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I will be the first to admit the Civil Rights movement fascinates me. I find it striking that common, everyday people, with singleness of purpose, rose to the occasion to fight for what they believed in. These pioneers who we now call freedom fighters put their lives on the line to bring attention to social injustice. They were true trailblazers. Some of their lives ended too early, they were not able to see the fruits of their labor and conviction. Some of them continue to fight the good fight to this day.
The title of this article asks a rhetorical question. It has been over 50 years since the beginning of the movement. Although we face many new issues, some of them are just new faces on old problems. Social injustice, racism, poverty, and educational disparity to name a few still exist. Have things changed for the better because of the movement? Without a doubt I would say yes. Is there still much work to be done? I say most definitely. Are we prepared to fight with the conviction of those who blazed the trail to effect change? That is the question we must answer. In my opinion it is important that we understand where we came from to be better prepared for the work that needs to be done now. There are so many stories to share, more than I can put into a single article. I've share a few of them here. I encourage you to click on the links and read further. A friend of mine shared an article from Yahoo News entitled "Report says poor are moving to nation's suburbs". Published by the Associated Press in Los Angeles, the article submits that:
Maybe the "poor" are moving to the suburbs because they can't afford to live in the cities any more. Maybe those folks that moved out of urban areas to "get away" from the city realized that's it's too expensive and inconvenient to live in the suburbs. Maybe commuting costs, traffic, property taxes, and such are impacting the lifestyle they were expecting to have.
So if you raise real estate prices in urban areas and lower them in suburban areas under the guise of affordable housing you get "gentrification". Wikipedia defines gentrification as:  Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. "The Ballot or the Bullet" is the name of a public speech by Malcolm X. In the speech, which was first delivered on April 3, 1964, at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland,Ohio, Malcolm advised African-Americans to judiciously exercise their right to vote, but he cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African-Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them to take up arms. It was ranked 7th in the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century by 137 leading scholars of American public address. Close to 50 years later this speech is still relevant. "....22 million black victims of Americanism are waking up and they’re gaining a new political consciousness, becoming politically mature. And as they develop this political maturity, they’re able to see the recent trends in these political elections. They see that the whites are so evenly divided that every time they vote the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. And that means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that’s who gets it. You’re in a position to determine who will go to the White House, and who will stay in the doghouse. You’ re the one who has that power....You’ re the one who put the present Democratic Administration in Washington DC. The whites were evenly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80% of your votes behind the Democrats that put the Democrats in the White House. When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is the key factor. And despite the fact that you are in a position to be the determining factor, what do you get out of it? ...... Anytime you throw your weight behind the political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that Party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race." On April 24, 1867, the Ku Klux Klan held its first national meeting in a bid to organize and build structure among their many disparate groups. In 2013, one hundred forty six years later, the klan still exists. On Wednesday I spent the entire evening surfing through Ku Klux Klan affiliated websites. I read their literature, watched videos, and scanned through a ton of pictures. I even went so far as to attempt to join so that I can see the application process for myself. I must say that it was quite an eye opening experience. Although the outward projection of anger and hatred has diminished significantly, the values that the Klan hold near and dear to their heart have not changed a bit. They say that they no longer preach hate, now they only preach love. I guess there's a bridge in the middle of some swamp land that someone wants me to buy also. You might wonder why I am writing about the Klan. I'm writing for the same reason that I write about Claudette Colvin. I believe that if we have an understanding of the events that shaped our "American Experience" we'll be better positioned to discuss and address similar issues that we're facing today. I'm not a proponent of living in the past, the past is done, dead, and buried. What happened, happened and there's nothing we can do about that. What we can do is use our knowledge of the past to avoid future pitfalls
 The movie "42" opened with rave reviews and high ratings. I found it to be a heartwarming movie with a wonderful "heroic" storyline. Jackie Robinson was indeed a trailblazer who paved the way for generations of athletes to come. It takes a person of character and strong intestinal fortitude to endure what Robinson went through in those early years. In an article by Mark Newman on the MLB.com website, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is quoted saying: "I've often said that baseball's proudest moment and its most powerful social statement came when Jackie Robinson first set foot on a Major League Baseball field,...and '42' captures that event brilliantly." Although every professional sport played today has been integrated, when it comes to ownership things are quite different. A Philadelphia Tribune article written in October 2011 stated a stark reality. In 122 sports ownership groups (32 NFL teams, and 30 each in the other three sports), there was just one Black majority owner among all of those franchises, in all of those sports. In 2011 basketball great Michael Jordan was the sole African American with a majority interest in a professional sports team, the Charlotte Bobcats.
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EditorErnest R. Heyward is the Founder and President of the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility Inc. 
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