Nonviolent Direct Action in the Civil Rights Movement

peaceful Direct Action in the well-bred Rights MovementWho was the NAACP ( guinea pig Association for the Advancement of Colored People) lawyer who successfully argued the NAACPs browned v. Board of Education? Answer Martin Luther ability. Question Name several slew who were involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Answer Martin Luther King and genus Rosa Parks. Question Who was the starting signal electric chair of the book spell Nonviolent Coordinating perpetration (SNCC)? Answer Martin Luther King. Question Who organized the famous March on cap? Answer Martin Luther King. Question Who started the sit-in bowel parkway of the 1960s? Answer Martin Luther King. (Armstrong 2002)Does the previous list of questions and states sound familiar? If you teach high school write up, the answer is probably yes. However, this does not tell the whole story. In reality, Martin Luther King was bonny one member of the larger cultured Rights Movement sweeping the country. In order to il luminate the larger picture to our students, alternative strategies need to be considered. One such strategy is presented here. This lesson plan tackles the civilian Rights Movement from the stead of peaceful direct action.I am not arguing that King is not an important historical figure of the Civil Rights Movement, beca practice he sure as shooting is. The problem, however, is that since the early 1970s, the struggle for cultured slumps has been taught al most(prenominal) solely in consanguinity to King and his life. Students graduate from high school viewing the civil rights movement synonymously with Martin Luther King junior Such connections be understandable, if grossly uninformed. Students are denied the opportunity to immerse themselves in the complicated and varied histories of the civil rights movement. (Armstrong 2002) accord to Armstrong, in the past, most high school history teachers relied on textbooks to assist them convey the civil rights movement to their students. Unfortunately, the vast majority of textbooks present a narrative of the civil rights movement of King as the embodiment of the Civil Rights Movement. As a result, textbooks typic on the wholey begin the movement in 1954 and 1955 with the embrown v. Board decision and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and end in 1968 with the assassination of King. (Armstrong 2002, 6) However, this is only a narrow view of what many historians consider a much protracted struggle for racial civil rights.One demeanor to open up this narrative is to provide students with access to primary winding documents. This lesson incorporates trine primary documents one from each of the leading groups that advocated nonviolent action during the civil rights movement. This methodology not only presents students with alternative perspectives, but it likewise exposes students to a core tool used by historians. (Armstrong 2002) In any history course, whether it is second grade, high school, or graduate l evel, aspects of the story will be left out. History is a vast and ever-expanding field, and it is impossible to include everything in one course. However, by showing our students how to think and act like historians, we nominate give them the opportunity to explore these topics further in the future.National well-wornsThe National Standards for United States History Era 9 Postwar United States, Standard 4 requires students to understand the struggle for racial and gender equality and the accompaniment of civil liberties. (National Center for History in the Schools 2005)TimeThis lesson should be split into three break up sessions of approximately one hour.Student ObjectivesTo analyze primary source material.To analyze the role of nonviolent direct action in combating racism.To analyze the role of different organizations combating racism in the Civil Rights Movement. sex act of racial Equality (CORE)Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) southern Christian leading Con ference (SCLC) sceneNonviolent Action agree to Gene Sharp, Nonviolent action refers to those methods of defy, resistance and intervention without physiologic military force in which the members of the nonviolent group do or refuse to do certain things. (Sharp 1969) These methods female genitals be divided into three basic groups nonviolent take issue, noncooperation, and nonviolent intervention. Each group contains different examples of nonviolent actions. Nonviolent protest includes such actions as parades, marches, and picketing. Noncooperation includes such actions as walkouts, strikes, and boycotts. And nonviolent intervention, the most private-enterprise(a) forms of nonviolent resistance typic every(prenominal)y refers to sit-ins. (Wirmark 1974)Each of these methods of nonviolent action was employed during the Civil Rights Movement. Three of the leading organizations which advocated the use of nonviolent action were the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Non violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Confederate Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)CORE was founded in 1943, and specialized in nonviolent action to combat racial