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 1960s 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 segregationÂâ€"against practice where white people had seating preference in public buses,†¦show more content†¦They frequently carried guns, turned up at incidents where white police were arresting black people and were involved in highly publicised shoot outs. Opposeors to Martin Luther Kings non-violent forms of protest felt that the Civil Rights Movement was dominated by white people too much and that black people should be more in control over the protests that affect them the most. Whites were heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement on all levels, from senior positions involving planning the strategy and policies of the movement, to white liberals joining the protests and demonstrations. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam felt that white people were not to be trusted and therefore white people would only harm the struggle for improvement of life for black people. Malcolm X openly criticised the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous I have a dreamÂ… speech to over two hundred thousand people. Malcolm X said that the march had been taken over by white liberals: as they [white liberals] took it over it lost its militancy. It ceased to be angry, it ceased to be hot, it ceased to be unc ompromisingÂ…it became a picnic, a circus. (11) Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam felt that a more uncompromising solidly black force could achieve far more than the more liberal people of the Civil Rights Movement. This offered anShow MoreRelatedAfrican Americans During World War I1579 Words   |  7 PagesMany African Americans had moved north during the Great Migration to escape conditions in the south, but found that discrimination was still prevalent in northern cities. African Americans not only had difficulties finding jobs, but still felt the stigma of being black. Living within the time of legal discrimination, many African Americans soon realized that though they may have escaped the violence of the south, they still had to deal with the challenges and setbacks of being black in America. TheRead MoreSwords to Ploughshares : The Social Causes of Violence2136 Words   |  9 Pageswe once were and release the â€Å"better angels of our nature†. The idea of non-vio lence has existed as long as violence has but over the years, we see the core concepts of non-violence emerge. Whether spoken in 20th century India, preached by an African American pastor, or discussed by elderly scholars, three main tenants of non-violence emerge. The analysis of societal causes of violence, reframing of the mentality used to approach violence, and the civil disobedience of oppressed groups are essentialRead MoreMalcolm X And The Civil Rights Era1852 Words   |  8 Pagessignificant time period of American History, many leaders, particularly Malcolm X, rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era. The mid 1900’s was a time of racial segregation, and discrimination leading to a worldwide issue between the black and white races. â€Å"By any means necessary†, a famous quote breeds from this time of racial discrimination which brought together thousands of people to get what they as humans deserved. 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Afric an Americans in Southern statesRead More The Death Penalty and Race Essay3914 Words   |  16 Pagesthe mechanisms in American society is to observe the contradiction between constitutional equality and equality in practice. Several of these contradictions exist in the realm of racial equality. For example, Black s often get dealt an unfair hand in the criminal justice system. In The Real War on Crime, Steven Donziger explains, There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination