In this extended live episode of UBU Live with William Rochelle, but you can call him Bill, we slowed the pace and widened the lens. Not to debate history, but to remember it accurately, honestly, and in context.
We walked through where the modern civil rights movement actually began, starting in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, and how it accelerated after the murder of Emmett Till and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We talked about how the movement was led first and foremost by the Black community. Black churches. HBCUs. Mothers. Students. Working class families. People who risked everything long before the country decided it was ready to listen.
We explored the distinct leadership paths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, not as opposites to be pitted against each other, but as leaders responding to the same injustice through different strategies rooted in the same demand for dignity and human rights.
From there, the conversation expanded to who showed up next. Jewish activists. White Christian clergy. Latino and Hispanic organizers. Asian American and Native American advocates. Labor unions. College students. Lawyers. Faith leaders across traditions. International observers. The movement grew because solidarity grew.
We also spent time on the women’s rights movement, which began long before the civil rights era, formally in 1848 at Seneca Falls, gained momentum with women’s suffrage in 1920, and surged again in the 1960s and 1970s alongside civil rights. We talked plainly about what women could not legally do before equal rights protections. No independent credit. Limited home ownership. No job security during pregnancy. Little to no recourse for workplace discrimination.
The episode traced the nation’s progress decade by decade. From desegregation and voting rights to fair housing, Title IX, disability protections, LGBTQ visibility, marriage equality, and the renewed civil rights energy of 2020.
And then we addressed the present. The rollbacks. The dismantling of voting protections. The cuts to DEI. The removal of affirmative action. The erosion of women’s autonomy. The weakening of LGBTQ protections. The quiet return of housing discrimination. The cost of removing oversight. Not as theory, but as lived consequences that affect real people.
This was not a one hour history lesson. It was a reminder. Progress is not permanent unless we protect it. Rights do not defend themselves. And silence has always been the most expensive choice.
If you missed the live conversation, this recap gives you the full context. If you were there, this is the one worth revisiting.
Thanks for being part of a space that refuses to forget where we’ve been, what it took to get here, and what’s at stake if we turn back.
#YOUBEYOULIVE #CIVILRightsHistory #WomensRights #HumanRights #DEI #VotingRights #EqualRights #KnowYourHistory #ProgressMatters #WilliamRochelle
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