Boycotts Of The Civil Rights Movement

While the Civil Rights Movement did a lot of its fighting in legal battles, other actions were taken by the movement to achieve integration. These actions were non-violent, and this non-violent stance was adapted from Gandhi's actions during the fight for India’s separation from Britain. Major Civil Rights leaders, for example Martin Luther King JR., encouraged members of the movement to practice these methods. One of these actions were boycotts,a method of peaceful protest, which is the practice of abstaining from something that does something viewed as wrong until something about it changes.

Boycotts could be aimed to cause financial losses. An example of this was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a direct result of the arrest of

Rosa Parks after she refused to comply with bus segregation laws. The African American community decided not to give up money for bus transportation and took other methods of transportation. This community was the greatest source of income for the bus system, and the loss of its business crippled the bus system.

Non-violence was the inspiration behind peaceful protest.This meant that people would refrain from violence and aggressive behavior during their demonstrations. For example, a group of people may peaceful march from one place to another, carrying picket signs, and not rioting,looting, or fighting on the way. Peaceful protests was extremely hard to achieve thanks to the very vocal, angry, aggressive, and sometimes violent opposition.
Sit ins, a form of peaceful protest , were used by members of the Civil Rights movements.Basically, protestors would sit somewhere and not move or respond regardless of anything that happened. People would take advantage of the protestors refusal to retaliate, and humiliate them. For example, people would scream racial slurs at protesters, and spit on them. Freedom Riders were another outlet of peaceful protest. This demonstration was done by a group of people riding together in a bus across the South. Many protesters would disobey segregation laws at stops along their routes.