The Concept of Protesting with Non-Violence

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.

On an early morning in November 1959, the group of students and John would test sit-ins in lunch counters to test if they would actually serve them their food or not. Like the usual, they had to leave the place because due to store policy they could not serve colored people there. After this, they will continue to go to the same restaurant and sit there and here the same words they heard daily. Nothing was going to stop them. Not only were they kicked out but they were called niggers and were told to leave back to Africa. It was these sit-ins that started the march for

“Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud" (Empowering the Black Power Movement), The Sit-In movement was more effective than the Black Power movement because throughout the long course to rid the country of segregation had been widely affected by the peaceful protests. But, seeing the effects of the long path to "integration" which subsided to ongoing violent protests. Even though their main goal as a whole was integration they both took two different paths to see what would’ve been a better way to their main purpose of the movements. In the end, it took a lot to get where they are at now in society.

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.

As more people are exposed to the arguments of these protesters, pressure mounds onto the government to see the problem and respond to it. In fact, in the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. stated that “not … a single gain in civil rights [was made] without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.” Additionally, these individuals are not negatively affecting society because they express the utmost respect for the law and advocate for change peacefully while fully accepting the consequences of their actions. They risk enduring denunciation by the media and being labeled as radicals by others. King describes the process of a nonviolent campaign in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.” The self-purification aspect of the nonviolent campaign emphasized an acceptance of the consequences that come with breaking the law such as “[accepting] blows without retaliating” and “[enduring] the ordeals of jail.” The right to peaceful protest respectfully allows these individuals to express their concerns and influence other people with their ideas.

All things considered one must devoted to their belief of nonviolence and be willing to suffer without retaliation (Source C), they can not fall victim to anger and fight back, for it would destroy the very principle of the cause. To become a truly successful campaign it should not be run on the basis of humiliating or besting the opponent, rather one should seek friendship and a better understanding of another (Source B). A nonviolent protester should not become bitter of the circumstances the opponent might bestow upon them but rather have open arms and eye for a better future ahead. The central idea of a nonviolent campaign is being able to make changes and spreading peace and love without the use of violence; by pursuing upon this path

The Jim Crow Laws, which legalized segregation in some southern states, were unfair to African Americans. They were not allowed to ride in the front of the bus, or drink from the same water fountain as white people, or eat at the same restaurants as white people. This discrimination was unfair to the African Americans, so they decided to come together and protest against the Jim Crow Laws and other segregation laws. It was their duty to challenge those unfair laws and take a stand, because they were morally wrong. Ninety percent of African Americans participated in bus boycotts, where no African Americans rode the bus because of Rosa Parks, who wouldn’t give up her seat on the bus to a white person.

The Greensboro sit-ins occurred in 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Greensboro Sit-Ins was a movement with the purpose to banish the inequalities that black people faced. A black person was treated very differently, unequally, and unfairly compared to how a white person was treated. The Greensboro Sit-Ins was noted to be one of the most important events in the Civil Rights movement. Racism and unequal treatment had been a common occurrence around North Carolina since colonial times. Even though slavery was abolished, black people felt they deserved just as much equal freedom as a white person.

What I found most significant was how this movement all started, which was when the plaintiff Oliver Brown realized his constitutional rights were being destroyed. He realized this each day as “his eight-year-old daughter, Linda, bypassed the neighborhood white school to catch a bus to a segregated school” which was located 21 blocks away. This is when Brown decided to sue the

African Americans fought long and hard to achieve racial equality during the Civil Rights movement through protests and boycotts. But, not all forms of protest were violent. Sit-ins were a non-violent form of protest and proved to be a very effective. Students would go into a restaurant or cafe, order food, sit-down at the “white” area, demand service, and not leave until they got served. They never got served; this form of protest would go on for weeks.

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.

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.

Since the beginning of american history there have been peaceful and non peaceful protests. These protests have had valuable effects on American society such as Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks have impacted society greatly and for the better. In my opinion peaceful protests still have negative effects though they are immensely more appropriate than non peaceful protests because peaceful protests often turn violent because people don't know how to act for example Trump Protests.

African-Americans have been oppressed since their arrival in America in 1619. Due to their differences in physical characteristics, Whites considered them an inferior race and therefore treated them as property, disregarding their human rights. After many years of exploitation and abuse, in 1791, slaves on the small island of Hispaniola revolted against French rule and successfully gained their freedom in 1804. It gave hope to African American slaves who, in turn, decided to stand against their masters and gain their freedom. Every one of those rebellions was extremely violent. They were so passionate about the cause and have been oppressed for so long that they targeted

From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of