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Effectiveness of nonviolence
Impacts of the civil rights movement on american society
Effectiveness of nonviolence
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Parents tell their children that violence is never the answer– they are right. Nonviolent solutions should be the automatic way to resolve issues. Civil disobedience and nonviolence are still relevant today; the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements, as well as other examples throughout world history, advocate their effectiveness. Nonviolence and civil disobedience are very similar means of protest. Civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest (Definition of civil disobedience). Nonviolence is the policy, practice, or technique of refraining from the use of violence,especially when reacting to or protesting against oppression, injustice, or discrimination …show more content…
This was the route for the first major march Martin Luther King Jr. led in March 1965. The Selma March would last for five days and consist of 55 miles of walking. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for complete voting rights (Selma to Montgomery). This march was their staple project to obtain their constitutional voting rights and put a spotlight on limited yet still “equal” rights they were receiving. Selma started out as a peaceful march through Alabama compiled of people from around the nation: white and black. When Alabama state troopers, who were primarily against Black rights, arrived, the protesters continued to walk forward towards their destination. As soon as the police realized they were not going to stop marching, they beat them brutally and mercilessly threw tear gas and other stunning weapons toward the crowd. Hundreds of thousands of marchers were injured and traumatized, however, they continued despite the altercation. By the last day, the crowd reached a population of approximately 25,000 supporters. On August 6th, in the presence of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recalling ‘‘the outrage of Selma,’’ Johnson called the right to vote ‘‘the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they …show more content…
Media plays a key role in the cogency of nonviolent actions. Although a select few of the demonstrations have turned into riots, they are not what Black Lives Matter stands for. Social media, television, the internet and other major news outlets have changed the way information is being perceived. When something is posted on the internet, it there for billions to see. Violent protests and actions have been a hot topic in the news lately; these “hot topics” steer the viewpoint of many. When one’s viewpoint is steered toward a negative direction in this, violence, one thinks that is the way to do it. Therefore, violence has been an easier way to resolve issues only because the media highlights as such. The Civil Rights movement was one of the first major televised social campaigns. 48 million Americans would watch the scene in their living rooms, and a few days later, Martin Luther King Jr. would lay bare the movement’s core media strategy. “We will no longer let them use their clubs on us in the dark corners,” he said. “We’re going to make them do it in the glaring light of television” (How Black Lives Matter). Since the Black Lives Matter movement originated as an internet hashtag and evolved into a national movement, the media helped bring this nonviolent enterprise recognition. As long as the media gives more attention towards nonviolent actions, their
When a citizen abides by the social contract, they initially agree to enter and be a participant of a civil society. The contract essentially binds people into a community that exists for mutual preservation. When a person wants to be a member of civil society, they sacrifice the physical freedom of being able to do whatever they please, but they gain the civil freedom of being able to think and act rationally and morally. Citizens have what is called prima facie obligation to obey the laws of a relatively just state. A prima facie duty is an obligation that we should try to satisfy but that can be overridden on occasion by another, stronger duty. When it comes to prima facie duty, this duty can be outweighed by a higher order obligation or
“No radical change on the plane of history is possible without crime,” This quote from Hermann Keyserling is just one of many statements that help describe the meaning and true raw power of Civil Disobedience. Civil disobedience as defined by Merriam Webster is the “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government”. The most promising and understandable of the definitions of Civil Disobedience would be that given to us by Gandhi from India “Compassion in the form of respectful disagreement”. Even the Veterans Fast for Life from here in the United States must agree when saying, “when leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders.” To understand why civil disobedience is so important in our lives you must first look into your heart and realize that the integrity of mankind has no need of rules.
Civil Disobedience, as stated in the prompt, is the act of opposing a law one considers unjust and peacefully disobeying it while accepting the consequences. Many people believe this has a negative impact on the free society because they believe civil disobedience can be dangerous or harmful. Civil disobedience does not negatively affect the free society in a dangerous manner because it is peaceful and once it becomes harmful to the free society then it is not civil disobedience. Thoreau believed civil disobedience is an effective way of changing laws that are unjust or changing things that as a society and to the people does not seem correct. This peaceful act of resistance positively impacts a free society. Some examples are Muhammad Ali peacefully denying the draft and getting arrested. These men believed that what they saw was wrong and they did something about it but they did it peacefully.
Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the active attempts of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register the Black voters of Alabama no significant progress was made . One such place was Selma Alabama. This small southern town of 29,000 soon became the focal point of the Civil Rights movement. Of the 15,156 blacks in Dallas County, Alabama only 156 were registered to vote. On January 2, 1965 Reverend King visited Selma and gave a fiery speech in it he stated: "Today marks the beginning of a determined organized, mobilized campaign to get the right to vote everywhere in Alabama."
It helped the marchers by, after all that marching, they got the Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. He was the 36th president of the United States. After what all the marchers went through, like getting beat up, called names, the lost of lives, shotgun shells, clubs, barbed wire, the marchers actually did something. Before they all went to march, a few percent of blacks could vote. They separated whites from blacks. White’s had their own water fountain, bathroom, and other stuff from the blacks. The Voting Rights Act did not help end whites and blacks from being separated, it helped let or give a chance for blacks to have the right to speak freely. The first march that they went on, the marchers did not have any sort of weapon, protection, or anything to keep them safe. The second march, they didn’t have anything again. The third march, they had federal protection. Years later, after the successful march of Selma to Montgomery, there was a historic trail created in 1996. The name of the trail was named, Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail. This trail remembered those who walked just to fight for the rights of African Americans that could not
The Civil Rights Movement was a series of actions that really peaked in the 1960's. These political actions were aimed at gaining rights for African Americans. However, there were two ways of going about the movement. There were ones who protested peacefully, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others who wanted a more pro-active way of fighting, like the black-rights activist Malcolm X. However, which way was more proactive? Even though both had great intentions, Dr. Martin Luther King had a better way of trying to achieve rights for the African American community.
