1.19.15
In
the 1960's, there was a specific civil rights movement going on that
pertained to African-Americans in the United States. This movement
was known as the African-American Civil Rights Movement or the 1960's
Civil Rights Movement. Participants in this movement had the goals of
ending racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans.
Also, the security of legal recognition and federal protection of the
citizenship rights identified in the Constitution and federal law.
was at hand. To address these circumstances, people made nonviolent
protest and produced “crisis situations and productive dialogues
between activists and government authorities.”At this time, the
phrase “civil disobedience” was coined by one Henry David
Thoreau. He created this phrase when he chose to, simply, disobey a
law that he considered to be unjust. To many, civil disobedience was
“an important expression of citizenship”, and the specified lead
figures of this movement: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella
Baker, James Bevel, James Farmer, John Lewis, Medgar Evans, and
Malcom X chose to hold rallies, boycotts, sit-ins, and many other
nonviolent activities to protest on behalf of their beliefs. Each of
these individuals, in their own way, had been set on inspiring others
to demonstrate their opinions or an idea. These men and women were
willing to risk a fine, punishment, jail, and even death for a moral
or political principle. Notable acts such as the Montgomery Bus
Boycott, Greensboro sit-ins, Selma to Montgomery marches, and more,
all contributed to the resulted legislative achievements/ This
movement, although highly disrespected at the time, was the beginning
of true opposition to discrimination and segregation to the
submersion of races in what seemed to be an unachievable feat. It had
made a clear, positive impact in American history.
One
of the absolutely most well known moments of act of civil protest,
was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was started and ignited by
well-familiar civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. The protest began in
Montgomery, Alabama, when Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was
arrested for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white person.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a “political and social protest
campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public
transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.”
In
Montgomery, there was a specific method of segregation that was used
on public transport buses. According to the system, white people and
black people who boarded the bus had specific areas to be seated in.
White people were to take seats in the front rows, and black people
were to take seats in the back rows.. In many cases, black people
were not allowed to walk through the front or “white section” of
a bus. The bus driver would require them to pay at the front, then
get off the bus, and come into their section through the back doors
of the bus. Numerous times, bus drivers would drive away immediately
after receiving payment, and therefore, not allowing black passengers
to re-board.
Prior
to Rosa Parks' famous arrest on a Montgomery bus during the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, she had personally experienced this
before-mentioned inhumane treatment by Montgomery bus driver, James
F. Blake, in 1943. Twelve years later, on December 1, 1955, Rosa
Parks unknowingly boarded a bus driven by the exact same man, when
years ago, she had vowed to never again board a bus driven by James
Blake. It was on this day, and on this bus, that Rosa Parks was one
of the latter black people to board the bus, and was hence sitting in
the front-most row for black people. A white male then boarded a bus,
and Blake, the bus driver, told Parks' row to move back or stand up.
Although everyone else in her row obeyed, Parks refused to, and was
arrested. The charge that she was arrested on was that she failed to
obey the driver's seat assignments, as “city ordinances did not
explicitly mandate segregation but did give the bus driver authority
to assign seats.”
The
night of the arrest, the Women's Political Council spread a flier
throughout Montgomery’s black community, informing the public of
the incident and asking “every Negro to stay off the buses Monday
in protest of the arrest and trial” and also saying “Negroes have
rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not
operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Nero, yet we are arrested,
or have to stand over empty seats. On December 1st, the
day after Rosa Parks was arrested and the word was spread, the
Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) held a meeting, led by
Martin Luther King Jr., to discuss boycott strategies. “A citywide
boycott of public transit was proposed to demand a fixed dividing
line for the segregated sections of the buses. Such a line would have
meant that if the white section of the bus was oversubscribed, whites
would have to stand; blacks would not be forced to give up their
seats to whites.” For many days following these, blacks kept off
buses, successfully leading to economic distress. After 381 days, on
December 20, 1956, the boycott officially ended when the city passed
an ordinance authorizing black bus passengers to sit in a seat of
their choosing on buses. A few years later, in 1960, a similar civil
protest began in the form of sit-ins, in order to, once again, fight
seating and service race discrimination.
This
series of non-violent protests was known as the Greensboro sit-ins.
In Greensboro, North Carolina, there was a certain chain of
department stores, called Woolworth, that had newsworthy policies on
racial segregation within the store. In the store, there were
separate sections of products for whites and blacks called the
“desegregated counters”, however, there was also a segregated
lunch counter. On February 1, 1960, four black students sat at the
lunch counter, and following store policy, were refused service.
