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Courtney Mason

Abstract

The history of American civil rights is understood largely through the context of various mass movements. Most famously, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a remarkable representation of collective action. The success of that movement becomes even more significant when considering the realities of life for Black Americans at the time. In the spirit of those movements, the 2010s and 2020s have brought about modern movements that continue to push against discrimination toward Black Americans and push for progress in the legal system. The movements each were and are met with opposition. This article focuses on the opposition and silencing tactics of the law—that is, the written law and law enforcement—as intentional methods of hindering the progress of movements. Specifically, this article explores the ways in which assassination and incarceration impact civil rights movements both negatively and positively.

Through a series of case studies, the article argues that the civil rights movements in America have a cyclical nature, recurring with similar patterns whenever they appear. Assassination and incarceration are at the center of that cycle. Using comparisons between the assassinations of Emmett Till, Martin Luther King Jr., and Trayvon Martin, the article will demonstrate how, frequently, death is a catalyst for collective action against the law, but is also used by the law as a method of slowing progress. Incarceration functions similarly. This article will explore protest laws, jail-no-bail tactics, and similar instances of incarceration as either strategies used by activists to effectuate change or by the law to silence those involved in these movements. Through the analysis of major moments in civil rights movements from the 1960s to the 2020s, this article demonstrates how assassination and incarceration are inherent to the cycle of movements in America as they serve as both catalysts and deterrents to a movement’s progress, and that, without substantial change to the current legal system, the cycle will continue.

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