The Selma marches were marches and protests held in 1965 that are regarded as the peak of the American civil rights movement. They were three marches from Selma to the Alabama capitol of Montgomery. The marches grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, started by locals who formed the Dallas County Voters League. The best known march was the first one, which was named Bloody Sunday due to the response of the officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The Selma Marches led to many advances in the civil rights movement and got the black civil movement really fired up.
Nonviolent civil disobedience was a critical factor in gaining women the right to vote in the United States, this changed the face of the South. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated modern nonviolent action for civil rights. I also believe that the gay and lesbian community is the result of direct nonviolent activism and when the ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed it focused not only on AIDS but on the increase of homophobia and attacks on lesbians and gays. I believe governmental power is maintained through oppression and tactic compliance of the majority of the governed; struggle and conflict are often necessary to correct injustice. Our struggle is not easy, and we must not think of nonviolence as a safe way to fight oppression, the strength of nonviolence comes from your willingness to take personal risks in Kohlberg’s moral stage 5 moral rights and social contract is explained in this political analysis on governmental power and the antiapartheid and central American work when they led protests on campuses with hundreds being arrested and 130 campus withdrawals.
Despite the belief that fighting with violence is effective, civil disobedience has been tried throughout history and been successful. Fighting violence with violence leaves no oppertunity for peace to work. By refusing to fight back violently, Martin Luther King Jr. took a race of people, taught them the value of their voice, and they earned the right to vote. Henry David Thoreau presented his doctrine that no man should cooperate with laws that are unjust, but, he must be willing to accept the punishment society sets for breaking those laws, and hundreds of years later, people are still inspired by his words. Mohandas K. Gandhi lead an entire country to its freedom, using only his morals and faith to guide him, as well as those who followed him, proving that one man can make a difference. Civil disobedience is the single tool that any person can use to fight for what they want, and they will be heard. After centuries of questioning it, it appears that the pen truly is mightier than the sword.
When comparing the effectiveness of the nonviolent approach and the violent approach, King says, “Nowhere have the riots won any concrete improvement such as have the organized protest demonstrations.” The nonviolent approach produced progress, whereas, the violent approach did not. King points out, “The 1960s sit-ins desegregated lunch counters…The 1961 Freedom Rides put an end to segregation in interstate travel…The 1965 Selma movement brought enactment of the Voting Rights Law.” The nonviolent approach was proven effective, and to some extent, it appealed to the conscience of the government, those not involved, and the perpetrators. If people would have seen blacks fighting back, many would not have had sympathy for them. As a result, many would not have solicited their support thus making the civil rights movement as a whole
People who said that that the voting right was a result of Selma also said that the events that went in Birmingham, Alabama in April and in May of 1963 produced the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In more than one occasions black civil right people were lead by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in marches and were met with outrageous law enforcements tactics. In the Selma march demonstrators were always peaceful, but the officers would use weapons on them even though the Selma demonstrators never did anything harmful. On March 7th a day after the bloody Sunday, dozens of speakers said that t...
During the period of 20 years between 1950 and 1970, black Americans were able to improve their level of civil rights. Therefore, it is logical to say that they were at least partly successful in achieving their civil rights. This was accomplished through a variety of ways, two commonly used techniques being legal strategies and non-violent direct action. However, because they were unable to attain complete equality, there must have been factors that worked against the civil rights movement. One of these factors was the use of violence as a means of protest.
By definition, civil disobedience means to actively refuse to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence (Wikipedia 2007). Many of the influential people in history have felt passionately about what they believe. These passions caused them to rebel against a government or authority. Many times they felt so strongly about what they believed and how they were being treated was wrong they became disobedient. They would take physical and verbal abuse for being disobedient but would never retaliate. They believed in what they thought was wrong and tried to change the way they were governed. Albert Einstein once said 'never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.' Albert Einstein's views seem to be reasonable. The claim by Albert Einstein is accurate because people should stand up for what they believe, they should know when they are right and their government is wrong, and they should trust in themselves and their own beliefs.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of the Brown v. the Board of Education. This was a very historical moment because their ruling eliminated, the "separate but equal " doctrine. Their ruling called for school integration, although most school were very slow in complying if they complied at all. The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Color People, viewed this ruling as a success. The schools lack of the obedience toward this ruling, made it necessary for black activism to make the federal government implement the ruling, and possibly help close the racial gap that existed in places other than public schools. During one of the boycotts for equality, a leader emerged that would never be forgotten. Dr. Martin Luther King, who was leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, quickly became the spokesperson for racial equality. He believed that the civil rights movement would have more success if the black people would use non violent tactics. Some say he was adopting the style of Ghandi. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC, was formed by King and other activist in 1957. They were a group of black ministers and activist who agreed to try and possibly help others see the effects of a non violent movement. Also following the strategies set by the SCLC, a group known as the SNCC or the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, began a string of sit-in and campaigns as the black population continued it's fight for equality. It was the undying efforts of the two groups that paved the way for the march on Washington. This march which drew a crowd of at least 200,000, was the place that Dr. King, gave his famous "dream speech." Both the SNCC, and the SCLC were victims of lots of threats and attempted attacks, yet they continued to pursue freedom in a non violent fashion. However near the late 60's they had another problem on their hands. There was a group of activist known as the Black Panthers who were not so eager to adopt the non-violent rule. The believed that the civil rights movement pushed by Dr. King and is non-violent campaign, which was meant to give blacks the right to vote and eliminate segregation, was not solving problems faced in poor black communities. This Black Panther group, stabled the term "black power", which was used a sort of uplifting for the black self esteem.
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978