Pre-Reflection

Selma was a very powerful film, especially because of how it documented what unfolded in Alabama 53 years ago and its connections to the discrimination and racism that continues to plague both the north and the south to this day. The horrifying scenes shown in the film, from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham to the violence against black protesters as they were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge into the Selma city limits, illustrate the violence that impacted people who were trying to do what too many Americans take for granted: register to vote.

As we head to Atlanta, I think about the connections between what occured in Selma and throughout the south in the mid-20th century and our work in Trenton today. Although New Jersey has a long history of racism dating back before World War II, including slavery and redlining, the segregation and police brutality that occured in the state and in Trenton following the war is a direct result of the racist violence like what was shown in Selma. Millions of African-Americans fleeing racism in the south looked to Northern cities as a place to get away from oppression. However, when many people arrived in places like Trenton, they faced also racism, lack of housing opportunities, and brutality by police here. As African-Americans moved into Trenton, white residents and businesses moved out of the city, resulting in a lack of supermarkets, modern schools, and lack of a tax base. Uprisings in 1967 and again in 1968 following Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination saw police brutality in Newark, Trenton, and Camden, leading to loss of life and even more buildings in disrepair. In the years since the 1950s and 1960s, inequality has continued to plague the region.

The state of racism and inequality today contributes to the current crisis of homelessness in and around New Jersey’s capital, which we at The Streetlight look to address. A lack of resources in other communities brings many people experiencing homelessness into Trenton, but they often find discrimination here still. From brutality by officers to a lack of emergency housing venues, individuals experiencing homelessness often have nowhere to turn. Plus, nationwide, African-Americans disproportionately make up those who are experiencing homelessness.

Since I have lived my entire life in the New York Metropolitan Area and have only been to the deep south extensively during the New Orleans trip, I do not know what exactly to expect in Atlanta. However, I hope to see what, if anything, has changed in Georgia’s largest city since the Civil Rights Movement and why that is or is not the case. I also hope to take a closer look and economic and racial inequality in Atlanta and how it compared/compares to discrimination faced by people of color in New York and New Jersey, and how the Civil Rights Movement is remembered through museums in the region.