“I was wearing a backpack before it became fashionable to wear backpacks. And in my backpack, I had two books. I thought we were going to be arrested, and in jail, so I wanted to have something to read. I had an apple and I had an orange in the backpack, something to eat.”i
– John Lewis
I stumbled across these words from the late Congressman John Lewis on the occasion of his death, and they struck a nerve in me. He was describing the purpose of the backpack he wore on “Bloody Sunday.” This was the day in 1965 when he was savagely beaten by Alabama State Troopers as he marched in protest with others across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the pursuit of suffrage for disenfranchised minorities. Lewis was drawing a contrast between the grave, functional purpose of his backpack on Bloody Sunday with the fashion purpose backpacks often serve today. In my mind however, Lewis’ words and his reference to his backpack serve as an analogy for the contrast between the voting and civil rights protesters he helped lead in the sixties and the racial justice protesters in the streets of America right now. To put it bluntly, while the racial justice protesters today have sparked a historic inflection point, the movement lacks two key qualities that could prevent it from becoming a fleeting fashion trend.
First, the racial justice protest movements today are strong at the local level in some cities, but overall, they lack the level of national coordination needed to ensure the greatest impact.ii In contrast, John Lewis chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “snick”) which largely lived up to its name. SNCC helped lead national-level coordination of key aspects of the Civil Rights Movement to include coordinating with other groups like Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Most notably, as part of what became known as “Freedom Summer,” in 1964, SNCC led a national effort to organize thousands of volunteers and train them to register Black voters. It was a targeted effort that chose northern whites as the primary trainees and deployed them to selected areas in the south, areas that would have the greatest impact on SNCC’s strategic goals.iii In contrast, today’s protest movement lacks this kind of national-level coordination. So, for example, despite increasing voter registration and turnout in many major cities, today’s movement is boosting voter participation in many places that are already solidly either “red” or “blue” and therefore unlikely to change the electoral college or congressional map.iv With a modern-day SNCC however, protestors could shift organizational talent and much needed energy in places like Los Angeles to cities in Wisconsin or Michigan, states still up for grabs on the presidential ballot.v
Additionally, on the voting front, managing voter registration and turnout resources from a national level in a more targeted manner can have a greater impact today than such efforts did in the sixties. Despite 17,000 Black Mississippians attempting to register during Freedom Summer, only 1,200 were successful because of the institutionalized voter suppression ordnances and tactics used in the south at the time.vi Although modern-day versions of tactics to suppress the vote still exist, voting rights laws have made it easier for a nationally organized groups to move the needle in battleground areas.
A nationally coordinated protest movement could also better leverage high-profile cultural and political influencers. Freedom Summer initiatives included selectively choosing people to lead registration drives based on their perceived ability to succeed. A volunteer’s race, city of origin, and notoriety played factors in the decision about where to send them because of the level of institutional racism at the time.vii Today, with the advent of social media and the cultural influence of entertainment and political icons, a nationally coordinated effort to tap into their “star power” could push high-profile celebrities to walk the talk. Many of them are kneeling for the National Anthem and sounding off on Twitter, but how many are on the scene in battleground states helping to register young voters in key swing counties?
