Impact of Peaceful Protest on Civil Rights

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  • Created by: Pip Dan
  • Created on: 20-09-17 14:01

The fact that the majority of Civil Rights protests were non-violent was a defining feature of the movement and for what it is remembered as. There were various reasons for groups using this non-violent stance:

  • It gave the group a 'moral high ground' as they were seen as fairly protesting against issues without causing harm to people. Particularly when they was contrasted to the white backlash which was often very violent, the African-Americans were seen clearly as the victims and got support through this
  • Non-violent protests were also inclusive, with people of all ages and skills being able to be involved in them
  • This non-violent approach also had religious roots (SCLC being an example), this idea of 'turning the other cheek' was highly successful as it made the movement not only seem political and social but also religious. This gave the movement support from other Christians and validated the cause
  • Whilst most protesters acting non-violently out of practicality some protesters felt a moral reasonability to act non-violently. This a key feature of Martin Luther King's speeches and this moral stance that violence is wrong can also be seen in other movements such as the protests to British imperialism in Indian by Gandhi

There are various examples of the success of non-violent protests and reasons for this:

  • The lunch counter protests by students in 1960 were non-violent sit-ins. They started in Greensboro, North Carolina by spread to 54 cities across the Old South. Black Students sat down at the 'whites only' lunch counters. This sparked of a wave of non-violent lunch counter protests in 54 cities across nine students in the Old South. Eventually the various places of protest integrated and in 1961 the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded
  • On 4 May 1961, four white and four African-American students took inter-state buses from Virginia to Mississippi to test whether they were really segregated, as the law decreed, in what was known as the Freedom Rides. At Anniston, Alabama, the Greyhound bus in which they were travelling was fire-bombed. Other freedom riders were attacked by a mob in Birmingham, Alabama, and in Jackson, Mississippi. They had deliberately provoked a white backlash and used media coverage which was successful. It forced the Inter-state Commerce Commission and the Justice Department, under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, to enforce integration on inter-state transportation.
  • In 1963, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, protests began in Birmingham, Alabama. The Police Chief, Eugene 'Bull' Connor, played into the hands of the civil rights demonstrators who wanted to end segregation in the city. Using schoolchildren as demonstrators, the civil rights organisations were able to provoke Connor into using police dogs and water cannon - all filmed and shown on primetime television. This sparked national outrage and the Birmingham got desegregated
  • The March on Washington on August 28th 1963

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