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Why Did Some African Americans Reject Nonviolence

Joel Blackmore

WHY DID SOME AFRICAN AMERICANS REJECT NONVIOLENCE?

Black protest in America in the 1960s developed into two opposing stances, the non-violence of the Civil Rights movement in the South and the violent protests of the urban poor blacks and black power organisations in the North. In the early 1960's the main protest form was the Civil Rights movement. This was predicated on non-violent protest. It fo0lowed the principles of non-violence successfully used by Mahatma Gandhi
in India. The Civil Rights movement focused
on non-violent protest in the Southern States. Thousands of black and white protesters demonstrated peacefully against segregation—against practice where white people had seating preference in public buses, where black people had to sit at separate lunch counters from whites, had to go round the back of stores to drink from water taps rather than drink at fountains used by whites, where education and schools were strictly segregated so whites had the best education and blacks the worst. Most importantly the Civil Rights movement was just that—a mass campaign to get black people their civil rights—including the right to vote. Thousands of black people and white students from the North poured into the south in protest marches and demonstrations and were frequently met by white violence—police attacking protesters, jailing protesters and white racists including members of the Klu Klux Klan killing, black (and white protesters), and firebombing black churches and homes. Despite this violent reaction by southern whites to the civil rights protests the Civil Rights leaders emphasised that they mush fight through legal challenges and non-violent demonstrations.
A key aspect of the Civil Rights non violent movement was that it was supported by white establishment figures alongside black leaders and organisations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and national leaders such as Martin Luther...