After talking with protesters at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, I understood what was so different between OWS and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. The gripe of OWS is with those who stole too much and left too little for others. Millions feel this way. But, that does not place OWS protesters in the shoes of Fannie Lou Hamer.
At Zuccotti Park, I heard shouting about the homeless. I read signs about student loan debt. Anti-war buttons were sold. I bought t-shirts deriding invasion of privacy with caricatures of Uncle Sam. One tourist from France asked, “Why are you here?” A young man with a bull horn, tan skin, and curly brown hair, stood on a short stone wall, and shouted this nonsensical line, “The fact that the government does not want us here is reason enough to be here.”
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The Civil Rights Movement was about getting rights clearly guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. That fight took discipline, foresight, strategies, and cooperation, while we were embattled on all fronts. Young people and our elders sacrificed 381 days for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Charles Hamilton Houston worked himself to death creating legal strategies to overturn the apartheid ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson.
Have we forgotten?
Yes, the OWS issues are important. Police abused OWS protesters. Like the sheriffs of the Jim Crow era, police respond to power. OWS expected the police to honor their rights. In this hard-scrabble economy, being White in the 99% bears little weight to politicians relying on big donations.
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The police abuse of OWS is nothing compared to the depraved attacks suffered by Black women as punishment for gains in Civil Rights.
OWS should not suffer trial by fire before they can claim to be a legitimate movement. But, claims of hostilities against OWS become questionable when Russell Simmons and other celebrities are dropping by for photo-ops.
OWS, While Just Protest, Not The Same As Civil Rights Movement
