Civil Rights: Non-Violent Direct Action

What was civil disobedience?

- Civil disobedience involved protesting peacefully against alleged injustice.
- This included remaining peaceful in the face of violence.

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What impact did civil disobedience have?

Scenes of peaceful activists being brutalised were broadcast on television, showing people across the country the depth of racism and injustice that existed in the southern states.

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What was the result of this?

This put pressure on the government to intervene and support civil rights.

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Sit-Ins

- Feb 1960: black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the ‘whites only’ lunch counter in their local Woolworth’s store.
- Sit-ins spread across the South. By the end of April, over 50,000 students had participated in these protests.

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SNCC

-After the sit-ins, the activist campaigner Ella Baker encouraged young people to set up the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
- They led and took part in numerous civil rights campaigns.

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SCLC

- 1957: Dr King became the leader of a new civil rights organisation called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
- Its aim was to "redeem the soul of America" through non-violent resistance.

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Birmingham, Alabama

- April 1963: The SCLC launched a desegregation campaign.
- This involved a series of mass meetings, sit-ins and marches, and a boycott of local shops.
- The SNCC and local children also participated.

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What was the result of the campaign in Birmingham?

- Fire hoses and police dogs were used on the demonstrators.
- The brutal images were displayed on television, creating more support for civil rights.

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The March on Washington

- Aug 1963: largest civil rights march.
- "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom"
- ~250,000 people attended + it was televised across the nation.
- Numerous speeches, including one from John Lewis (chair of the SNCC) and King's "I Have a Dream" speech

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Bloody Sunday

- 1965: The SCLC organised a march from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama, to protest for voting rights.
- The marchers were fiercely attacked by local police.
- This became known as Bloody Sunday.

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Civil Rights: Non-Violent Direct Action

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