Three years after the Black Lives Matter movement began, not everyone understands the movement’s mission. And as evidenced during the Republican National Convention, some people, like Donald Trump, are invested in exploiting those misunderstandings for political points.
But the fire Trump is igniting is fueled by a country that has historically resisted black social justice movements.
According to the American National Election Studies, 57 percent of Americans in 1964 said most of black people’s actions during the civil rights movement in the most recent year were violent. Sixty-three percent of Americans believed the civil rights movement was moving "too fast." And a majority of Americans (58 percent) believed that black people’s actions for the movement hurt their own cause.
And just a reminder: Two of the key actions by civil rights activists in 1963 were the March on Washington, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech; and "Bloody Sunday," when Alabama state troopers brutally beat peaceful protesters attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery for their right to vote.
But Americans today share similar attitudes toward the Black Lives Matter movement.
According to the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement.