The civil rights movement of the 1960s was the biggest act of civil disobedience that this country has ever seen. This movement joined millions of people together against the government for change. People are ignorant of the civil rights movement and how grand it was, not knowing many important details of it. People think this was movement for blacks and blacks only. That is not true. There was a lot going on in this time. People were fighting for the rights of coloreds. “Coloreds” does not just include the black race. It is for anybody who is not white because we all were not seen as equal to whites. But blacks were very involved and basically the face of the movement so people tend to think that. Also around this time, women were fighting for their rights in society also. This movement included all women, black, white, and whoever standing up to the man. Even though suffrage rights had been granted to women earlier in the century, that was not the only right that made women not as equal to men. Back then, a man and a woman could have the same job, work the same hours and the man would come out with higher pay. Rights for gays, religious movements and others all combined during this time for the civil rights movement. Just certain movements were bigger than others.
For civil disobedience to occur, many components need to be in place in a society. There needs to be a group of people who are in agreement/disappointment that something is wrong or not fair in society. On the other side there needs to be a group of people who back what is not fair in society even if it is a small group. The disappointed group will come to the power and ask for change even if it is slight. If the power does not want to change things, BOOM. Civil disobedience will occur slowly but surely when the disappointed group gets fed up.
This is exactly what occurred across America in the 60s. Except it was on a very large scale. The disappointed group was at a huge number, and society was going crazy. The groups were sprawled out all over the country though and brought together at times for certain events for change. Marches, speeches, boycotts and sit-ins brought people from all over together for a certain cause; civil rights. That was the one goal all groups fighting during this movement had in mind. To eventually be seen as equal to anybody in the country that you stood next to.
During the movement, an author that was even part of the movement made an interesting quote. Martin Luther King, one of the biggest leaders of the movement said “to accept passively, an unjust system is to cooperate with that system thereby, the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor.” (Martin Luther King page 303 from Stride toward freedom) This is an interesting quote that can be interpreted in many ways. I feel this relates to the civil rights movement because it was of course based on what the movement was about. It was one of the main causes that caused the shaky society in the 1960s. Some of the things that the people did (not people who followed King, but others) were just as evil as the white people that made the oppressed angry. This was because some felt evil was being done so they felt the need to strike back. This was a time of striking back and not standing for anything. A time for objection and showing heart for the things you believed was wrong.
King inspired many people across the country to get involved in his acts of civil disobedience. The way he approached the problems in this country got many people who were on the opposite side to jump on board. With his persuasive voice and words, he caused many to see the truth. Things were not fair and right and it went against the constitutional ideas this country was based upon. It went hand and hand with the very things this country fought for independence for.
Some leaders took violent approach to this movement. Martin Luther King was not one of the people who did. One that did was Malcolm X. People don’t realize he wasn’t for violence though and going out attacking whites to get back at them. “..In areas of this country where the government has proven it’s- either inability or unwillingness to protect lives and property of our people, then it’s only fair to expect us to do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves. And in situation like Mississippi, places like Mississippi where the government actually has proven it’s inability to protect us and it has been proven that off-times the police officers and sheriffs themselves are involved in the murder that takes place against our people-then I feel, and I say that anywhere, that our people should start doing what is necessary to protect ourselves.” (Malcolm X, page 305 of “Protect Ourselves”) Was he not right for having this approach? After so much has been done to you and your families, should you continue to sit around and let it happen? The violence being done to coloreds, mainly blacks, was something that could be ignored and let by anymore in his eyes. He felt you cannot continue to treat humans like they are animals that you can abuse and kill when you feel is time. So his reasonably approach was to strike back.
Even though violence was used to try and get things changed for the oppressed, non-violence was the more effective approach to the situation. Martin Luther King got the attention of the whites/government because he attacked them in the legal/right way. Not to say violence went unnoticed. Of course violence drew attention but that just caused law enforcement to come down harder which they had no problem doing. When they attacked Martin’s marches, protest or boycotts they were wrong because they were in their legal rights to do so. Whites just couldn’t stand to see people stand for things that they did not want in their society. King did not get full results when he was alive. It took till after his death for people to realize that things were not right. People started to realize that the way society was being run and handled was unfair. Change began to occur slowly but surely. You could tell that this was because of King’s non-violent approach. He gained a lot of respect for that because he was still an honorable man while fighting for a cause. On the other hand, change did not occur as much when Malcolm was killed. This was because of his approaches, attitude and character. The other side didn’t respect him as much as King. King showed coloreds can be people and not savages like society saw us to be.
This movement, the leaders and the people involved changed society in the United States forever. The way The States is today socially is totally different from how it was being run a couple decades back. And it will not go back to the way it used to be. The people’s act of civil disobedience was for a cause that is now respected across most of the country. Now everybody is seen as equal and given fair opportunities to do something with the life you are given. Now if you come up short, there is no excuse or reason you can pin it too because if you put your mind to it, you have the opportunity to make it to a different situation other than the one you are stuck in. You can make the same money as the person you saw in a suit, male or female, if you work hard towards that goal. You can live in the same neighborhood as the high class guy without hassle if you put in the work for it. This is what the people before us, the people of this movement fought for.
