Nonviolent Protest

In 1954, the US Supreme Court struck down the separate but equal Doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans. In the decade that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protests and civil disobedience to bring a change. Many risked and lost their lives in the name of freedom and equality.

The beginning of the black protest activity begin on December 1st 1955. Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her seat to a white bus rider which defied a southern custom that had required blacks to give seats toward the front of buses to whites. After she was jailed, a black community boycott of the city's buses began. The boycott had lasted more than a year, demonstrating the unity and determination of black residents and inspiring blacks elsewhere.

There was one leader who emerged as the movement's most effective leader known as Martin Luther King Jr. . He understood the significance of the boycott and quickly realized that the nonviolent tactics used by Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi could be used by Southern blacks. Rosa Parks and King were members of the NAACP, but the Montgomery movement led to the creation in 1957 of a new organization known as Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Highly Publicized confrontations between nonviolent protesters, including school children, on the one hand, and police with clubs, fire hoses, and police dogs, on the other hand, gained Northern sympathy. The Birmingham clashes and other civil rights efforts prompted President John F Kennedy to push for passage of new civil rights legislation. By the summer of 1963, the Birmingham protests had become only one of many local protests insurgencies that culminated in the August 28th March on Washington, which attracted at least 200,000