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Non Violent Protest

Non Violent Protest. Sit-ins and Freedom Rides. Aim:. Examine how successful non-violent protests were in helping Black Americans achieve their civil rights. Pressure For More Change. During the early 1960s the pressure for Civil Rights continued to grow.

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Non Violent Protest

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  1. Non Violent Protest Sit-ins and Freedom Rides

  2. Aim: • Examine how successful non-violent protests were in helping Black Americans achieve their civil rights.

  3. Pressure For More Change • During the early 1960s the pressure for Civil Rights continued to grow. • Although segregation in schools and on buses had been outlawed, there had been few moves in the South to end discrimination and segregation. • The actions of Black and White students played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement.

  4. Pressure For More Change Four events in the early 1960s eventually forced the President John F Kennedy and the US Government to pass a new Civil Rights Law. • The sit-in campaigns • The Freedom Rides • The protests in Birmingham, Alabama • The March on Washington

  5. The Sit In Campaign • A sit in was a type of protest which challenged racial segregation. • This type of protest is called civil disobedience. • This means that you are breaking the law in order to change the law.

  6. Greensboro, North Carolina • On 1st February, 1960, four students ordered foods and drink at a Whites-only lunch counter. • The students were told to move but they refused. • The following day they returned with 80 more Black and White protesters. • The students ‘sat in’ all day despite insults and attacks.

  7. Protest Spreads • During a sit in protesters would intentionally sit in a segregated restaurant/café. • Peaceful protesters were insulted, beaten and dragged off to jail – all of this was watched by TV viewers across the USA. • Jails filled up the courts could not cope with the huge number of Black and White students breaking the law. • By 1960 70,000 protesters had taken part in sit ins.

  8. Sit Ins During the 1960s

  9. The Formation of the SNCC • Martin Luther King realised that Black (and white) students could play an important part in the civil rights campaign. • Black and white students who wanted to campaign for civil rights were invited to form the Students Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC). • Young Black people realised that they could make a different to Civil Rights. • The sit ins also became national news and forced many Whites to take notice of the ‘race issue’.

  10. Tasks Read page 76 of the your workguide. • Complete Activities 1-5 on page 77 of your workguide. • What happened to peaceful protesters who took part in sit ins? • In what ways did the sit-ins create problems for the police and courts? • How successful was the sit-in tactic?

  11. The Freedom Ride, 1961 • This was another method of non violent protest organised by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). • CORE was founded in 1942. Its aim was to fight discrimination against Black people using non-violent direct action. • In 1960 a Supreme Court decision had banned segregation in public areas such as rest rooms, waiting rooms and restaurants for travellers using buses that went from one state to another (interstate travel). • CORE wanted to see if such segregation had ended.

  12. The Freedom Ride, 1961 • In May 1961, 13 members of CORE rode from Washington to New Orleans in Mississippi. • The plan was that Black students would try to use ‘Whites only’ wash rooms at stopping points along the route. • The students became known as ‘Freedom Riders’ and the bus journeys were called ‘Freedom Rides’.

  13. Racist Violence • The Freedom Riders were met with heavy resistance from Southern whites. • When the buses arrived in Anniston, Alabama, the Klan were waiting for them. • The two ‘Freedom’ buses were stopped and burned. Passengers who tried to get off were beaten. • The students then travelled to Birmingham, Alabama and got on another interstate bus. • The bus was again stopped, eight white men boarded the bus and the students were beaten with sticks and chains. • Martin Luther King was worried about the safety of the students and tried to get them to stop.

  14. Racist Violence

  15. Federal Action • President Kennedy was concerned about the ‘Freedom Rides’ • He sent one of his advisers to the South and he was beaten unconscious. The FBI was sent in to investigate the violence and US laws officers to protect the students. • Martin Luther King once again attempted to get the students to stop, but they refused. • Both CORE and the SNCC agreed to continue the bus rides.

  16. How Important Were the Freedom Rides? • The Freedom Rides created national publicity and increased pressure on the government to tackle the discrimination in the South. • In late 1961, the US government ordered the end of segregation in airports, rail and bus stations. • Many were appalled by the violence against the protestors and public sympathy for civil rights increased.

  17. Tasks Read page 78 of the your workguide. • Complete Activities 1-3 on page 79 of your workguide. • Now complete Activities 1-2 at the bottom of page 79 in your workguide.

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