The Changing Tactics of the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement began to gain ground after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. The Board of Education. The movement began, under the stewardship of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as a movement that preached non-violent resistance. This policy of non-violence would characterize the Civil Rights Movement through the early 1960s and would win many victories for African Americans. However, as social tension grew, a younger generation of activists would come to the forefront. Ultimately, the Civil Rights Movement would become divided between policies of non-violence and Black Nationalism and Separatism.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated public education was unconstitutional in the landmark case of Brown v. The Board of Education. This victory for African-Americans in the realm of public education would be expanded upon as activists sought to do away with all vestiges of segregation in America. One of the most famous civil rights events occurred the next year in Montgomery, Alabama after Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat on the bus to a white person. The arrest of Rosa Parks sparked the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott which would be led by a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr. King had just received his doctorate in theology and was inspired by the works of Mahatma Gandhi. King saw that “relentless non-violent mass confrontation eventually forced the British to abandon their claim to India” (Martin Luther King: A Perspective). Non-violent resistance would be the cornerstone of King’s approach to gaining civil rights for African Americans. King would help to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 to act as a haven for civil rights activists who would be molded to herald the platform of non-violence that Dr. King believed in. Dr. King personally faced violence for his beliefs; he was jailed numerous times, his house was bombed, and he was stabbed. However, he unrelentingly preached non-violence as a means of change and this would be the main approach that civil rights activists would use as the country progressed into the 1960s.

The year 1960 brought hope to many civil rights activists as John F. Kennedy was elected to the presidency. Kennedy had the support of many prominent African American leaders and won a vast majority of the African American vote. With a president who was perceived to be sympathetic to their cause, African American civil rights activists began to stage protests at an increased rate. In 1960, African-American students in Greensboro, North Carolina engaged in the very first “sit-in” to protest against segregation in the department store Woolworth’s. King saw the importance of this younger generation of activists and helped to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). These young activists would help spur on non-violent civil rights protests throughout the early 1960s. However, this younger generation would also spawn the emergence of civil rights action in opposition to non-violence as the decade wore on. The non-violent protest reached its head on April 10th, 1963. Dr. King and thousands of others marched peacefully into downtown Birmingham, Alabama and were met with severe violence from police who used dogs, batons, and fire hoses to attempt to disperse the peaceful crowd. King was jailed for his part in the march, but his determination to adhere to his policy of non-violence never waned. King wrote from his jail cell:

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. (para. 16)

The violence from the police against the non-violent Montgomery protesters was broadcasted on national television and shocked the nation. President Kennedy personally intervened and had Dr. King released from jail. Kennedy also proclaimed that he would help to push civil rights legislation through Congress. Though Kennedy would be assassinated before he could fulfill this promise, the following year would bring about one of the greatest victories for King’s platform of non-violent protest, the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, 1964 also marked a rise in black nationalism and black separatism, which were in contention with Dr. King’s message of love and non-violence.

Though non-violence did win African Americans the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the social climate was becoming even more contentious. There were those who were still staunchly opposed to equality, and their beliefs were embodied by Governor George C. Wallace, a segregationist and potential presidential candidate who spoke out against the Civil Rights Act claiming, “Never before in the history of this nation have so many human and property rights been destroyed by a single enactment of the Congress. It is an act of tyranny. It is the assassin's knife stuck in the back of liberty” (para. 6). Segregationists saw the Civil Rights Act as the federal government forcing unwanted legislation upon them. This sentiment was also shared by the 1964 Republican Presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater. Goldwater ran against Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson and was opposed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was the candidate of segregationists like Governor Wallace and he preached state’s rights in the wake of the federal Civil Rights Act decision:

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. (para. 12)

The country was divided between civil rights activists clamoring for equality and segregationists who believed the federal government was forcing unwanted laws upon them. This climate served to fracture the civil rights movement into those who sided with Dr. King’s non-violent approach and others who supported more “radical” methods of change.

