Some parts of the Civil Rights Movement were motivated by the horrific physical and sexual violence of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, including sexual violence. Activists and Civil Rights leaders were generally in agreement about the threats posed to African-Americans., there was great disagreement about the most effective ways to respond to racist violence. I will be discussing the arguments for both non-violence and aggressive responses.
Non-violence responses to the Civil Rights Movement were used to get across the point that African Americans were equal citizens, but wanted to do so by not using violence. Some of the non-violent tactics were actually very confrontational; some tactics used were marches, boycotts and sit-ins. The Montgomrey bus boycott was Martin Luther King Jr.'s attempt to stand up to the white community with a non-violent bus boycott. King did not believe in violence to solve problems but still effectivly got his point across that the whites were mistreating the African Americans. He wanted to end segregation and discrimination in non-violent ways. however, many of these non-violent responses ended in violent ways and many times they ended in death. Through the non-violent responses the African Americans were trying to achieve freedom and to be treated equally.
Aggressive violent responses that were used consisted of lynchings, sexual violence, and abuse. Lynching was done by white men because they felt they were better than all other races, and African Americans were usually the targeted race. The lynchings were mostly preformed in front of large groups of people and seen as social gatherings. One of the main purposes of lynching was to instill fear into the African Americans so they would be silenced and under control. Another aggressive response that was used was that the white men would rape African American women. Even worse, for the most part they would get trialed for it and not get in trouble, and when they did it was very little trouble. Abuse was also an aggressive response used during the Civil Rights Movement, many black men were brutally beaten and abused. These acts of violence eventually lead the African Americans to fight back.
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Its no secret that civil rights leaders and members faces huge hardships. Many of them being beating, like you said, or imprisoned like MLK. You covered your arguement really well for both sides. But if you had to pick a side, which one would it be? Which side do you think had the biggest effect on the American Society. I guess it if were me I probably would have tended to be more violent, although i think the non-violent responses had the greatest affects. I just dont think i could sit aside while my family and friends were being murdered and beaten.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say the most important would be the violent acts as well. The reason I say this is because some of the violent activist were not going out to kill people but just use weapons as self-defense. This made more logical sense for blacks and would help keep their families safer. This action would be a faster process as well than what a non-violent tactic would take to get to governments hands.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed you analyse of lynching and how youin corporated the perception of fear. I think many people forget that at the time when many more aggressive organizations started to form themselves it was due to the various forms of violence performed against them. The generation that precedeed the non violent groups were tired of letting themselves be subjected to such mistreatment. In thier eyes why should htey be beat for the color of their skin adn exercising thier rights. I can side with the more aggresive sides because I have little patience for ignorance and I'm sure if someone hit me for sitting at a table I would hit them back
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