Nonviolent Tactics In The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s to the 1960s was a period that significantly changed America forever. African-Americans did not have the same rights as white men, and were faced with segregation and discrimination. Under the Jim Crow Laws, blacks did not have equal access to public facilities and were treated as lower beings than whites. After many years of pain and struggle, all the while remaining silent, blacks finally decided to stand up for themselves and refuse to be compliant. Many acts of civil disobedience took place during this time, some were peaceful, while some were violent. An example of a civil disobedience from the Civil Rights Movement was Robert Williams’ protest to integrate facilities, where he uses armed self-defense, so that blacks were able to have equal access as whites. This was an effective form of protest because without the arms to protect themselves, the African-Americans wanting their voices to be heard would be suppressed by the brutality of racist white men.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) used a form of protest by union workers called sit-ins. After it was successful with CORE 4 African Americans Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr, David Richmond and Franklin McCain suggested a sit in Woolworth department store. They were afraid, but they did it. They entered and bought supplied, then sat at the lunch counter and ordered coffee. The people there wouldn’t service them, but serviced them on the other counter. The four stayed until they closed and said they would do that every day until they were serviced. They left the Woolworth exited and persuaded by what they did. This convinced more and more African American to sit-in and wait until they were serviced. The NAACP and SClC were nervous about the sit-in campaign.

The Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In was a civil rights event that occurred in 1960. Young African-American college students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They refused to leave the diner after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South. Many protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct, or disturbing the peace. The actions of a few made an immediate and long lasting impact which forced Woolworth’s and other businesses to change policies of segregation.

Sit-ins were just the start of non-violent protesting. What happened was the four students came to Woolworths and sat in by the bar until the store closed. Then they came back the next day, but they has 25 people instead of just four. This encouraged more young African Americans to do this. It spread to other cities within two weeks and there were similar demonstrations.

In the 1950’s, the Civil Rights movement took place and shocked the world in many ways. African Americans would use various forms of civil disobedience to express their opposed feelings towards segregation laws and discrimination. A group of four college students in North Carolina sat on a “Whites Only” counter at a restaurant in peaceful protest to show they have the right to sit wherever they pleased, no matter the color

The civil rights movement borrowed their approaches of nonviolent civil disobedience from renowned cultural images such as Gandhi or the labor movement of previous eras.

As Mohandas Gandhi once said, the purpose of civil disobedience is not “to defeat or humiliate your opponents, but to win their friendship and understanding.” During the Civil Right Movement African Americans were not the only ones fighting for equality, and desegregation. In 1960, the lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, NC, which were race segregated, created a domino effect of other sit-ins all over the South, including not only black, but also whites. This led to the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and 3,600 arrests nationwide. The alliance of whites and blacks in this demonstration shows how blacks were not looking for “special rights”, as some people suggested, but for equal rights that even whites accepted that civil disobedience was completely justified and was actually very gutsy thing to do; when taking into account all the harassment the activist who participated in in the sit-ins experienced ("A Selective List Of Historic Civil Disobedience Actions.”;

I agree with the idea that there were several influential reasons that contributed to the development of the sit-ins and the nonviolent movement for the civil rights. At the same time, I also highly evaluate the role that the students have played in the process of the establishment of the new social approach. The four courageous students managed to show to the community that peaceful actions can bring results, and “After resisting for five months, Woolworth’s in July agreed to serve black customers at its lunch counters” (Foner, GML, p. 769). Having shown a successful example of the application of non-violent means of resistance, the students attracted also the attention of their colleagues, and the movement spread to other colleges of the

Nonviolence resistance has been used to achieve many goals in the past, whether it is a political goal, a social goal, or an economic goal. According to Clausewitz, war is the continuation of politics by other means, and the reason why nonviolence resistance can be considered a type of warfare is because the goal is to get what they desired. A well-known example of this was the Civil Right’s Movement, whose goal was to end segregation and discrimination against African Americans. This movement encompassed three broad categories created by Gene Sharp: nonviolent protests and persuasion, noncooperation (economic and political), and nonviolent intervention. A few groups that were involved in this movement and that displayed these categories were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Despite being nonviolent called nonviolent, though, there are some occasions where violence is present. However, because it is called a nonviolent resistance it can be confusing for others to even consider this as a type of warfare.

Simply put, without peaceful resistance, our government cannot be held accountable to the fullest extent of the constitution and our society would be stagnant, without change. As such the constitution and our very democracy is undermined by the absence of the argument that peaceful resistance brings up. Not only in our nation but in many others, has peaceful resistance to law been instrumental in the facilitation of democracy and representation. Instances such as India’s independence movement, Civil rights, and the American Revolution were all built on the practice of peaceful resistance and subsequently resulted in an explosion of democracy that could be felt across the world.

First, dream defenders should use nonviolence action because when people get together they will have more power to protest. According to DuVall, (2004), in the article “Outside View: Liberation By The People”, discuss nine different methods for successful nonviolence movement, and one of these principle shows that reduce fear of participating and get more people involved to broaden the movement base and it will be more useful to get what they want. According to Solomon, Dream Defenders try to get ride of racism by using nonviolence action, so they protest, but the police trying to stop them by using violence action. Also, the advocates tend to use nonviolence action when they protest, because they believe when they protest together with different

Non- violent movements are a way for groups of people to achieve change and create an impact in the society. The labor, African American, and Vietnam anti-war peace movements were significantly successful in abolishing harsh working conditions, gaining civil rights for blacks, and withdrawing from the Vietnam War (Upchurch). Non-violent and violent movements have been used throughout history to evoke change in the society, obtain equality, civil rights, and peace. While violent protest result in the same changes, non-violent methods can ultimately go beyond local violent protest, spread nationally through movements, and protest without requiring violence. These events because of the non-violent

Throughout decades there have been many revolutions and protest against tyrants, dictatorships, unjust governments, and unjust laws. These movements strived to change policies, secure concessions, defeat repressive regimes, instill justice and equality—bring about a social change. The success of many of these revolutions was not due to the use of arms and weaponry or physical violence, instead, it was due to the strategic use of nonviolent action. Notable revolutions such as the Civil Rights Movement, Apartheid, and the Dandi Satyagraha (The Salt March) employed a variety of nonviolent tactics that amassed many supporters and ultimately achieved their goals. Thus, it is logical enough to say that nonviolent resistance is effective and has the ability to force a social change. In fact, nonviolent action is a far better method for social change than violent works.

Civil right activists believed in nonviolence meaning they used no type of brutality to fight for their equal rights. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an important event that happened during the Civil Right Movement. Since they believed in no type of violence this boycott contained no violence. This boycott was a protest campaign against the racial segregation law in public transportation's. The law was directed towards colored people when they're riding the Montgomery bus. When they’re riding the bus and all the seats gets full they’ll have to give up their seats to white people even if the white person gets there after them.  On December 1, 1955 an African American named Rosa Parks, refused to give up her bus

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” The US Constitution provides all Americans with the right to peacefully petition the laws made by the government in the First Amendment. The United States would look nothing like it does now without the freedom of petition. Without the right to petition, American schools would still be segregated between African Americans and whites and most women would still only be housewives with no job of their own. Some of the everyday things experienced in America were once fought for tirelessly by protesters. Protests have changed the country and often have a ripple effect in society and in government. Ripple effects