Civil Disobedience Essay

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 1^st, 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.