One of the most prominent celebrity protesters is former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick who refused to stand during the National Anthem at NFL games four years ago. While I personally would not protest in this manner, I served over two decades in uniform to defend the right for “Kap” to peacefully protest, and I respect his right to do so. Kap’s method of protest is trivial to me compared to what he did NOT do that same year he decided to kneel; he did not vote, and the year was 2016.viii Maybe even more importantly, he did not use his influence to boost voter turnout for one of the closest elections in U.S. history.ix Although Kap was raised in California, he was born in Wisconsin, the home of his adoptive parents.x It’s hard to calculate what might have happened if Kap had used his star power in the 2016 presidential election and teamed up with other celebrities to inspire more people to vote in Wisconsin, a key swing sate. The math is pretty straight forward however; in Wisconsin, keeping the state blue would have only required about 6 votes per precinct.xi
The second quality today’s protests lack when compared to the Civil Rights Movement protests is an emphasis on social and community service programs. Freedom Summer for example, included dozens of “Freedom Schools” to help close the education gap for Blacks caused by the racist, separate and unequal education system in America, particularly in the south. In addition to traditional academics, the schools armed students with the practical tools needed to continue the struggle for equality.xii Like SNCC, the Black Panther Party also spearheaded several social programs. Their most well-known effort was a free school breakfast program that fed thousands. Schools reported a noticeable difference in the performance of students in the program which simply involved volunteers, after consulting with nutritionists, acquiring food donations from grocery stores and preparing meals.xiii
How many Freedom Schools have today’s protestors started? How many meals have they served to hungry children? Today’s protestors, many of them younger, could learn a lot from the Civil Rights Movement and the example set by John Lewis and others. Ironically, John Lewis and one of his staffers wrote a comic book series entitled March, about Lewis’ life and his role in the movement. Its purpose was to inspire youth in the same way Lewis was inspired in the late fifties by a comic book about Martin Luther King. Lewis even attended Comic-Con, a comic book culture convention, multiple times, going so far as to cosplay himself as a younger man in the same outfit he wore on Bloody Sunday, right down to his backpack. Children at Comic-Con one year had used March as part of their curriculum and were in awe of Lewis. Spiderman did not have a chance that day.xiv
The lesson for those children and the young people marching now is the same. Civil rights protesting in the sixties was not just a fad or a hip trend. Marching in the streets and across bridges, like the one in Selma, was not the totality of the movement. Everything about John Lewis and his fellow protesters on Bloody Sunday was deliberate and part of a larger, multifaceted strategy; everything served a higher purpose, right down to his backpack.
i Page, S. (2015, February 24). 50 years after Selma, John Lewis on unfinished business. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/24/capital-download-john-lewisselma-50th-anniversary/23935047/
ii Alter, C. (2020, June 17). How Black Lives Matter Could Reshape the 2020 Elections. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://time.com/5852534/black-lives-matter-2020-elections-voting/
iii History.com Editors. (2009, October 29). Freedom Summer. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-summer
iv Timm, J. (2020, August 18). Voter registration surged during BLM protests, study finds. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/voter-registration-surged-during-blm-protests-study-finds-n1236331
v FiveThirtyEight. (2020, August 25). Wisconsin President: General election Polls. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/wisconsin/
vi History.com Editors. (2009, October 29). Freedom Summer. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-summer
vii Ibid
viii Martin, J. (2016, November 15). Colin Kaepernick: ‘It would be hypocritical of me to vote’. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/sport/49ers-qb-colin-kaepernick-explains-why- he-didnt-vote/index.html
ix Patel, J., & Andrews, W. (2016, December 18). Trump’s Electoral College Victory Ranks 46th in 58 Elections. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/18/us/elections/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.html
x Biography. Colin Kaepernick. (2020, August 24). Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/athlete/colin-kaepernick
xi The New York Times. Wisconsin Election Results 2016. (n.d.). Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/wisconsin; For the number of precincts in Wisconsin: Politico. Live election results: Wisconsin primaries 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/wisconsin/
xii History.com Editors. (2009, October 29). Freedom Summer. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-summer
xiii Blakemore, E. (2018, February 06). How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party
xiv Garcia, S. (2020, July 21). When John Lewis Cosplayed at Comic-Con as His Younger Self. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/politics/john-lewis-comic-con.html
Typography is the art and technique
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point size, line length, line-spacing (leading), letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space within letters pairs (kerning).
Typography is the art and technique
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point size, line length, line-spacing (leading), letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space within letters pairs (kerning).
Typography is the art and technique
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point size, line length, line-spacing (leading), letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space within letters pairs (kerning).
“I was wearing a backpack before it became fashionable to wear backpacks. And in my backpack, I had two books. I thought we were going to be arrested, and in jail, so I wanted to have something to read. I had an apple and I had an orange in the backpack, something to eat.”i
– John Lewis