As aforementioned, the rise of the black separatist and Black Nationalism movement came from the same younger generation of activists who had been at the lead of many non-violent protests throughout the early 1960s. This facet of the Civil Rights Movement was heralded by men like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. Many African-Americans felt that the result of non-violent protests was only violence towards the peaceful protesters. In the midst of non-violent protests there were numerous bombings, murders, and assassinations that were targeted at civil rights activists. The younger generation grew tired with the policy of non-violence in the face of this racism and the new voice of protest became louder. Malcolm X was a figurehead of this new movement, and he claimed, “by the hundreds of thousands today we find that our own people have become impatient, and turning away from your white nationalism, which you call democracy, toward the militant, uncompromising philosophy of black nationalism” (para. 10). This movement gained even more sway after Malcolm X was made into a martyr for this cause after his assassination in 1965. Other young black activists picked up the torch of Black Nationalism, and in 1966 founded the militant Black Panthers Movement. “The Black Panthers gain notoriety for patrolling the streets in black berets, black jackets, and armed with weapons. Their message of self-determination and power wins thousands of followers throughout the country” (“From Civil Rights to Black Power para. 14). This change from a strict platform of non-violence to a schism in the civil rights community between those who supported King’s approach of non-violence and those who favored Black Nationalism was made evident when Stokely Carmichael took over as the head of the SNCC. The SNCC was formerly an organization devoted to non-violent protest and it had now turned to a stance of Black Nationalism. Stokely spoke to a gathering of SNCC members in 1966 and claimed:

The only time I hear people talk about nonviolence is when black people move to defend themselves against white people. Black people cut themselves every night in the ghetto– don’t anybody talk about nonviolence. Lyndon Baines Johnson is busy bombing the hell of out Vietnam–don’t nobody talk about nonviolence. White people beat up black people every day–don’t nobody talk about nonviolence. But as soon as black people start to move, the double standard comes into being. (para. 56)

The leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee openly espousing the flaws of the non-violent protest showed that the rift in the Civil Rights Movement was now too large to span. Not surprisingly, violence broke out with increased frequency throughout the latter part of the 1960s. The worst violence occurred after the assassination of Dr. King in 1968. Riots broke out in over one hundred cities as the death of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest supporter of non-violence also marked the death of any chance that the Civil Rights Movement would protest in a predominantly non-violent manner.

In conclusion, the Civil Rights Movement began as a predominantly non-violent activist cause. Dr. King wanted to base the movement’s resistance on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. For many years, this was the main approach to achieving change in the realm of civil rights. However, as tensions grew, the Civil Rights Movement became split between those who sided with Dr. King’s methods and those who favored Black Nationalism. Leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael saw the merit of Dr. King’s beliefs, but they also saw the violence that black Americans had to face in spite of their non-violent protests. Though the methods of the Civil Rights Movement were split along these lines, the ultimate goal was the same. The goal was to one day live in a country where black people did not have to be second-class citizens. Non-violent protests and Black Nationalism were simply different means to the same end.

Works Cited

Carmichael, Stokely “Black Power.” 29 Oct 1966. Retrieved from http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/carmichael-black-power-speech-text/King,

“From Civil Rights to Black Power.” PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/timeline/p_4.html

Goldwater, Barry. “Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice.” Republican National Convention. San Francisco, CA. 1964. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwaterspeech.htm

Malcolm X, “The Black Revolution.” New York. 8 Apr 1964. Retrieved from http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-black-revolution-april-8-1964.html

Martin Luther King: A Perspective. Xenon Entertainment Group, 1994. DVD.

Martin Luther. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. Birmingham, AL. 16 Apr 1963. Retrieved from http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Wallace, George. “The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax.” 4 July 1964. Retrieved from http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1951-/speech-by-george-c-wallace-the-civil- rights-movement-fraud-sham-and-hoax-1964-.php