You walk into a Greensboro lunch counter, and see four African American men nonchalantly sitting in the “white only section”. They ask for coffee, and are boldly told that they can't be served because they were black sitting in the “white only section”. When they ask again, whites are getting upset, and start yelling at the four men. Soon enough, all whites around them are throwing food and screaming. Keep in mind that the African American men are not fighting back at all, and remain totally calm. What would you do in this situation? The lunch counter sit-ins had an impact on the Civil Rights Movement and made our country the way it is today.
The fight for legal segregation from African American communities started at the earliest years of the 19th century. Through protests, sit-ins, boycotts, rebellion, and civil rights movements, the tactics of disobedience grew throughout the mid 1900’s when segregation was at an all time high. The approach from African American communities was strictly to remain non-violent; however, through disobedience, came destruction.
When should civil disobedience be condoned? Should it be condoned? Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to obey government laws, in an effort to bring upon a change in governmental policy or legislation. Civil disobedience is not an effort to dissolve the American government, because without government our society would result in chaos. Sometimes, when there is an unjust law and the government won't take the initiative to fix it, the public must act as civil disobedients to bring awareness and fix the unjust law. An unjust law is that which is not moral and does not respect the "god-given" rights which are entitled to every person. A law which allows freedom for some but not for others, on the basis of sex, sexual
Civil disobedience was key in the pursuit of equality for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Through forms of peaceful protest, African Americans were able to bring to light the socio-economic inequalities they faced and forced the government and general public to do something about it. Sit-ins, one method of practicing civil disobedience, took root in the early 1960s and quickly became a popular and effective form of peaceful protest. James Baldwin makes a very brief note of sit-ins in his essay “Down at the Cross”. Its brief mention is probably due to the time at which the essay was written, just before sit-ins became a national phenomenon. At first glance, one may think that Baldwin doesn‘t think
What were the sit-ins? How did they become about? What was its main significance? How did this lead up to the civil rights movement? Sit-ins were a form of racial protest that originated when four brave black college students from Greensboro, North Carolina decided to sit at a lunch counter at a department store that was strictly prohibited for black people like them. Their risky encounter at the lunch counter was their brave and smartest move that has gotten influenced throughout the age of the 1960s. The move was known as the sitting-in or “sit-in” for short, which eventually became the center milestone throughout the civil rights movement as well as for the rights of black people. So how did it all started? What became about it? This essay will explain the historical context of the 1960s as well as its conflict’s and resolution’s.
By February 5, about 300 to 400 students had joined the sit-in. The heavy television coverage sparked a sit-in movement that spread quickly to college towns throughout the South and into the North. Young blacks and whites joined in various forms of peaceful protest against segregation in libraries, beaches, hotels and other establishments. Over 1500 black demonstrators were arrested, but their sacrifice brought results. Slowly but surely, restaurants throughout the South began to abandon their policies of segregation.
The Greensboro Sit-Ins were another way that people progressed the Civil Rights movement. These took place in North Carolina, in the year 1960. They had many people participate in this nonviolent protest. The interview with Franklin McCain states, “We actually got to the point where we had people going down in shifts” (My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered). The movement was
On August 28. 1983, a group of over 200,000 people supported and attended the March on Washington. (www.history.com). This statistic demonstrates the fact of how impactful the March on Washington was and how many people were on the same side. The speeches at this assembly are some of the most famous and well known speeches that are still remembered today. There are many events from the Civil Rights Movement that changed our daily lives, including speeches and court cases, and there are key people who were involved in them . Some of the major events included the Brown v. Board of Education (1954), he Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1957, the Greensboro Sit-ins (1961), March on Washington (1963), the 24th Amendment being passed (1964), and the
February 1st, 1960; the Greensboro Sit Ins; Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. “Segregated conditions were as characteristic of Greensboro, however, as they were of cities with reputations for racial violence and intimidation.” The Greensboro Sit Ins made a huge impact not only in North Carolina, but along the Southeast states; thirteen states and fifty five different cities. This was where a group of four black male freshmen college students at A&T State University who
Sit-ins and Freedom rides became the new top controversial occurances throughout the South. It began to happen more and more frequently. Black were beaten, brutalized, mocked, and even killed all because they were trying to prove a point that they firmly believed in. In the
The Greensbro sit-ins first started on February 1st, 1960. Four black college freshman in Greensbro, North Carolina, visited a white-only Woolsworth's lunch counter where they demanded service. The black waitress refused to serve them, remarking that "fellows like you make our race look bad,". Regardless of this, the four men stayed seated. They returned the next day with nineteen classmates, and the day after that with eighty-five. By the end of the week there were over one-thousand black students attending the sit-in. The Sit-in movement began to spread throughout the South, though this time not just at lunch counters. The transportation industry, restaurants, and even voter registration were all recipients of this movement. The goal was
Another popular form of protest were sit ins, which were where these colored people would go into segregated area
In the book March Book One the people of Nashville chose to stage the sit-ins to protest the segregation between blacks and whites. They chose to sit and wait to be serve and they wouldn’t leave until they were served. They had to learn how to protest without violence and spend many hours practicing by humiliating each other and learning how to protect themselves when attacked.
Many decisions had to be made when approaching discrimination and segregation; many wanted this to end. The debate on what was best to approach the dangers of fighting for what you believed was weighed down to two options; violent protests or nonviolent protests. In the graphic novel titled “March” written and experienced by John Lewis himself with designs by Nate Powell, depicts the struggles of civil rights and the fight to earn it. The novel goes off to show mostly nonviolent protests, but outside of the novel during the 1960’s depicts and describes a different approach; Violent and free Protests. Two of the most impactful civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael despised the clean and peaceful protests as they thought it was
One day there was an event that changed everyone's lives from today. “Greensboro Sit-Ins” would be the most important event that had the most impact on changing America’s stance on segregation because the blacks and whites were once separated by everything they did on a daily basis.