What the Loss of Civil Rights Icons Means for Continuing Fight for Equality
“I think we have unfinished business,” says Dr. Ollie Johnson, chair and professor of the Department of African American Studies at Wayne State University.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a day to reflect not only on the man, but the movement that he came to represent. That reflection has some people thinking about all of the civil rights icons we’ve lost recently. Judge Damon Keith, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Elijah Cummings, Aretha Franklin, Toni Morrison, Harris Wofford, and many more. As we move further into this decade we’ll lose more.
What does the loss of the Civil Rights generation mean for the fight for equal rights moving forward?
“They wanted to change laws, they wanted to improve legislation, they wanted to improve America,” says Dr. Ollie Johnson, chair and professor of the Department of African American Studies at Wayne State University.
“I think we have unfinished business. And it really pains me to talk about it,” Johnson tells Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today.
Johnson also talks about the people he thinks could help lead the fight for civil rights going forward, and about what the 2020 presidential race says about the status of that struggle today.
