James Lawson Research Paper

Before James Lawson and the big four civil rights groups, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) embraced using nonviolence as the main strategy to fight segregation, many Blacks engaged in civil disobedience as means of challenging racial injustice. One of the well-known act of nonviolence before the Civil Rights Movement was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy challenged racial segregation by buying a first class train ticket in Louisiana. Although he ultimately lost the case in the Supreme Court, his case shed lights on the issue of racial segregation. During World War II Blacks demanded for the desegregation of the regiments.
Unlike the other strategies, the sit-in movement was led by the youths. Not only was it effective, but it also exposed the injustice of segregation and the racial violence in the South. Many civil rights leaders were involved in this movement, but key leaders were James Farmer, Lawson, Diane Nash, James Bevel and Lewis. Lawson helped develop the idea of making the sit-ins a nonviolent movement. Before the Freedom Riders would strategize making it a national movement, there were several cases of sit-ins that helped create the momentum. Some of this cases, includes Morgan v. Virginia, Boynton v. Virginia, and the Rock Hill Nine. In the case of Morgan v. Virginia, Irene Morgan was arrested after refusing to get up for a White person in an interstate highway when the bus was filled. After her arrest, Irene was able to win the case, which influenced sixteen men from CORE to organize a two week journey to challenge segregation, known as the Journey of Reconciliation. After the case, many Blacks strategized using the nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation and other racial injustice. In the case of Boynton v. Virginia, Bruce Boynton was arrested for seating in a bus terminal section that read “Whites only.” Boynton strategically argued that it was his constitutional rights to seat in the bus terminal being that Interstate Commerce Act forbade discrimination towards any
While the movement was triggered by a series of random sit-ins, the civil rights leaders and the youths were able to strategize using nonviolence as a method of exposing the truth about segregation. By reacting peacefully to the violence they faced by the angry mob, people were moved to call for an end against racial