A Time to Reap for Foot Soldiers of Civil Rights
Many observers of the 2008 U.S. presidential election see Barack Obama's victory as one of the legacies of the civil rights movement. In the article, "A Time to Reap for Foot Soldiers of Civil Rights," New York Times reporter Kevin Sacks interviews veterans of the civil rights movement in Albany, Georgia and provides testimonies of how they connect Obama's success at the polls to the work of civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s. Additonally, in an NBC news interview, Rep. John Lewis, former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, speaks about the relationship between the civil rights movement and the 2008 presidential election. For students exploring the history of the civil rights movement, these resources can help them connect the history of the movement to their lives today.
- What does the election of Barack Obama suggest about the legacy of the civil rights movement?
- At what point is it appropriate to evaluate the success of a movement? While it is happening? Five years later? Decades later?
- Besides the election of an African American president, what other evidence exists to suggest that the civil rights movement was a success, not only for African Americans, but for all Americans? What evidence suggests that more work needs to be done to protect and secure the civil rights of all Americans?
- What were civil rights activists striving for in the 1950s and 1960s? How might the goals of civil rights activists be similar today? How might they be different?
