The Civil Rights Movement was an extremely important time in American history. It was a movement run and led by young people, black and white, fighting for the unalienable rights of people that had previously been infringed upon. The outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement brought America a long way and seemed to be the finishing touches on a bridge being built over a long period a time. That bridge was meant to connect people all over the country of different races and take our nation to the brighter side of our history. Although the Civil Rights Movement made incredible strides and has brought this country so far, there are still many problems, especially those between the races that are still present in United States society today. Among these issues, police brutality against all people, but especially black people is something that was a problem in the times of the Civil Rights Movement and is still a problem today. 

The visual text FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE: Then and Now represents the parallels between the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements, specifically shining a light on key issues such as police brutality and the value of Black lives. This visual text is not only supposed to display the pictures as clear examples of the parallels, but also appeal to the emotions of its audience and demand action. The text is directed at the general public and is meant to evoke a response. Its purpose is to strike up sadness and bring awareness to the fact that some of the same events of America’s past are resurfacing. Another motive of the author is to make people who are not yet in support of the movement see its purpose and see why it is so important to take action. Although black people have come an extremely long way and the rights that they possess now are more than their ancestors could have dreamed, police brutality and the inequalities within the country are still a major problem.

The overall design of the work is a plain black background that resembles a stage. This seems to have been done on purpose, to make sure the audience is not distracted by anything else and can only focus on the visuals presented, like in a play one tends to only focus on what is occurring on the stage. The text features photographs from the Civil Rights Movement in black and white. The black and white acts as a symbolic time stamp to display that they took place in the past. The Civil Rights Movement photos span from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. The Black Lives Matter Movement photos are in color because they reflect the modern times. The BLM photos were taken at a protest in Atlanta, Georgia in the summer of 2016. 

Another key part of the design is the pictures that were chosen to convey this message. Any pictures from either movement could have been picked, slapped on a PowerPoint, and the audience may have been told “look, history is repeating itself, it’s the Civil Rights Movement all over again.” But, the images were specifically chosen to not only point out the parallels between the movements overall, but the parallels of the police brutality protests in two different time periods. Many of the pictures are quite similar to each other, beginning with the first two selected. The first two images show Civil Rights protestors standing inches away from police and Black Lives Matters protestors standing a few feet away from a sea of blue lights and men in uniforms. These pictures are important because they not only represent the protestors stand-off with their perceived oppressors, but also the power and authority the police have over the masses even though they may be wildly outnumbered. The next couple of images both display marches: one with Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leading hundreds of people with flags, and the other with Atlanta natives crowding the streets with posters and bull horns. These photos are important because they are actual clear snapshots of the protests and people taking action to combat the injustice. The third slide of photos within the visual text displays a mob surrounding police officers who are heavily armed and posters, people with fists in the air and mouths wide open shouting from the top of their lungs for what they believe in. Although these mobs outnumber the police, the police still have all of the authority in the guns they are holding in their hands. These guns are not just guns, they are symbols for the police force’s ability to silence the people they control, which is the whole point of the protests in the first place. The next slide, is the one that carries the most weight. During the Civil Rights Movement, black men had to stand in crowds holding signs stating “I AM A MAN.” This is so extremely powerful because it not only displays the sad truth that black men were not considered to be equal to white men or even men at all to some people. The other picture on the slide shows five black men on top of a hill with fists in air, standing their ground, and taking ownership of their right to be there and their right to live, which is what the Black Lives Matter movement is all about. The final slide definitely shows the most undeniable parallel between the two movements; protestors holding signs that are identical in meaning: police brutality is a problem and must be stopped and dealt with justly. 

The final key to the overall design is the written text embedded in the visual text. This key only appears at the beginning and the end of the work. The purpose of the text in the beginning is not only to provide the audience with a title of the work they are about to observe, but also convey a simple message which is: the fight for justice occurred then, is still occurring now, and will not stop until its goal is met. Many believe that the Civil Rights Movement was “good enough” and that blacks got what they wanted so they should just sit down, be quiet, and be content with their current state. However, the author is trying to make the audience see that justice isn’t something that can be served and then goes away. Injustice occurs every day, and until ALL injustice is stopped, the fight will not subside. Progress is not an action that has a true beginning and ending, it is continuous throughout time. The ending text is supposed to leave the audience with an emotional feeling and make them let those words marinate. “ALL LIVES CAN’T MATTER IF BLACK ONES DON’T” is not just a phrase typed onto a slide show, it means something and the author put it there to hopefully make the audience take those words and their meaning and implement it into daily life. 

All in all, the similarities between the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter Movement are too obvious to ignore and this visual texts points out them out. Both movements were and are about granting black people the same rights, status, and liberty that are held by white people. Through the contrasting black and white vs. color photographs, the words used in the visual texts, and the photographs chosen, this visual text helps any audience with any viewpoint on the issues see the parallels between the two movements. Yes, America has come a long way and should be very proud of the progress it has made, but progress is not something that stops when a certain point is reached, it keeps going and going and going until everyone can live in a country of harmony and equality. 
