppling down and crush themselves, and you if you're not careful.  Admitting when you're wrong is cathartic and necessary.  I've learned to not underestimate the will, resolve, endurance, and stamina of a determined mass community focused on a mission.  Young folks out there reading this, those of you between age 16 and 45 (I hate to exclude and discriminate against those of you above 45! (wow, I'm getting close to that milestone), I apologize wholeheartedly, you proved me dead wrong.  This generation of young Black folks is hungry for knowledge, well-informed, articulate, smart, thoughtful, courageous, determined, powerful, and unstoppable!  These superlatives are manifested in the actions of all of the young Black folks (and our allies and supporters of all races) who have mobilized and begun to march and demonstrate and demand recognition and embrace of their humanity through the Black Lives Matter Movement.  Further, I can vouch for them because I interact with them inside and outside of a classroom.  They deserve credit for their passion and effort, and the understanding of some of us older people.

Having been born in 1973, on the back end of the Civil Rights Movement, in my lifetime I've never witnessed anything like the actions, advocacy, and mass mobilization of the Black Lives Matter Movement in terms of framing of issues and impact on the Black community.  Why didn't my college classmates and I think about a mass movement like the Black Lives Matter Movement?  Well, for starters we didn't have social media back then!  Yes, I remember a time when FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and all these other cool social media platforms didn't exist! The internet was just getting started when I was in college, as I recall Vice President Al Gore had just gotten finished creating the internet.  Ok, you Millennials (or whatever you're called this year) are cool and have it made with all your cool #hashtags and all that other stuff you know how to do with technology!

Learning Lessons From the Past to Aid the Black Lives Matter Movement

My purpose in writing this post is twofold: 1.) I want to give the young Black folks spearheading and at the vanguard of the Black Lives Matter the props and credit they deserve, which hopefully I've sincerely done; and 2.) I want to make a few observations about where the Black Lives Matter Movement can go from here and lessons and mistakes from the past to avoid. 

In recent memory, the only mass movement that I can remember that closely resembles the impact of the Black Lives Matter Movement is the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  In the past, I closely followed the Occupy Wall Street Movement and posted about it on my other blog, the Corporate Justice Blog.  In fact, here's a link to a post on that blog I wrote at the height of the movement: http://corporatejusticeblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-v-diagnosing-and.html  Interestingly, here's a link to a post on Occupy Wall Street that I wrote on the Corporate Justice Blog as the movement began to decline and taper off somewhat: http://corporatejusticeblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/occupy-wall-street-where-did-you-go.html  Generally, I'd be derelict in my duty to fail to mention that my co-bloggers and friends Andre Cummings, Steve Ramirez, Cheryl Wade, Lydie Pierre-Louis, and Todd Clark posted extensively on Occupy Wall Street happenings.  The results of a topical search on the Corporate Justice Blog bears witness to this fact: http://corporatejusticeblog.blogspot.com/search?q=occupy+wall+street    

The lesson is straightforward, movements rise and frame, articulate and galvanize around issues all the time, and more importantly they lose inertia, momentum, and eventually fizzle out in popular culture, imagination and consciousness.  As I've stated earlier, I admire the mass mobilization and consciousness raising impact of the Black Lives Matter Movement, I don't want to see the movement lose traction and follow-through in raising awareness to critical issues and hopefully bringing forth public policy change amount local, state, and federal public policymakers and decision makers.  If the Black Lives Matter Movement dies, which I don't think it will, I suspect that it's demise, if it were to happen, could do irreparable harm and somewhat set back progress, gains, and victories that the movement has secured already for the Black community.  My message to the foot soldiers and thought leaders of the Black Lives Movement is to not get complacent and let their feet up off of the gas pedal.  Press down even harder on the gas pedal!  In life, the most important and fiercest battles and eventually wars that we wage against challenges and obstacles are only won and secured through our own persistent and sustained efforts.  Pressure forms diamonds.  Times will be tough, critics and naysayers will be many, but I encourage all of the young people of all races, classes, genders, and socioeconomic levels participating in the Black Lives Matter Movement to not get battle wary!  The world will always have problems and issues to rectify, you must be relentless and forge on to make the world for future generations better.  Keep your noses to the grind despite the challenges that may loom on the horizon-storms gather but eventually they all pass.  

