In Footloose the parents relate to the white people in the civil rights movement. The parents are the people who are against the teenagers dancing, listening to music and reading. Whereas the white people who were enforcing the Jim Crow laws. The parents had to approve the books the teenagers could read and the music they could listen to just as the whites had to chose what rules were going to be put in place as the Jim Crow laws. .
The teenagers and the African Americans also relate. The teenagers just wanted to dance and have fun but they were always under constant watch of their parents. The African Americans wanted to have the same rights as the white people. If the teenagers were caught dancing, listening to music or reading books that had not been approved they would have to go to court and possibly go to jail. With the African Americans they would be arrested and could serve many years of hard labor or go to jail. The teenagers and African Americans were both under constant watch of by the parents and whites. .
The teenagers' dancing represents the African Americans having to sit in the back of the bus. It was illegal for the teenagers to dance. They would have to go in front of the court and possibly go to jail. If an African American sat in the front of the bus they would get in a lot of trouble and possibly go to jail. Sitting in the front of the bus was something that African Americans wish they could do; just as dancing is something the teenagers wish they could do. .
Ren could not believe that dancing was illegal and he fought for the right for the teenagers to be allowed to dance. He was the leader of the teenagers. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the African Americans to have equal rights. He was the leader of the African Americans. Ren had to go in front of a court and justify the reasons that he believed the teenagers should be allowed to dance and why they should be allowed to have a prom.