Speech written by Athalia Jordan Barrett, Freshman in college October 11, 2021
Black. Lives. Matter. By now you’ve seen this as a hashtag or heard it chanted in the streets. But have you ever taken a second to understand how that hashtag came to be? Or what that statement actually mean? The roots, of this movement go deeper and further back in time than most know. The bottom line is that African Americans have been fighting for human rights since they were first brought to America in 1619 and still have yet in 2021 to fully acquire them. Time after time again throughout the United States history America has shown Africans Americans that their lives do not matter. Black Lives Matter means exactly that. Black lives matter. No more no less just equal.
Even though for the most part we see the Black Lives Matter Movement focusing on police brutality, the movement did not begin because of police brutality it began after the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. George Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford Florida and had called the police to report a suspicious character. After he reported the issue, he continued to follow 17-year-old Trayvon Martin even after the dispatcher told Zimmerman not to. Moments after, residents reported hearing gunfire. Zimmerman admitted to shooting Trayvon Martin claiming it was self-defense. It took 44 days for Zimmerman to be arrested after the case had caught national media attention and was addressed by then President Barrak Obama. A year later Zimmerman was found not guilty of all charges by a majority white jury. After the jury’s ruling in 2013, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi created the movement we now know as Black Lives Matter.
Trayvon Martin isn’t the first and wasn’t the last to die because they were black. In the United States of America other civilians killing African Americans for suspected crimes or just for fun is the norm. In 1886 the number of black lynch victims exceeded the number of white lynch victims creating a racially motivated tradition in the 19th century. In the 19th century an evolving scientific theory claimed that human beings could be categorized by social standing and group affiliation. A science myth created by Charles Darwin says that biologically African Americans were inferior to whites. And because African Americans were subhuman and lacked intelligence it was seen to be completely justifiably to kill or torture African Americans as anyone saw fit. The peak of lynching began in 1892. When accusing a black man of raping a white woman became the trendy thing to do. Emmett Till was 14 years old when he was kidnapped out of his own home, beat, tortured, and hung by two adult white men for allegedly flirting with a white woman in 1955.
And while white men avenged their white wives, sisters and daughter’s, thousands of African American women were brutally raped without any sort of justice whatsoever. Recy Taylor was a 24-year-old woman who lived in Abbeville Alabama and was raped at gunpoint by 6 white men in 1944. No arrest were made. Do you see the difference?
But you see the ill treatment of African Americans is nothing new it all began with slave masters.
Just like how most police brutality stems from early policing.
Police back then were called slave patrols and night watchers. They were created to enforce the institution of slavery and control minorities through fear. Congress, passed the fugitive slave act which forced slaves that escaped from their slave masters to go back into slavery and even if they were free African Americans that were in the wrong place at the wrong time were also forced into slavery. I quote Turner, Giacopassi and Vandiver “the literature clearly establishes that a
legally sanctioned law enforcement system existed in America before the Civil War for the express purpose of controlling the slave population and protecting the interests of slave owners. The similarities between the slave patrols and modern
American policing are too salient to dismiss or ignore. Hence, the slave patrol should be considered a forerunner of modern American law enforcement.”
And the Statistics show that black people are currently three times more likely to be killed by police and that, 99% of killings by police don't result in criminal charges from 2013 through 2019.
But Black Lives Matter isn’t just about fighting racial motivated violence it’s also about African Americans quality of life. Most African Americans neighborhoods across the country are run down and abandoned. This was caused by red lining. In 1934 the National Housing Act was created so that people of low income could afford homes. But the Home Owners loan corporation gave out majority of their loans to communities that were green, blue, or yellow while the communities in the red got little to nothing. The majority of the population in the red zones where foreigners, low class whites and significantly Blacks. One of the key characteristics for a red lined neighborhood was the presence of black and brown people. This caused white flight. Where whites would flee to go to other suburban areas, most of these areas refused to sell to African Americans and it was perfectly legal to do so. For over 30 years 98% of FHA loans were given to white borrowers and no did anything about it until 1968. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior congress passed the fair housing act But this act was rarely enforced and did little to repair the damage already done to African American neighborhoods and schools. The primary way that Americans pay for public school is through paying property taxes. The more homeowners with higher property value the more funding there will be for the schools. But with low homeownership and property values in most African American communities the school systems crumbled. Red lining not only affected housing and schools but it also segregated most high paying jobs to be closer to majority white neighborhoods while little to no career opportunities are available in most urban communities. In order to understand the Movement Black Lives Matter you have to understand that racism has been built into the foundation of Americas system. And I haven’t even scratched of the history of the Americas ill treatment of African Americans. Black Lives Matter is another wave of change. The abolitionist fought slavery and The Civil rights movement fought segregation, change doesn’t feel good but it is necessary. And with that I leave you with this.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
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Athalia Barrett started college at 17 years old and is currently a freshman in college. She is majoring in Biology, minoring in Communications. Athalia is a human and civil rights advocate, writer and published artist. Her future goals are to be a community leader and a doctor serving underserved communities of color. She is writing a mini book series of text book notes that she will use to target students of color in low-income and distressed communities. She says biology and various studies of science are lacking in communities and school districts of color. She hopes that her books can reach aspiring Black future doctors. Giving them insight and direction in the field of medicine.
To contact or help support the writer please call 919-285-9654, or email, a1probookings@gmail.com