Non-violent Opposition to the Civil Rights Movement

Non-violent Opposition to the Civil Rights Movement

            The civil rights movement (CRM) in the United States of America is a movement that spearheaded the end of racial discrimination and segregation and the disenfranchisement of African Americans. The crusade began in the 19^th century during the Reconstruction era to eradicate slavery and racial oppression, a cause that African slaves had been fighting for centuries. The movement’s leaders advocated for non-violent protests, eventually gaining public sympathy and new legal protections from the federal government that protected the fundamental human rights of all American citizens, including the African-American population. Despite the use of non-violent protests, the CRM faced both violent and non-violent opposition from some Americans who wanted to maintain the status quo. This essay will discuss the non-violent protests against the Civil Rights Movement.

One of the significant opposition to the CRM was Jim Crow’s laws. After the Civil War ended in America and slavery was abolished, the constitution of the United States was amended, granting Black Americans emancipation and citizenship, most of whom had been previously enslaved. Under the reconstruction Amendments, they were allowed to vote and hold political offices, gains that were undermined by the Jim Crow laws. The laws prohibited Blacks and whites from accessing the same public amenities, living in the same towns, attending the same schools, or even intermarrying. Moreover, the laws barred African Americans from voting as they were unable to pass the literacy tests administered to voters. The Jim Crow laws were strengthened by the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson that legitimized segregation by terming facilities for whites and blacks “separate but equal.” In this way, racist American lawmakers used federal laws to undermine the fight for equality of all Americans.

The CRM also faced massive resistance in its quest. Massive resistance is a policy that was implemented by the state government of Virginia in 1956 to prevent the desegregation of public institutions of learning. Senator Harry F. Byrd adopted the system in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v Board of Education that outlawed racial segregation in all public schools. The Court found that discrimination in institutions of learning violated the 14^th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, as it essentially resulted in inequalities. Although outlawing segregation, the ruling failed to outline how quickly desegregation was to be implemented, leaving it to the discretion of governors, senators, federal and state officials who used all legal and political means to oppose integration. The leaders of the massive resistance formulated a law that denied funding and closed public schools that tried to desegregate. They also and gave tuition grants to students who fought against the integration of learning institutions. The resistance made it difficult for Blacks, especially in the state of Virginia, to access quality education, although the ruling in Brown v Board of Education was finally enforced.

Massive resistance paved the way for token integration, a system that allowed the nominal integration of a school by admitting a few Black students in predominantly white schools. The system, also known as the Perrow plan, was adopted after the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned the law that closed schools that tried to integrate. They created a board for the placement of pupils that assigned specific learners to particular schools, keeping integration to a minimum. Although the plan seemed to advance the quest for equality among the races, it blurred the lines between equality and discrimination, presenting legal challenges for the CRM. Eventually, the situation was rectified by the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts.

Despite the enormous strides made by the CRM, African-Americans continually faced prejudice on a daily basis. In 1960, four college students from North Carolina staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s store. The students sat at the counter and refused to leave unless they had been served. By the time the sit-in occurred, segregation had already been outlawed, but most eating places still discriminated against African-Americans. The subsequent days saw more people participating in the sit-in, leading to arrests and charges of trespassing. The arrests to intimidate blacks from fighting for their rights sparked widespread boycotts of lunch counters that were segregated until the owners gave in and served the four students at the Woolworths counter where the Greensboro sit-ins originated.

Opposers of the Civil Rights Movement also used propaganda to stifle the movement’s progress. In Jackson, Mississippi, the CRM, headed by I. S. Sanders, had enforced economic boycotts of businesses in downtown Jackson where most blacks lived. The mayor, Allen C. Thompson, retaliated through the use of media to propagate propaganda that African-Americans in Jackson were satisfied with the status quo as they were treated with respect, courtesy, and dignity. He was blind to the social inequity, intimidation, and violence that blacks faced and instead made it clear that he would not submit to the demands of the CRM. He intimidated protestors and picketers by arresting them, until the 1963 Watson et al. v Memphis et al. ruling that allowed the desegregation of playgrounds and parks, which the Blacks in Mississippi had been fighting for.

The CRM heralded a new dawn of social, economic, and political parity between blacks and whites in America, ending segregation, discriminatory housing, and employment practices, and the suppression of black voters. The movement faced violent opposition through assassinations, murders, and lynching of participants and non-violent protests through intimidation, oppressive laws, and propaganda. Despite the insurmountable challenges, brave activists for civil rights and protestors sacrificed themselves to address flaws in American society that eventually saw the implementation of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Act that restored equality to all American citizens.