A foundational tenant in Black Lives Matter Because of the ordinary person’s willingness
is the idea of multilateral, universal to step up and step out in an environment
leadership, not driven by a single that screamed for brutal silence, American
charismatic leader, but by the people history was irrevocably changed for the
involved. While Alicia Garza, Opal Temetti, better. Nearly every major moment in the
and Patrisse Cullors are identified as the history of various civil rights movements has
founders of BLM, they describe themselves been formulated and carried out by groups
as a movement that is “leader-full”, not of “normal,” everyday men and women.
leaderless. Emphasizing the importance of Today, we must recognize the importance
collective movement, rather than centering of our individual role in shaping a
around a single leader, has empowered progressive American future. So many
countless activists across the country who young adults are led away from “politics” by
otherwise might feel intimidated by a social a lack of knowledge, by an intimidation that
justice “hierarchy” that feels inaccessible. comes out of its importance, by not feeling
This also drives home a sad, but valid point - intelligent enough... But so many also need
- if there is no single leader who defines the to understand that it wasn’t the extremely
movement, that leader cannot be killed, knowledgeable, it wasn’t the men and
discredited, or removed. The postmodern women in the spotlight, and it wasn’t the
shift in approach to contemporary issues outspoken and intelligent who were the
has enabled a wider study of driving force behind the civil rights
interconnections between oppression, and movement. Of course, these leaders were
the understanding of the importance that incredibly important and powerful, and
lies in the “average” person. Angela Davis, in shaped the movement itself in it’s most
her book Freedom is a Constant Struggle, pivotal moments, but their power came out
discusses how it was the men and women of the people’s willingness to follow.
of Montgomery, Alabama who drove the
power of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Today, by creating activists who recognize
While being the event that pushed names their own agency, their own importance,
like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and their own eloquence as an everyday
into the spotlight, if it weren’t for the men human being and member of American
and women who risked their jobs, their society, we enable a generation to speak
financial security, their families, and their against oppression in all forms. We have the
lives by participating in the boycotts, none technology today that allows us to hold a
Change could only come when the everyday mirror up to our country harshly and often --
collective decided to independently step we also have a generation evolving to
up. To quote Ms. Davis, “Regimes of racial address what they see in that mirror, and
segregation were not disestablished the ugliness it reveals.
because of the work of leaders and
presidents and legislators, but rather
because of the fact that ordinary people
adopted a critical stance in the way in
which they perceive their relationship to
reality.” of it would have impacted their
community.
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