Aldon Morris has published an article in Scientific American exploring the links between the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter through the lens of a historicized social movements theory. He writes:
[Black Lives Matter] faces many questions and obstacles. The [Civil Rights Movement] depended on tight-knit local communities with strong leaders, meeting in churches and other safe spaces to organize and strategize and to build solidarity and discipline. Can a decentralized movement produce the necessary solidarity as protesters face brutal repression? Will their porous Internet-based organizational structures provide secure spaces where tactics and strategies can be debated and selected? Can they maintain discipline? If protesters are not executing a planned tactic in a coordinated and disciplined manner, can they succeed? How can a movement correct a course of action that proves faulty?