Marking the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement



 It’s 50 years since 1968, one of the most turbulent years in the world’s recent history. It saw the Tet Offensive by the Viet Cong, the assassinations of the Reverend Martin Luther King and of Robert Kennedy, and the continuation of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. In Europe we saw the Prague Spring in what was then Czechoslovakia. All of these contributed to inspire the world’s oppressed to campaign for change.

Closer to home it was a key year in the history of Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association organised its first march from Coalisland to Dungannon and then later that year held a second march in Derry. The marchers set out to highlight non-sectarian demands, such as the end of gerrymandering of constituency boundaries and better housing for all sections of the population.

Tragically, subsequent events brought the north to a deeper, darker place for the following decades. It was only when all sides of the conflict saw the futility of the violence that progress could be made through the signing and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

This year meetings and discussions are being held around the country to commemorate the events of 50 years ago. I attended one last week in Queens University Belfast, organised by SDLP Youth. The speakers included Brid Rogers, founder member of the SDLP, former Northern Ireland Minister and Senator in the Oireachtas. She talked about the inequalities that led to the formation of the movement back in the 1960s and what had been achieved since then. We discussed ongoing issues such as equality in education and access to housing in the north and south of our island.

I was asked to speak about LGBT rights, and I focused on how far the South has travelled since the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the early 1990s.  I talked about how Eamon Gilmore, as Tanaiste, had driven the case for Marriage Equality in the South, describing it as “the Civil Rights issue of the generation” and how without his courage and leadership we would not have seen our partners in government agree to a referendum. We discussed the issues of Marriage Inequality in Northern Ireland, and the possibility that this may be brought in through a Private Members Bill in the Westminster Parliament, following a return of Direct Rule. The event was a timely reminder of the role that is there for social democratic parties on our island, and how the Irish Labour Party and the SDLP need to continue to work together to pursue our goals in relation to equality for all.

In the South we are also looking at ways of commemorating the events of 1968. The International Affairs Unit is intending to organise a debate on Civil Rights in a few months time. We are also encouraging Labour Party Councillors and Mayors to examine how they can mark and commemorate the Civil Rights Movement in their towns and localities. Brave people up and down the country stood up for equality at a time when it was not easy to do so. They put themselves in harm’s way, armed only with their voices and with their belief in doing the right thing. We need to remember them and celebrate them.

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