Protest Movements essays

Protest Movements essays Inequality based on race and class appears to be elements of capitalist democracy common to American society throughout its history. Various womens 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 and black leaders like Malcolm X promoted any means necessary to bring about justice and equality for African Americans, even if it meant 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 Gandhis passive resistance that had h elped free India from British rule. In Why We Cant Wait, Martin Luther King Jr. 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. 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. 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. In contrast to Kings peaceful methods of protest, others like Ma...