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Non Violent Protests In The Civil Rights Movement

Decent Essays

Throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, civil rights activists started protesting for change. In the US and Australia there were many significant protests undertaken by different groups of brave individuals all to invoke change. Some of the most influential protests were the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the American and Australian Freedom Rides. These protests mainly used the tactic of non-violent protests however, they also used boycotts and demonstrations. These protests brought great change to the way that the African Americans were treated in the US and the Indigenous people in Australia, because it forced the public to acknowledge the hardships that they had to face from segregation. The main tactic used by civil rights activists in both Australian and the United states was non-violent protests. This is when the activists would protest with methods that would not harm anybody. This was done because the civil rights activists did not want to sink down to their oppressor’s level and also so that no legal action could be inflicted on the African American community. The freedom rides in the United States were perfect examples of non-violent protests as the leaders of these actions would not harm anybody in the course of change. Martin Luther King was a key aspect of the entire Civil Rights Movement including the Freedom Rides and he believed that 'Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that

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