Protest Movements In The Civil Rights Movement

People fighting against injustices are something that happens every day it is inevitable unless the injustices cease to exist. As stated before social movements happen because of a certain injustice. This can be from people feeling oppressed from their race, sex, or sexuality. They have had many contributions to society mainly helping those and they get rid of oppression. While inspiring others who are oppressed as well to set up and speak up again their oppressors. Mainly helping other groups use the same successful tactic that other social group has done in the past or present. Some of these groups that are looked back upon on how successful their tactics were are the early Women's movement, Africa American movement, Chicano Movement, and

Numerous times, protests start off as untroubling. In fact, they are beneficial to a certain extent, for they “provide a vent to society and also allow governments to understand better the issues their citizens are facing” (UN News Centre 2012). However, often these protests cross this blurry line and are rendered violent, causing danger to the American people. A recent example of a protest transforming into a riot was the Anti- Trump protest in Portland. These protests started off as being peaceful and allowed the protesters to express their opinions on the issue. However, the protesters eventually became so invested in the matter that it quickly mutated into a riot with people smashing windows, kicking cars, and vandalizing buildings (USA TODAY 2016) .This rapid change from peace to violence is a result of the blurry line between what is considered peaceful and what is considered violent. Due to the few restrictions on both the right to petition and assemble, what is perceived as violent is open to interpretation. More specifically, the protesters may not have deemed that kicking cars and smashing windows was violent; thus, they proceeded with these clearly dangerous activities anyways. Since the unlimited nature of both of these rights leaves a massive gray area in regards to what is

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

In the United States, the protest has always been an important tool of democracy, a way for the minority to let itself be heard. Take the Civil Rights movement. Today's race relations are better than they were fifty years ago because a relatively small group of people convinced enough of the country that racism was a disease that would kill everything that made America special.

Marches now and then can either be very harsh and brutal or good going and non-violent. Assuming people of color heard you and supported you; you could have a speech with millions of people sometimes. Boycott’s were put on black’s from doing certain things but black’s fought against it and now they can do whatever or go wherever they want without having to be scared that they might get beaten up or killed.

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.

Peaceful protest leads to both positive and negative impacts on a free society. The main issue of the society isn't just people making bold moves like these, it has to do with people being able to accept them and not deal with it in a violent way, thinking that, that is acceptable and going to solve anything, when it really make it

However, one of the most popular forms to share and demonstrate our opinions as citizens are marches and protests. Parades and marches were indeed a from the Progressives used to publicize and convince many about their efforts. Despite that, many of these parades, especially in Washington D.C. on March 3, 1913 faced violent responses that included in the assault of many women. This was not always the case. For example, a nonviolent mass direction action is the March on Washington on August of 1963. This march was part of the Civil Rights act movement. This march led from Washington monumental to the Lincoln Memorial and consisted of songs, chants and speeches of civil right leaders that fought for jobs and freedom. Some of the most notable speeches that came out of this march was Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream speech”, which is known to promote racial justice and equality. The previous examples, demonstrated marches and protests for social reforms, but not all marches are related social reforms. Some marches like the Anti- War march in 2003 that voices the opposition of the invasion of Iraq. More than 10 million people in over 600 cities joined these efforts to voice their discontent with the Bush Administration, but many felt and still feel ignored by the administration. In this case, no agreement or compromise could be reached. In our current society, the rise of racial unrest led to various marches such as the Anti- Trump and May Day marches. Marches and protests are a very popular way Americans and citizens from all over the country still use to voice their opinions. They are planned with the goal to lead to social reform or social change. However not all marches end up being nonviolent such as the March on Washington. In fact, many end up violently leading to the involvement of the police. Marches have always existed and will

Yet, civil disobedience is still denounced by many. Opponents point to its potential to uproot social and political tensions and create a rebellion. The Nazi Party, Ku Klux Klan, and French Revolution are all brought up as evidence to the destructive qualities begun by peaceful civil disobedience. In a particularly eloquent explanation, Liebman argues that many movements championing civil disobedience seek to exaggerate social and political tensions in the hopes of initiating a type wild passion and resulting action from supporters, often resulting in countless others being subject to humiliation, torture, and even death. However, what Liebman forgets is the differentiation between peaceful and violent acts of civil disobedience. The violent examples of civil disobedience listed above root their seeds in a radical minority of the population seeking ways to subjugate the majority by any means available. Conversely, peaceful acts of civil disobedience never seek to bring harm to anyone, they simply wish to change society for the

Social movements have many different definitions. In his paper, Social Movements, James Jasper defines them as “sustained and intentional efforts to foster or retard social changes, primarily outside the normal institutional channels encouraged by authorities”. (CITE) In simpler terms, a social movement is a movement created by people who want a social or political change. A big part of social movements is resource mobilization theory. Resource mobilization theory states that social movements “succeed through the effective mobilization of resources and the development of political opportunities for members” (CITE). This means that if a social movement wants to be successful, they need to organize themselves so they can do things such as collect funds from constituents and elites, receive volunteers and members, and get their

Protests can start out peaceful but quickly turn violent. Though protests can be amazing and cause social change and change within the government they can also turn violent and leave behind a huge mess. An example of this is the Dakota Access Pipeline protest. It started out as a peaceful protest against the pipeline being built close to Native American land and along the way turned into a violent protest. Everything was going fine and as planned then things started going south. The sheriff’s office said, “According to numerous witnesses within five minutes the crowd of protesters, estimated to be a few hundred people became violent. They stampeded into the construction area with horses, dogs and vehicles” (Peralta). In this case, the protest

Social movements are large groups of people who are usually without political power and influence that decide to promote or resist social change through unconventional means (Monnier, 2010). Social movements begin when there is a problem identified by a certain group of people. The group finds out who is responsible for failing to appropriately address their issues and at that point proceed to take action themselves. These movements can be violent or nonviolent when addressing the responsible parties. There are many types of social movements that include but not limited to civil rights, animal rights and environmental rights movements. The basis of these movements would derive from the conflict theory. The conflict theory

The American Civil Rights Movement is personified through several prominent personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights activist in the African American and LGBTQ communities whose experiences exemplified the hardships faced by American minorities. His career was defined by perpetual conflict and confrontation as both sides of the Civil Rights Movement attempted to demonize and discredit him. Despite this obstacle, Bayard Rustin’s controversial decision-making and sheer tenacity made him an influential force in the ongoing fight for equality in the United States of America.

Violent protest is divisive - it turns citizens away from seeing reason in your stance, costs taxpayers money for police protection and control and drives people strongly to one side or the other of the issues protested. The reason that protests are often seen as dangerous is because they can turn sour as the result of people using this power and ability to demonstrate as a reason to injure and destroy, often without any connection to the original protested topic. Protesters have been known to break shop windows, throw bricks at cars and even injure or kill one another in extreme situations. Peacekeepers attempting to protect the citizens and prevent escalation are often vilified and presented as brutalizing peaceful protesters.

Some people believe that violent protest do not promote change. They believe that it is just a way for the protesters to get on tv.