In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great conquered the city of Babylon, freed slaves to return home, and declared that people should have a choice in their religion. This event is considered by many to be the world’s first event of human rights in history.
It took people. Sometimes 1 person. Most times many. To have an impact and make a difference. And this is what we need now. People, standing together, for the greater good.
I know you’ve heard about other civil and human rights movements through history. Let’s talk about just a few of them.
Fight for Women’s Suffrage
In 1893, the women of New Zealand were first to win the right to vote. Imagine that. Historically, it was accepted and OKAY that women didn’t have the right to vote. Saudi Arabia granted women suffrage in 2015. Proving that changes and revolution may take time.
Segregation Defiance
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest where African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. From December 1955 to December 1956, approximately 40,000 African Americans refused to travel on Montgomery buses. The protestors were determined to continue until the city met with their demands, which included the hiring of black bus drivers and a first-come first-seated policy. Ultimately a group of five Montgomery women sued the city in the U.S. District Court, seeking to have the segregation laws totally invalidated.
In December 1956, the US Supreme Court declared segregation laws in Alabama to be anti-constitutional.
Gay People in Society
In 1966 New York City, serving alcohol to homosexuals was illegal. Under a disorderly conduct statute, city ‘cleanups’ encouraged the closure of bars frequented by gays and the arrest of homosexual customers by way of police entrapment. Many lives were destroyed as a result. People stood up and fought back against these unjust laws.
Prohibition
From 1920 to 1933, America engaged in the nationwide measure against the importation, manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages known as Prohibition. People still drank. Women, who previously almost never showed up in bars, now guzzled in speakeasies and back alleys all over the country. Men built their own illegal stills.
Overall
Many people, groups and movements have managed to achieve profound social changes over the course of our history and especially through the 20th century. In Western Europe and North America, labour unions brought about laws granting workers the right to strike, establishing safer work conditions and forbidding or regulating child labor. The women's suffrage movement succeeded in gaining for many women the right to vote. National liberation movements in the Global South succeeded in gaining many countries independence from Western colonialism. Movements by ethnic and religious minorities for racial and religious equality succeeded in many parts of the world, among them the American civil rights movement, and more recent diverse identity politics movements, on behalf of women and minorities which have occurred around the world.
So that’s where we at. We’re at a time where we need to band together and create this movement. By not complying. By respecting each other. By making a few sacrifices (not going to a restaurant, or travelling). It may take some time, but ALL good things take time.
We know that the COVID campaign is compounded by PROPAGANDA. The word propaganda was created by the Catholic Church to describe its efforts to counter Protestant teachings in the 1600s. Through the years, almost every nation has used propaganda to unite its people in wartime.
It’s not enough to believe in something. You have to be ready to stand for something, if you want change.
We can all be activists. Small actions can lead to larger ones, and can provide inspiration to individuals who may be unsure where to funnel their concerns
So let’s connect. Follow me here. Catch me on twitter @melissalmrogers and let’s keep this movement going.
-Melissa