These events were chosen because of how publicly they impacted America and it made people realize the
Beginning of Rock n Roll: late 1940’s early 1950’s (Nate)
Rock and Roll first started in the form of early R&B, short for Rhythm and Blues during the Great Migration, where six million African-Americans would move north from southern rural states. With this great movement of people came a comparable movement of music. Rhythm and Blues became popular with much of the teenage population. However, due to an overwhelmingly discriminatory attitude, the genre didn’t receive much airtime on the radio. White artists would go on to attempt to cover some R&B songs to little success, but they didn’t capture the soul of the song like the African-American artists did. Rather than giving the African-American artists their earned airtime, they began their quest to find a white artist who could capture the heart of R&B ~ that artist became Elvis Presley.
Jackie Robinson: 1940s (Nate)
Jack Roosevelt Robinson becomes the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in 1947. Robinson would go on to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers starting at first base. After being brought up through the minor leagues for several months, Robinson’s first major league game was on April 15, 1947, officially breaking the baseball color barrier.
First Black Barbie: 1980 (Clarita)
The first official Barbie was named Barbie Millicent Roberts and it was released in 1959. She represented loved celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor and was only sold for three dollars. When the popularity of the doll grew, she fit into classic one-piece swimsuits for the ’70s and a pretty pink neon mini for the ’90s. In 1967, a British fashion supermodel Twiggy was the first celebrity to be transformed into a Barbie doll. However, the first Barbie marketed as “African American” was released in 1980, alongside a Latina Barbie, 21 years after the original Barbie was made and 13 years after Twiggy’s doll was made.
Central Park 5: 1989 (Avani)
On April 19th, 1989, a 28-year-old white woman named Trisha Meili went for a jog in Central Park in New York City. She was found by the NYPD left for dead in a ditch, with several severe injuries. It was suspected that 30 or more teenagers had been roaming the park that night harassing other people as well. The Police arrested five black boys with the assault: Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise, all between the ages of 14-16. Originally the five confessed to the crime, but they later claimed that they were blackmailed into confessing. All five were convicted in what could best be described as an unfair trial, as witness statements were not incriminating and there was no physical evidence any of the boys had even committed the crime. Each was sentenced to between 5-15 years in prison, despite the fact that each one of the five continued to insist that they were not guilty and continued to claim they had been coerced into their confession. In spite of this, none of the boys were released until 2002, after they’d all served (or come close to serving) out their full sentences. Eventually, a man named Matias Reyes (a convicted murderer and serial rapist) admitted to the crime. Despite this seemingly exonerating evidence, and even after Reyes' confession, the case still divided the American public... including the prosecutor for the district attorney’s Sex Crimes office, who stated that Reyes’s DNA evidence did not exonerate the other five. Trump, who had insisted that they bring back the death penalty when the Central Park Five were first convicted, took issue with their release. Even in 2014 when the boys (now men) won a $41 million wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against the city, Trump refused to apologize for advocating for their death. This disturbing pattern of behavior from those (mostly white men) in power during the trial and aftermath only proved that racism played the biggest role in the conviction of the Central Park Five.
Los Angeles Race Riots: 1992 (Avani)
In April of 1992, the Los Angeles Race Riots began in response to the acquittal of four Los Angeles policemen charged with the beating of Rodney King, who was chased on the freeway for speeding on his motorcycle. The people of Los Angeles had long recognized the racial profiling of Black and Latinx communities by the mostly White LAPD. This incident was only one of many in which white police officers had gotten little to no punishment for their unprovoked aggression toward people belonging to these minorities. Around 50 people were killed during these riots and more than 1000 were injured. A State of Emergency in California was declared and President Bush dispatched thousands of armed troops to “restore order”. Rodney King eventually received a $3.8 million settlement from the city. Although King might have gotten some of the justice he deserved, the city of Los Angeles was not just, and the fight for the end of police brutality was just beginning.
OJ Simpson Trials 1995 (Avani)
In 1995 an African American former football player named OJ Simpson was tried for the murder of his wife and her friend. His case was highly televised and heightened the tensions between the black and white communities regarding the justice system. As (the majority) of the white community saw it, he was a dangerous murderer who deserved to be locked up based on some evidence and motives that surely should have committed him. As (the majority) of the Black community saw it the evidence was tainted by some members of the LAPD who were racist and wanted to convict him as the killer without sufficient evidence. OJ was eventually found not guilty for the murder of his wife. The black community celebrated OJ’s acquittal. They celebrated not necessarily because they all believed he was innocent. They celebrated it as a small win in an injustice system where so many black people were convicted for crimes without sufficient evidence and so many white people with sufficient evidence linking them to the crime were set free. In a way, it was like payback for cases like Rodney King’s, finally a small justice for the black community to battle all of the injustice it faced.
The Election of Barack Obama
On November 4, 2008, the United States of America elected its first president of color. Illinois Senator Barack Obama would become the 44th President of the United States. His election would come after beating the Republican ticket of John McCain and his Vice President nominee, Sarah Palin. Obama would win alongside his VP pick in Joe Biden. Obama’s Democratic ticket won with 365 delegates compared to the Republican 173.
Emma Watson Speech: 2014(Clarita)
On September 20th, 2014 Emma Watson delivered a speech about her thoughts on feminism and gender equality to the United Nations headquarters to start the HeforShe campaign. She talks about the actual definition of the word, ‘feminism’, and how she thinks that she should be paid as much as her male coworkers, she should be able to make her own decisions about her body, and that in politics women should be given the same respect as men. She states, “I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality.” She clearly emphasizes during her speech that she wants to welcome more men to join this organization, explaining that feminism is indeed for everyone. She feels that “If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.”
HeforShe is a “social movement campaign providing a systematic approach and targeted platform through which men and boys become agents of change for the achievement of gender equality” with over 2 million people committed and more growing by the day.
Black Panther: February 16, 2018 (Avani)
In February of 2018, Marvel released the first black superhero movie. Not only was the movie starring a black lead but it had an almost completely black cast including writers and directors. The film was praised for its portrayal of the black experience in America, Africa, and globally. The film faced the issues of affecting modern-day black life head-on while proudly representing what it is like to be of African descent. The film was made all the more powerful by the fact that it was released shortly after Donald Trump’s election. As Jamil Smith put it in his article for Time magazine, “...the very existence of Black Panther feels like resistance.
Taylor Swift Video: 2020 (Clarita)
On February 27th, 2020 Taylor Swift released a song called “The Man”, which publicly expressed her feminist side and her thoughts about the unjust differences shown between men and women in work, social gatherings, and in public life in general. Swift said, “Having dealt with a few of them, narcissists basically subscribe to a belief system that they should be able to do and say whatever the hell they want, whenever the hell they want to and if we — as anyone else in the world, but specifically women — react to that, well, we’re not allowed to. We’re not allowed to have a reaction to their actions.” One of her most symbolic lyrics is when she said “What I was wearing/ If I was rude” represents the incident that occurred in 2013 when DJ David Mueller sexually assaulted Taylor during a meet and greet. Mueller sued her for defamation and Taylor kept her head up and countersued for sexual assault, won, and asked for a single dollar to be paid in damages.
An important scene of the song is also when the male character(AKA Taylor Swift) is shown throwing a fit on the tennis court. This relates to the infamous 1984 game where McEnroe hit items with his racket and got hostile with the ref, meanwhile women like Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have had to defend themselves for their “distracting” grunts during play.