disagreement. Its first focus was on sit-in demonstrations with the goal that public places, such as restaurants, would become desegregated. (Wirmark 1974) As the Civil Rights Movement evolved, so too did the goals of CORE, who began to keep going freedom rides during the early 1960s. See Figure 1 (Woodward 1966) From 1962-1964, CORE concentrated on voter registration drives finishedout the South. It was also responsible for sponsoring direct action protests against unfair housing measures and other types of discrimination against African Americans in the North. Though all three organizations (CORE, SNCC, and SCLC) employed nonviolent techniques in their quest for equality, it was CORE who initiated the practice. (Meier and Rudwick 1973)Student Nonviolent Coordinating C ommittee (SNCC)On February 1, 1960, a group of adolescent African American students were refused to be served in a coffee fail in North Carolina. In protest, the students sat in silence in the shop. This type of protest, known as a sit-in, rapidly spread throughout the country, bringing many young college students into the civil rights cause. See Figure 2 (Woodward 1966) The SNCC, the youngest and most private-enterprise(a) of the organized groups, came out of the sit-in movement. Students who had inscribed in sit-ins wanted to control student demonstrations, and thus founded the SNCC in 1960. (Wirmark 1974) By 1966, the SNCC had gained national attention with its use of the guideword Black Power. Some of the most important leaders of the SNCC were Bob Moses of Mississippi, Charles Sherrod of Georgia, and bloom Hansen of Arkansas. These men were most sound because they truly believed in the morality of their cause. They were gamey in the face of adversity and influenced othe rs to not give up hope. (Stoper 1977)Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)After the successful Montgomery transport boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. founded the SCLC to bring together the church leaders who had been organizing the boycott. See Figure 3 godly by the actions of CORE, King wanted to apply nonviolent action on a large scale. (Wirmark 1974) Unlike the other two organizations, the SCLC acted as an comprehensive organization. It brought together various civil rights groups across the South and the rest of the nation. It also differed from other civil rights groups because it was primarily made up of religious groups. Charles Morgan, a member of the SCLC board of directors said of the group, SCLC is not an organization, its a church. (Fairclough 1987, 1) King was sure enough a significant force behind the SCLC, but its successes cannot be licence solely to his larger-than-life personality. The SCLC was extremely effective in combating racial discrimination a nd segregation, and this was due partially to King, partially to its belief in a high moral cause, and partially to its commitment to nonviolent action. (Fairclough 1987)He will converge the anger of an individual or group in the timber of mature will and creative rapprochement he will submit to beset and will not retaliate in kind either by act or word.A member will never mesh in any action in the name of the group withdraw when sure by the group or one of its action units.When in an action hurtle a CORE member will observe the orders issued by the authorized leader or spokesman of the pop, whether these orders please him or not. If he does not approve of such orders, he shall later refer the reprimand back to the group or to the committee which as the source of the project plan.No member, subsequently once accepting the discipline of the group for a particular action project, shall have the right of withdrawing. However, should a participant purport that under furthe r pressure he will no longer be able to adhere to the Rules for Action, he shall then withdraw from the project and leave the scene immediately subsequently notifying the project leader.Only a person who is a recognized member of the group leader in a particular project shall be permitted to take part in that group action.Guarantees from the Local Group to the IndividualEach member has the right to dissent from any group decision and, if dissenting, need not participate in the specific action planned.Each member shall understand that all decisions on general policy shall be arrived at only through democratic group discussion.A CORE member shall receive the unbending support of his CORE group as he faces any difficulties resulting from his authorized CORE activities.Day Two Handout -Page 2Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeStatement of PurposeWe affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of passive resistance as the foundation of our purpose, the presupposition of our faith, and the manner of our action. passive resistance as it grows from the Judeo-Christian tradition seeks a social order of evaluator permeated by love. Integration of human endeavor represents the crucial first smell towards such a society.Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear love transforms hate. borrowing dissipates prejudice hope ends despair. Peace dominates war faith reconciles doubt. Mutual look at cancels enmity. Justice for all overcomes injustice. The redemptive community supersedes systems of gross social immorality. cacoethes is the central motif of nonviolence. Love is the force by which God binds man to himself and man to man. Such love goes to the extreme it remains loving and tender-hearted even in the midst of hostility. It matches the capacity of evil to inflict distraint with an even more enduring capacity to absorb evil, all the succession persisting in love.By appealing to conscience and standing on the moral nature of human existence, nonviolence nu rtures the atmosphere in which reconciliation and justice become actual possibilities.Day Two Handout -Page 3Southern Christian Leadership Conference This is SCLCAims and Purposes of SCLCThe Southern Christian Leadership Conference has the basic aim of achieving full citizenship rights, equality and the integration of the total darkness in all aspects of American life. SCLC is a service agency to assist coordinated action of local community groups within the frame of their autochthonal organizations and natural leadership. SCLC activity revolves around two main focal points the use of nonviolent doctrine as a means of creative protest and securing the right of the ballot for every citizen.Philosophy of SCLCThe basic tenets of Hebraic-Christian tradition joined with the Gandhian concept of satyagraha truth force is at the heart of SCLCs philosophy. Christian nonviolence actively resists evil in any form. It never seeks to dishonor the opponent, only to win him. Suffering is ac cepted without retaliation. Internal violence of the spirit is as much to be rejected as external physical violence. At the center of nonviolence is redemptive love. Creatively used, the philosophy of nonviolence can amend the broken community in America. SCLC is convinced that nonviolence is the most potent force available to an oppressed commonwealth in their struggle for freedom and dignity.SCLC and Nonviolent Mass Direct ActionSCLC believes that the American dilemma in race relations can best and most quickly be resolved through the action of thousands of people, committed to the philosophy of nonviolence, who will physically identify themselves in a just and moral struggle. It is not enough to be intellectually dissatisfied with an evil system. The dead on target nonviolent resister presents his physical body as an instrument to down the system. Through nonviolent mass direct action, the evil system is creatively dramatized in order that the conscience of the community may grapple with the integrity or wrongness of the issue at hand.Supplementary MaterialsVisual aidThese photographs can be used to supplement this lesson plan. Pass them out to the class or incorporate them into your classroom presentation. More visual aids can be found at www.loc.gov/rr/print/.Figure 3 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in front of SCLC Headquarters in Atlanta.Figure 1 Background Map 1961 Freedom Rides New York Associated Press News Feature. ca. 1962Figure 2 Tottle crime syndicate Occupied during a Sit-in by some of Americas most effective organizers. Atlanta, Georgia, ca. 1963Civil Rights Timeline*Adapted from http//www.africanaonline.com/2010/08/civil-rights-timeline/*1954 Brown vs. Board of Education U.S. Supreme judicial system bans segregation in public schools.1955 Bus boycott launched in Montgomery, Ala., after an African-American woman, Rosa Parks, is arrested December 1 for refusing to give up her piazza to a white person.1956 December 21 After more than a yea r of boycotting the buses and a legal fight, the Montgomery buses desegregate.1957 At previously all-white substitution High in Little Rock, Ark., 1,000 paratroopers are called by President Eisenhower to restore order and escort nine black students.1960 The sit-in protest movement begins in February at a Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. and spreads across the nation.1961 Freedom rides begin from Washington, D.C Groups of black and white people ride buses through the South to challenge segregation.1963 Police arrest King and other ministers demonstrating in Birmingham, Ala., then turn fire hoses and police dogs on the marchers.Medgar Evers, NAACP leader, is murdered June 12 as he enters his home in Jackson, Miss.Four girls killed Sept. 15 in bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.1964 July 2 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964.1965 Malcolm X is murdered Feb. 21, 1965. Three men are convicted of his murder.August 6. President J ohnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act, which King sought, authorized federal examiners to register qualified voters and suspended devices such as literacy tests that aimed to prevent African Americans from voting.The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., unleashing violence in more than 100 cities.In response to Kings death, Seattle residents hurled firebombs, broke windows, and pelted motorists with rocks. Ten thousand people also marched to Seattle Center for a rally in his memory.1992 The first racially based riots in years erupt in Los Angeles and other cities after a jury acquits L.A. police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, an African American.