Even in the early 20th century, civil rights groups documented cases in which African-Americans died horrible deaths after being turned away from hospitals reserved for whites, or were lynched — which meant being hanged, burned or dismembered — in front of enormous crowds that had gathered to enjoy the sight.

The Charleston church massacre has eerie parallels to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. — the most heinous act of that period — which occurred at the height of the early civil rights movement. Four black girls were murdered that Sunday. When Dr. King eulogized them, he did not shy away from the fact that the dead had been killed because they were black, by monstrous men whose leaders fed them “the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.” He said that the dead “have something to say” to a complacent federal government that cut back-room deals with Southern Dixiecrats, as well as to “every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice.” Shock over the bombing pushed Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act the following year.

During this same period, freedom riders and voting rights activists led by the young John Lewis offered themselves up to be beaten nearly to death, week after week, day after day, in the South so that the country would witness Jim Crow brutality and meaningfully respond to it. This grisly method succeeded in Selma, Ala., in 1965 when scenes of troopers bludgeoning voting rights demonstrators compelled a previously hesitant Congress to acknowledge that black people deserved full citizenship, too, and to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Along the way, there was never a doubt as to what the struggle was about: securing citizenship rights for black people who had long been denied them.

The “Black Lives Matter” movement focuses on the fact that black citizens have long been far more likely than whites to die at the hands of the police, and is of a piece with this history. Demonstrators who chant the phrase are making the same declaration that voting rights and civil rights activists made a half-century ago. They are not asserting that black lives are more precious than white lives. They are underlining an indisputable fact — that the lives of black citizens in this country historically have not mattered, and have been discounted and devalued. People who are unacquainted with this history are understandably uncomfortable with the language of the movement. But politicians who know better and seek to strip this issue of its racial content and context are acting in bad faith. They are trying to cover up an unpleasant truth and asking the country to collude with them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/opinion/the-truth-of-black-lives-matter.html?

marym625. I love you for it!

Not so quick. But I fell asleep early last night.

That's because there were white people that claimed they weren't.

when "family" newspapers published cartoons depicting Blacks as animals or savage cannibals, and Black males were always referred to as "boy." During the 60's when I became aware of the Civil Rights movement, my feelings of solidarity with the movement made me rather smug. Then I saw men carrying "I AM a Man" signs, and for the first time I felt shame. I don't know if younger people today realize how moving and powerful it was to see grown men, some elderly, carrying those simple signs. It still brings tears to my eyes.

No words.

Thanks for sharing, Spitfire of ATJ.

That's why the FIRST thing they do in EVERY case is to demonize the victim as "just another bad one".

The sad thing is there are white people in the 21st century that are applauding the cops. They believe the cops are doing society a service by shooting young black males who got uppity as if they're ridding the streets of a rabid dog.

The dehumanization continues.

The civil rights movement was intended to make Congress and Americans confront the fact that African-Americans were being killed with impunity for offenses like trying to vote, and had the right to life and to equal protection under the law. The movement sought a cross-racial appeal, but at every step of the way used expressly racial terms to describe the death and destruction that was visited upon black people because they were black.

This must stop. It must end. Black lives matter.

Thanks for posting

The New York Times editorial board can occasionally write a great essay. It was probably written by one person there (I'd like to know who) and then agreed upon by the entire board.

minimize and dismiss #BLM. And everybody knows it.

It will likely get alot more discussion there.

I'll post it there too.

Thanks for the suggestion.