Protest Movements
Inequality based on race and class appears to be elements of capitalist democracy common to American society throughout its history. Various women's and philanthropic organizations engaged in protest during the Great Depression and afterward, lobbying for reforms to aid the impoverished, children, and laborers. However, protest movements demonstrated a growing radicalism as the twentieth century unfolded. Labor protests often turned violent as unions and their representatives clashed with strikebreakers and even thugs paid by companies. The same was true with the Civil Rights protests that erupted during the 1960s. Militant groups like the Black Panthers an
As King (12) asserts, the form of nonviolent protest that helped lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act was one that was honed through various protests, "Tested in Montgomery during the winter of 1955-56, and toughened throughout the South in the eight ensuing years, nonviolent resistance had become, by 1963, the logical force in the greatest mass-action crusade for freedom that has ever occurred. d black leaders like Malcolm X promoted any means necessary to bring about justice and equality for African Americans, even if it meant violence. As King (24) argues, "There is something in the American ethos that responds to the strength of moral force. provides an explanation of the origins of nonviolent protest and how it offers those who adhere to it in significant numbers the tools necessary to bring about social change. Despite the numerous episodes of violence associated with protests aimed at Civil Rights, it was King's nonviolent form of protest that galvanized whites and blacks and united them in a call for change. " In "I've Been to the Mountaintop" shortly before his assassination, King made it clear that only nonviolence brings about social change in a way that promotes survival, "It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence" (Carson 9). King discusses various drawbacks to violent response, from eliminating the significant contributions of youth to lacking the ability to engender a moral dilemma among those from who change is sought. In contrast to King's peaceful methods of protest, others like Malcolm X and leaders of the Black Panthers advocated violence be met with violence. In contrast to these more violent and radical forms of protest, however, Martin Luther King Jr. adopted a form of non-violent protest modeled on Gandhi's passive resistance that had helped free India from British rule. In Why We Can't Wait, Martin Luther King Jr. " The Birmingham campaign resulted in King being sent to jail at one point, demonstrating that nonviolent resistance asks for sacrifice and commitment from those who adhere to it if it is to be effective.
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Acceptance Essays
