Les manifestants de "March for our lives" peuvent-ils s'inspirer de la lutte pour les droits civiques?

Pour bien des observateurs dont je suis, les regroupements comme ceux d'hier dans la capitale américaine rappellent ceux de la lutte pour la reconnaissance des droits civiques, plus précisément le rassemblement de 1963 pendant lequel Martin Luther King a prononcé son célèbre "I have dream".  L'historien de Princeton Julian E. Zelizer rappelle cependant ici que le contexte était différent et que les jeunes manifestants d'aujourd'hui n'obtiendront peut-être pas le même succès auprès des autorités. Les groupes qui ont contribué à la manifestation de 1963 bénéficiaient d'une plus longue expérience, d'une base plus large et ils pouvaient compter sur des appuis au sein même des législateurs. J'ajouterais que si les médias sociaux permettent maintenant de rejoindre un auditoire plus vaste très rapidement, le cycle des nouvelles évolue à un rythme fou et une crise en chasse une autre très rapidement.

 "The power of the civil-rights march stemmed foremost from it being an expression of a mass movement that had been taking shape since the mid-1950s. Participants in this movement had organized, they had marched, they had confronted law-enforcement authorities many times before. The movement thus had national recognition and a proven track record before the event on the National Mall took place. The civil-rights movement already included a thick network of groups with mass-membership bases, ranging from organized labor to religious associations, who could collectively make clear to legislators there would be a political price to pay if they did nothing. Organized across issue areas and across state lines, by 1963 the civil-rights movement had nurtured a talented cohort of leaders, such as King, who committed themselves to fighting for this issue on a full-time basis and over as many years as it would take.

The movement also had a skilled Washington presence that could keep the pressure on inside the halls of Congress. Clarence Mitchell, the African American lobbyist for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, known as the “Lion in the Lobby,” was a regular presence in congressional offices and a shrewd politico who understood the legislative process. “When you have a law,” Mitchell liked to say, “you have an instrument that will work for you permanently. But when you branch out on a separate line of direct action, you may wind up with nothing.” With such a mature set of organizations behind it, the marchers in August could shift congressional sentiment in a way that still might be difficult for the nascent movement led by student activists in 2018."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/civil-rights-and-parkland/556244/