Impact of white violence on Civil Rights

The peace protesters of the Civil Rights Movement actually harnessed the power of white violence to further their cause. On various occasions they deliberately provoked white people into violently acting against them to win support. This was mainly through the use of the media to report the attacks and this strategy was particularly successful in winning public support and putting both national and international pressure of the federal government.

Perhaps the clearest example of this was the protests in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1963, under the leadership of Martin Luther King, protests began in Birmingham. 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. The horrific images of pregnant women being shot at by water cannon and children being taken away by the police in their own school buses were filmed and shown on primetime television. It had the desired intention and segregation ended in the city.

Another example is the march in Selma in 1965.  Voter registration was particularly low there, less than 3% of those blacks entitled to register had been able to do so. King proposed to lead marches in the town and chose the most violent areas to walk through…