The mass Civil Rights Movement was both a local and national movement, one that profoundly shaped a wide array of institutions, American culture and the political/legal terrain of the nation. However, while the movement fundamentally altered many aspects of Black life, the enduring nature of racial inequality continues to delimit the possibilities and potentials surrounding the full expression of Black Humanity. In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2015, activists created a hashtag - #BlackLivesMatter and almost immediately, the aims and goals of #BLM expanded, in recognition of the deeply interconnected nature of racial oppression in American society. #BLM highlighted the growth and development of a new era of movement building and struggle, one that continues to grow, evolve and contend with the protean nature of white supremacy. This panel engages the dynamic relationship between these two moments of liberatory possibility.

Charles McKinney in “Memphis: Miraculous, Magnificent, and Messy”: Building Freedom from the Ground up in the Bluff City” tackles the movement in Memphis, TN – site of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was campaigning for the labor rights of sanitation workers in 1968 and now the site of ongoing clashes between a well-organized grassroots movement and the police and city officials following multiple murders and constant police brutality.

Kishauna Soljour, in “The Search for Truth and Justice: A Diasporic Black Freedom Struggle” takes us to France and the synergy with the mass civil rights movement and #BLM in the U.S. Beginning with a writer’s conference in Paris where Black Americans made clear the continuing movement in the U.S. and the French equivalent, Solijour highlights the historical flashpoints that culminated and coalesced around the police murder of a Black immigrant, the campaign against the family, and the current French denial of the category of race.

Mickell Carter in “Anthem Making in the Era of BLM” complicates the construction and use of anthems as rallying cultural productions in mass movements. Comparing and contrasting historical cultural products and today’s she forces us to think about intentionality on the part of the creators and the activists and how the products function with these details in play.