The Importance of Sit-Ins to the Black Civil Rights Movement Essay

One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.

Unlike before real organizations were helping to expose the blatant discrimination towards African-Americans. New strategies to obtain legal equality like nonviolent sit ins, the "nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. "(Doc 3) These nonviolent protest helped add momentum to the legal action from reconstruction that were not taken seriously.

The specific examination of the Greensboro, N.C. lunch counter sit-ins that ignited a wave of similarly executed sit-downs throughout the 1960 was accredited to the strong personal ties amongst the initial Greensboro students. Two were roommates and all had gone to the same high school and shared a wealth of common experiences ranging from smuggling beer into the dormitory to the remembering the injustices of Little Rock. The idea of a month long Woolworth sit-in was initially discussed in the dormitory in a most informal manner. This evidence inexplicably presented by Mr. Gladwell is in complete contradiction to his statement requiring a hierarchy in which national or local leaders and organizations operating in a hierarchical arraignment were essential to the development of significant social change.

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 book of March the people of color are continuously fighting for equal rights. Even when they are faced with countless acts of violence they continue to fight back but in non-violent ways such as Marches. Even when there seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel John Lewis along with many of his peers also known as the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Reconciliation Commitee) begin to see results. Slowly but surely it all pays off in the end when people start to realize the segregation between races is not only morally wrong but also against the law. There are many different marches/ sit-ins throughout the book but the most important ones begin on...

“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.

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 Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.

Black Lives Matter is a rather recent movement that has developed in the United States as a result of the African American community claiming that police officers target and shoot African Americans due to their race. Their aim is to raise awareness of claimed police brutality against African Americans and hopefully increase restrictions on the police forces by taking away the right to defend themselves if they, the policemen, feel endangered.

In the time proceeding the time after “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written there have been other nonviolent marches as well. In 2007, there was a protest where woman who were nursing their infants staged a sit in at Applebee’s to stop discrimination towards breastfeeding mothers. According to the article, “13 Peaceful Protests and Whether They Worked,” the protest was successful. The article revealed that Applebee’s put out a statement that said they, “make nursing mothers feel welcome...” (Dermansky 1). This can also be compared to the peaceful protest of Dr. King and his comrades because the women did not act violently. They just staged a sit in of many nursing mothers at a particular restaurant. Their peaceful protest gained them positive results in the end.

Blacks couldn’t use the same public places as whites, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools.Racially mixed marriage was illegal, and most blacks couldn’t vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests. Jim Crow laws weren’t taken in northern states; however, blacks still experienced discrimination at their jobs or when they tried to buy a house or get an education.On February 1, 1960, African American students were denied counter service at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina because the policy was that only white customers could sit at the counter; African Americans had to stand. The next day they returned with more students and the peaceful protest called a "sit-in" was begun. Across the South, peaceful sit-ins by students took place in more than 100 cities in 1960. Although the protesters were beaten, and sometimes sent to jail, they continued to peacefully sit-in until they achieved their goals -- desegregation of places of public

This is seen when “...only six months after Brown II that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, setting in motion the bus boycott that would mark the beginning of the direct-action phase of the Civil Rights movement” (“Meaning of Brown”). The bus boycott lead to the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement and comprised of activists who were ready to fight for equality in America. They believed in the possibility of equality because of the success of the Brown v. Board case. More African Americans began to join the campaign and “Beginning in February 1960, with the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins at the Woolworth lunch counter, the sit-in tactics spread like wildfire throughout the South. These tactics initiated the most powerful phase of America’s Civil Rights

First of all nonfiction articles has more descriptions. In the article “The Birmingham Church Bombing” by Jennifer Kroll, on paragraph two it states that “The civil rights movement was at its height, and all around the country, protesters were trying to raise awareness… by staging peaceful protest events, such as marches and sit ins. This means that they did marches to get freedom to do whatever they want without people saying no because of their skin color. This explains

Throughout his autobiography, Baldwin describes the exhausting work he and his fellow activists do to receive civil rights. They were willing to fight with whatever they had to end it, as evident by Baldwin’s statement,

Another significant transformation took place in the Civil Rights Movement in terms of its strategies. In analyzing this facet of the movement, we notice a great shift from nonviolent demonstration to forward, forceful action. Specifically, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, lunch counter sit-ins were evident throughout the nation, as were Freedom Riders. Starting in Greensboro, North Carolina at a luncheonette called Woolworths, young black citizens would seat