An Analysis of The Strategy of Peaceful Protests in The Civil Rights Movement

Over the course of the civil rights movement many great leaders arose and employed many different strategies to get their rights. They used the power of song. Over time everyone in the movement knew that peaceful protesters would be beaten or even killed in many of the states. They found that this could be used to make a powerful statement that could show America how deep and wide spread the racism was. As leaders organised protests they made sure the press was aware and the protesters knew what they were getting into, before some protests the protesters would sign their wills knowing that there was a good chance that they could be killed.

The reason peaceful protest was so powerful at the time was because it showed everyone in America the kind manner in which the blacks demanded their rights and showed the animalistic way whites brutalised them. It made many question morals and motives of those same people as they would later try to justify their actions. Anyone else who had any morals at all, seeing the videos or pictures would at least feel some empathy for those beaten. It wore down the barrier of generations of racism that had formed in the minds of all from the beginning of their lives.

At the time those against civil rights tried to portray the supporters as unreasonable, unruley, and generally undeserving of rights. Video and pictures of peaceful, reasonable people being treated revealed the clear hypocrisy of their aggressors and discredits them and their arguments. In that time the media was composed of whites and was racist, stories that came out would be fogged or twisted to make the aggressors seem in the right or at least not as bad.

Whether they knew it or not the leaders of the movement were creating historic events that would be studied long after. Those to come would look back on the events and form opinions of the legitimacy of each side and events like the peaceful protests shine light through muddled propaganda and twisted stories to reveal truth. Those protests force those looking back to see the extent of the racism and brutality. No matter what else anyone did in the movement, there would always be undeniable proof that peace was attempted, that they could be calm, and that the oppression, the racism, and the beatings could never be justified. In that respect utilizing the turning of peaceful protests was the most powerful strategy used in the civil rights movement.

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