How Did Nonviolence Impact The Civil Rights Movement

When fighting for Indian independence Gandhi declared, “Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man” (Prabhu). In other words, every individual has the ability to harness the force of nonviolence to combat oppression. In the United States during the Civil Rights Movement between 1954 to 1968, nonviolent protest gained popularity as a means to end discrimination and racial segregation against African Americans while positively impacting society by changing national views and laws. Nonviolence successfully protested racial discrimination, causing positive change by focusing national attention on pressing civil rights issues. Throughout the
Civil Rights Movement, nonviolent actions such as boycotts, sit-ins, and marches showed that determined nonviolence was the correct approach to address inequality.
The most famous boycott of the movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, drew national attention to the racial issues at hand from December 1955 to December 1956. The protest began with Rosa Parks. She refused to relinquish her seat to a white woman and was subsequently arrested. This incident upset the African-American community in Montgomery. To combat the unfair treatment, they united as a community under the guidance of an up-and-coming leader—Martin Luther King, Jr. Together, African Americans boycotted citywide public transport in order to achieve a “more humane implementation of segregation.” However, with increasing national attention, the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked a revolution across the country to end segregation not only on buses, but also at lunch counters, schools and public facilities. The expanding awareness also elevated Martin Luther King, Jr. to a household name. The national attention to
this nonviolent protest prompted widespread, peaceful boycotts of unfair treatment (Hartford). The nonviolent boycott supports the argument of using nonviolence as the correct response to racial segregation because the protest positively changed the rules regarding African Americans on buses and increased the tension concerning discrimination around the United States. Additionally, the boycott indicated that the white community could not control the actions of African Americans. Some whites during the boycott resorted to violence, attacking protesting black citizens. Instead of ending the disruption of public transport, white violence drew even more national attention to the Civil Rights Movement and made it stronger. The Montgomery Boycott instilled fear of the success of nonviolence in the white supremacist opposition by showing that communities could unite and cause desegregation through nonviolent means. Students were another rising nonviolent community that successfully united during the Civil Rights Movement. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) exemplified the success and power of nonviolent intervention by organizing student-led sit-ins. In many Southern college towns, African Americans refused to leave restaurants which denied them service because of their race (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). These SNCC sit-ins brought the organization to national prominence, turning the public eye to the reality of white racism in the South. Nonviolent sit-ins exposed racial segregation and discrimination in the country once again through various means such as media and word-of-mouth. These publicizing acts were themselves a form of nonviolence. By gaining national attention, the grievances of Civil Rights protesters could be amplified throughout the country. Even if sit-ins did not desegregate their proposed location, they sparked a passion and outrage in other students around the United States. This passion led students to engage in meaningful activities and cause positive change. The trials of some arrested sit-in protesters led to the Supreme Court reevaluation of a previous ruling regarding the Equal Protection Clause (Darlene). The trials caused positive change among the supporters of desegregation by bringing racial issues to the court system. Boycotts and sit-ins were successful in changing policies regarding inequality as were large scale marches. Marches united many groups and individuals in hopes of desegregation.
Numerous marches culminated in a variety of nonviolent actions such as speeches and sit-ins. These acts proposed progressive goals for groups to unite forces and fight. The significant March on Washington outlined a specific set of goals and “drew a media assembly larger than the Kennedy inauguration two years earlier” (Getting to the March on Washington). The extensive media attention suggests that the public was interested in pleas for change. The media coverage and public attention given to the march also allowed the Civil Rights Movement to be catapulted to a debate of utmost national importance. For example, the lasting words of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the pinnacle of the March on Washington, still resonate throughout America today. The March on Washington showed that change can happen when protesters have refocused goals. The march re-lit the sputtering fire of nonviolent protest. Events that had recently occurred such as the murder of Medgar Evers (an activist leader) and the jailing of King angered protesters almost to the point of giving into violence, but the march reinvigorated their peaceful efforts by reestablishing protesters’ achievements and goals
(Jones). Boycotts, sit-ins, and marches allowed for an important and necessary change in the United States. These nonviolent forms of protest during the Civil Rights Movement gained widespread national attention, impacting all who watched and saw violent individuals and police officers attacking nonviolent protestors. This attention extended the discussion of current issues throughout the country which resulted in a widespread and pressing nationwide force against inequality. In addition, fighting for equality has developed into an essential American value. Nonviolence has been and will continue to be powerful because these protests appeal to one’s basic sense of morality. Psychologically, a person will sense the injustice of an oppressive system when shown outrageous mistreatment toward peaceful protest. Nonviolence attempts to accomplish this by blatantly pointing out the mistakes of wrong systems. Today, nonviolence is still effective. The Black Lives Matter campaign is an example of a contemporary nonviolent protest. Protesters involved in this movement commonly chant or shout a phrase campaigning against the violence toward African Americans. Recently, cries heard at various presidential rallies caused the issues regarding unfair police treatment toward the African-American community to be investigated (Day). National attention surfaces from these situations as it did during the boycotts, sit-ins, and marches of the Civil Rights Movement. Nonviolence was the correct method to cause desegregation throughout the United States and will continue to thrive.