I think we can draw valuable lessons from President Barack Obama's elections in 2008 and 2012.  Then-Senator Obama forever changed the political landscape in this country by tapping into the social media revolution, which in no small measure brings us all together regardless of race, gender, class, and socioeconomic status.  Social media helped Obama mobilize the foot soldiers who believed in his message, who would canvass communities on his behalf, and organize get-out-the-vote efforts and physically march voters to the polls in meaningful numbers to elect Obama in November 2008. Sarah Palin mocked Obama for being a former community organizer, but the community organizer had the last laugh.  Obama won.  He showed us that there is strength in numbers, and people will always matter.  The same held true in 2012, when President Obama easily tapped into his social media army to outpace Mitt Romney in the election that fall.  The lesson is simple, keep effectively using social media like you have been doing Black Lives Matter, it is your best friend to reach your targeted audience.

Organization, structure, and infrastructure are key.  On a related point to the point I make above about President Obama, a closely related lesson Obama teaches us is that data and information are king and rule the day.  Countless thousands of young Black folk and consciously considerate allies have shared their names and other key demographic data with the movement.  This data should be chronicled and organized properly and effectively for use at the right moments and times when we as Black people come under challenge in America.  You never want to be in a situation where you have to call on a family member or friend and you can't find their number-that's why having information at the ready is critically important when you need it most.  One tangible monument and outgrowth of President Obama's savvy use of data is MoveOn.org.  Largely, MoveOn.org was spawned and grew exponentially during President Obama's 2008 Campaign.  Subsequently, MoveOn.org has gone on to highlight and galvanize positive public sentiment, and action surrounding a number of important issues and initiatives.  Black Lives Matter take a page from President Obama and MoveOn.org-don't underestimate the importance of mining and effectively using data and demographic information to sustain your own movement.  Data and information are powerful! You can't place a price on information-it is priceless and more valuable than most currencies.

I think that the Black Lives Matter Movement stands to glean one important lesson from the three important facets or elements of the Black Civil Rights Movement and struggle of the 1950's and 1960's: 1.) Dr. King's non-violent civil disobedience movement; 2.) Malcolm X's Black Nationalist Movement; and 3.) Stokely Carmichael's Black Power and then the Black Panther Movements.  All these movements sought the ultimate liberation of African-Americans but through different strategies, tactics, and forms of applying action and pressure to the system of institutionalized racism.  However, the one thing these distinct and disparate movements have in common is that eventually the public leaders of these movements were either killed off or fell victim to in-fighting organizationally.

I think one thing that holds promise for the Black Lives Matter Movement is that there is no nominal or titulary or pharaonic leader of the movement that we see constantly in the news or in the public's imagination as the personified embodiment or face of the movement.  From my observations, the Black Lives Matter Movement functions as a body politic of passionate sleeves-rolled-up activists playing off of the same sheet of music in harmony, marching to unified and direct objectives that are straightforward that don't require a top-heavy orchestration to be successfully executed.  A Board of Directors can strategize and plot complex moves all day, but the successes of most successful corporations are won by effort and the quality of the product or service produced by the rank-and-file. The Black Lives Matter Movement should steer clear of a top management-centric model with rigid leadership structures and pecking orders.  Rather, a more decentralized model, as seems to currently exist, should be maintained.  Egos, rivalries and turf battles destroy the best organizations.  Many civil rights organizations in our struggle have fallen victim to these issues.  Eventually, as the movement matures, if personified leaders of the Black Lives Matter Movement emerge they must lead from the front and not from the rear, and make their ego(s) subservient to the interests of the movement and the goals it has set out to achieve. 

Also, one of the sad truths of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's, is that although we had masterful public leaders (i.e. witness Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael, and others), in my opinion, the cadre of charismatic and competent junior leaders was not properly developed in either of the three (3) important movements I referred to earlier.  In terms of leadership, a succession plan has to be considered and implemented to perpetuate the Black Lives Matter Movement beyond where it exists today.  We all age and transition into new roles as life progresses.  Who will take up the baton in the relay race to get the team to the next stage of the race, and from there to the finish line?  Training in all facets of the operation of the movement must be shared with the next generation of leaders to prepare them to be ready to step forward when their names are called and they are needed the most.

I don't have all the answers, but these are my humble submissions to young folks propelling the Black Lives Matter Movement.  However, I think that the Black Lives Matter Movement has to examine and learn lessons from our recent and more distant past if it is to have staying power and endurance.  With time and tinkering a proper blueprint will emerge to sustain the Black Lives Matter Movement-of this I'm hopeful, watchful, and remain confident.  In the immortal words of arguably one of the best hip-hop groups of my generation, Public Enemy, from the Public Enemy anthem "Fight The Power," Black Lives Matter "Fight The Power...Fight The Powers That Be."  Keep speaking truth to power!  To the Black Lives Matter Movement, the true vindication of the struggle you have undertaken will be an America that respects everyone's human dignity and right to live peacefully, dream big dreams, achieve to their fullest human potential, and advance in this fleeting journey or thing we call life.