Has America changed since then?
The murder of Emmett Till in 1955 sparked a movement that led to America's Second Reconstruction. The killing of George Floyd nearly one year ago has pushed America toward a third. Floyd's "cries of 'I can't breathe' united this generation in a collective gasp for justice," write the Rev. William Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. |
But how far has America actually come since then? |
This week, Times Opinion published a special section on George Floyd and America, looking at the past year through a historic lens and taking stock of this current moment. |
Talmon Joseph Smith believes "there was a racial reckoning — it was just disproportionately experienced by privileged Americans," who have proved proficient at public posturing but less so at tackling the fundamental causes of injustice. |
And in an echo from history, that reckoning kept Americans engaged for only so long. As with support for Black Lives Matter, which has waned since its peak last June, the racial unrest of the 1960s brought "moments of sympathy" from white Americans, but "these were ultimately fleeting," write Jennifer Chudy and Hakeem Jefferson. Now, "a more fruitful conversation would consider how to transform support for B.L.M., wherever and how tenuous it exists, into more enduring political change," they argue. "Whether or not this effort will involve substantial numbers of white Americans remains to be seen." |
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