These four students were receiving their education at the North
Carolina Agricultural and technical State University and were all
freshmen by the names of: Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair
Jr., and David Richmond. When the black students were refused service
at the “whites only” counter, they stayed in their seats until
the store closed. After this, word traveled to other nearby schools,
and the next day, there were five times as many black students
participating in the store sit-in. They would sit there throughout
the entire working day, and were often terribly hassled by white
students while the counter staff continued to refuse service. This
was the second day of the peaceful demonstration, and newspaper
reporters were gathering information and pictures to spread further
throughout the public. Over 60 people came to join the protest on the
third day and Woolworth national headquarters released a statement
saying that they would “abide by local custom and maintain its
segregated policy”. This did not faze protestors, nut encouraged
them instead. The following day, more than 300 people acted in the
sit-ins, and the locations of sit-ins spread wildly to cities and
towns all around Greensboro. Although the numbers of areas and
people taking part in sit-ins rose, so did the hostility in those
places. While the majority wanted this to be a peaceful protest,
there were places where fights were erupted because of tensions
between black and white customers. But on a higher note, the
continuance of all the sit-ins led to store sales being dropped by a
third, ultimately leading to the repeal of segregation policies. On
Monday, July 25, 1960, three black workers at the Greensboro
Woolworth were publicly seated and served at the lunch counter as the
first to be part of the desegregation. In Tennessee, many other
cities had begun serving blacks and whites alike, while other
remained indifferent despite protests. By 1965, nearly all Woolworths
were desegregated.
Even
though some of the sit-ins proved to be violent at times, they led to
constructive results and even President Eisenhower stated his care
for those involved in the civil disobedience sating that he was
“deeply sympathetic with the efforts of any group to enjoy the
tights of equality that they are guaranteed by the Constitution.”
Sit-ins began occurring all over, achieving desegregation in many
other open places. The events were picked up and outspread by media
and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “mandated desegregation in public
accommodations”.
The
next year, 1965, proved to also grant great changes in the
discrimination towards black in the courtrooms and with voting. In
this year, the Selma Voting Rights Movement took place, and part of
the movement consisted of three marches dubbed the Selma to
Montgomery Marches. The marches consisted of protestors walking the
54-mile highway from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama,
as they were “showing the desire of black American citizens to
exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of
segregationist repression.” Organized by Amelia Boynton, Bevel, and
others, the first Selma to Montgomery March took place on March 7,
with over 600 people walking in the march. Sadly, this day was given
the nickname “Bloody Sunday” when state troopers attacked the
non-violent protestors with clubs and tear gas. Spirits evaded being
crushed, and the second march took place on March 9, and on this day,
storm troopers had taken the sidelines, but Martin Luther King Jr.
who participated in leading the marches, led the people back to
church as he wanted protection by a federal court. On that same day,
another civil rights activist, James Reeb, was murdered by a group of
whites as he came from Boston to take part in a march. Due
to all of the recent violence towards protestors, demands by them
were made for protection for those in the marches and for a “new
federal rights voting law to enable African Americans to register and
vote without harassment.” The marches were bringing forth a
much-needed change. President Lyndon Johnson had seen televised
coverage of the first Selma to Montgomery march and met with Governor
George Wallace to discuss the situation regarding civil rights. On
March 15, 1965, the President presented a bill to Congress, which
passed and became the Voting Rights Act. Before
the The Voting
Rights Act, individual states were in charge of monitoring and
establishing voting procedures, but after it those in charge
consisted of the federal government, allowing the voting process for
everyone to be the same.
These
various movements of civil disobedience resulted in great
modification of the lives of African Americans for years to come. If
these ways of peaceful and non violent protest were to occur now, it
would be likely that the situations would be resolved quicker, as
social media and other platforms used by the majority of Earth's
population, would allow the rapid knowledge of protests. In current
times, the news of a protest, by the end of the day, could typically
have millions of supporters already behind it. However, there are
still many people and companies that would be immune to peaceful
protest. In come cases, it might just blatantly be ignores. In
addition, the times in which these protests took place, the
protesters and those taking part in the Civil Rights Movement weren't
respected by the majority of the government and police. Often times,
protesters were beaten and hurt and arrested without inflicting harm
upon anyone or anything. With many cases currently tying racism to
cops, police brutality and abuse of power, etc. the news of police
harming peaceful protesters engaging in sit-ins and whatnot, would be
widely criticized by the public. Yet, in these times, issues are
different than in the 1960s, and depending on the issue, regardless
of the year, sometimes no kind of non-violent resistance will lead to
change. But, sometimes, it just might.
