Taking Action Through Social Media
[gtxvideo vid=”CdI8lym7″ playlist=”” pid=”XiOflQdH” thumb=”http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/CdI8lym7.jpg” vtitle=”Social Media”]
From segregation, to voting rights, to jobs, there have been many causes that prompted people to rally. C.P. Everett IV remembers the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. “This was the first time in Montgomery that I can recall that people came together in mass protest and stuck together until the end,” said Everett. It took an army of supporters to get to the end. And while notable faces appeared on the front lines, it’s often those behind the scenes who go unrecognized. “The pastors of churches on Sunday morning. The word was spread abroad because of what those pastors did in the pulpit of Montgomery,” Everett. Everett was a young boy during the planning of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. “It was in this church that Reverend Elroy Bennett on Dec 4, 1955 told the congregation that we were not to ride the buses on Dec 5, 1955. And being in this church service with my mother, my father, my grandmother, I was for the first time told about civil protest,” said Everett. He says word of mouth, phone calls by the women of the church and handing out flyers is what led a massive crowd to Holt Street Baptist Church ahead of what would become the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. “There were so many people at that meeting that my grandmother and I couldn’t get into the church building,” said Everett. “People wanted to know more about what’s next. So by coming to the mass meeting they were presented with a resolution, they were asked the question how long should the boycott last and they were involved.” Planning began in the basements of churches like Mt. Zion AME Zion, Holt Street, Brown Chapel AME and others. Today, not only is the fight different, so is the foundation. Demonstrations are being led by a new generation of people who have a different way of organizing. These days groups use social media to organize. It’s a tool that has the power to identify, recruit, mobilize and fundraise. But even the most social media savvy activists will admit it takes more than a like or retweet to affect change. “A hashtag can change everything. However, the work behind the hashtag tends to fall off when the new craze comes along,” said student Amber Clark. Clark is a junior at Alabama State University. She’s a fighter for human rights and is leading the effort to change Alabama’s education system. But don’t call her an activist. “I don’t know if I would use the term activist. I would use the term a fighter for my people,” said Clark. Clark also comes from a family that participated in grassroots movements. At 12 years old, she remembers her mother taking her to Atlanta to protest the conviction of Genarlow Wilson. In December, she returned to Atlanta to join a group of protestors rallying against the shooting of Ferguson teen Mike Brown. She remembers a similar energy in both movements. “It was almost like a family dinner with all of your friends except there was a problem and you want to fix it,” said Clark. She says solving a problem often times begins with a simple key stroke or click of a mouse. A simple click that can rally thousands and thousands of people. “We’ve got to make a change. There’s no reason that an African American male can get killed on camera, have so much evidence and nobody says that they can do anything. There needs to be some repercussions. There needs to be some real fighting happening,” said Clark. “When you have that constant want for change, you’re constantly on the move and you’re trying to figure out what do my people need from me next.” Clark says while her generation may have the answer to faster and more efficient organizing, they sometimes lack the patience of their ancestors. “We’re sitting here like I don’t want to wait for change, I want it to happen immediately,” said Clark. “Once you see someone burning buildings and destroying businesses in their community, that is certainly atypical of what we started with in the 1950s,” said Everett. “I’m not sure that approach will get them the distance that was gotten by that young man Martin Luther King and all of those who followed him.” Patience and persistence is a lesson of the past that many people say is sometimes forgotten in the present. “It looks like we get our passion quick but it leaves just as fast as it comes along,” said Clark. Clark says social media creates immediacy in today’s culture but policy and lawmakers have failed to catch up with the pace. “You’ve got to get more people to know and the more people who tweet about it, the more people who want to learn about it and get into those trending topics, we need people for that too. Not everyone is going to be on the streets. It’s a whole new day and we have a lot more options,” said Clark. Clark says she plans to continue her push for charter schools. meanwhile C.P. Everett’s daughter has written a book about her father’s experience as a child during the civil rights. It’s called “Peter and the Boycott”
