The Breakdown of Nonviolence: The End of the Southern Freedom Movement

The Movement

The Southern Freedom Movement (referred to more commonly as the African-American Civil Rights Movement) was a battle…

…fought between black people in the southern United States who had been treated as lower human beings for too long (since 1619, when the first African slaves arrived in the early colonies)…

…and their white oppressors who deemed tradition more important than human lives.

From 1955 to 1968, a fight 300 years in the making took place.

On one side, the violent bureaucracy of segregation and hate, enforcing unspoken rules with an iron fist –

Organizations like the White Citizens Council acted as the voice, while all over the South, the Ku Klux Klan acted as a terrorizing fist

Southern white oppressors did not hesitate to use violence to keep things how they wanted them.

And their opponents knew they would use violence…

On the other side were organizations big and small, young and old, bent on liberation…

…like SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee),

…and SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference),

…the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

…and CORE (Congress on Racial Equality).

The groups planned actions meticulously (often working together), spoke up loudly, and stood up to physical and psychological attack for the cause of freedom…

…but the most important factor, gaining recognition and sympathy for the movement, was the practice of nonviolence as a means of political resistance.

Demonstrations of nonviolent political resistance like the Montgomery Bus Boycott…

…the freedom rides…

…sit-ins…

…and freedom summer…

…claimed victories in the movement…

…that showed the rest of the United States and the world…

…the gravity of the injustices being committed.

But as the movement continued…

…tensions between leaders rose.

…and opinions on strategy began to shift.

This is where my argument begins.

I believe the breakdown of nonviolent ideologies and communication led to the end of the Southern Freedom Movement and ushered in

an era of violence, rioting, racism, and pain.

Stokely Charmichael “saw nonviolence as a tactic as opposed to a principle.” (Wiki 1) He would argue that nonviolence has its place and violence has its place. He would say that violence could be used as a tactic, just as nonviolence can be used as a tactic.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z2ndUnKDvkU/TbhRjc99BeI/AAAAAAAAC2s/y15aNERnaK8/s1600/Black%2BViolence.jpg

http://www.terroraddict.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BLACK-PANTHERS1_jpg.jpg

I would recite him of the passage from W Russ Payne’s “King on

Nonviolence”: “The rejection of harm towards others is not merely a

demand for restraint. The practitioner of non-violence goes

farther in rejecting resentment and hatred of her oppressors. Even as a person’s support for unjust laws or

institutions is opposed, their humanity is to be held in the highest

regard.”(Payne 1)King on Nonviolence

http://ih1.redbubble.net/work.864594.2.flat,550x550,075,f.martin-luther-king-jr-nonviolence.jpg

Stokely Charmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, in writing Black Power, divided the struggle of black people with Middle-class white America, stating “This class is the backbone of institutional racism in this country” (Charmichael, Hamilton 2).

http://www.orbitrecords.com/product/Black%20Power389.jpgBlack Power

I would argue that this violent separation helped to end the Southern Freedom movement.

Standing against those who oppress rather than seeing them as brothers, as stated in Satyagraha, clashes with the tenets of

nonviolence.

http://www.soulforce.org/images/sflogo.jpg

The general population may say that the fight is over and there is no need for a continuing movement.

A public opinion

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/GOP-elephant.jpg

To the general population, I would respond by paraphrasing Michelle Alexander’s argument

that the war on drugs is the new slavery, since primarily black men are sentenced in

drug related cases, and these men are forced to work and

make profits for the privately owned prisons that hold them.

Why the system is racisthttp://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/default/files/Jim%20Crow%20book%20cover.jpg

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print.

Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton. "Black Power (1967)." Web. 15 Aug. 2011. <http://wadsworth.com/history_d/special_features/ilrn_legacy/waah2c01c/content/amh2/readings/ah2blackpower.html>.

Payne, W. Russ. "King on Nonviolence." King on Nonviolence. Web. 15 Aug. 2011. <http://personal.bellevuecollege.edu/wpayne/king%20on%20non-violence.htm>.

"Stokely Carmichael." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokely_Carmichael>.

My case: when the nonviolent aspect breaks down in a movement, the integrity of the movement breaks down as well.

A violent stance, to onlookers, advocates a violent response.

To illustrate this, I will assess speeches from leaders throughout the rise and fall of the movement on their commitment to nonviolence to convince readers (and watchers) that, without a nonviolent presence, a movement does not move, and is not a movement at all.

Nonviolence, as it was used in the Southern Freedom Movement, mirrored Ghandi’s Satyagraha, or “soul force”, meaning using truth to…

“…convert, not to coerce, the wrong-doer.”

Advocates of nonviolence in it purist form included Bob Moses, field secretary for SNCC and Martin Luther King, Jr, voice for SCLC.

These men (and others) helped masses of people realize the power they held through nonviolent civil disobedience

“There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all…”

-Martin Luther King, Jr Letter from Birmingham Jail

The idea of breaking unjust laws, laws that broke down the spirits of men, shined throughout the movement…

…and people were protected by the idea of a shared humanity with their oppressors…

…that the people on the other side of the conflict were just that…

…people.

In his I Have a Dream address made at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. addresses the nation

I have a dream

This address explains what MLK, Jr. wants from the movement…

By addressing what he wants, he stays true to Satyagraha, using his voice to fuel the soul-force of his people…

…by sending them a message of nonviolence…

…asking them to overcome their anger in the face of attack…

…solidifying the force standing in front of oppression.

Attacks were made on people within the movement…

…the murder of Emmett Till…

…the murder of Medgar Evers

…the Birmingham 16th Street Church bombing…

…the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner…

…and the various nonsensical violence that often occurred in response to “breaking unjust laws”.

The violence was outrageous to world since…

…the people who were attacked did not fight back.

As conflict continued, support for the movement grew…

…but with growth…

…comes power.

At the Democratic National Convention in 1964, after registering 80,000 black people to vote in the state of Mississippi, 68 delegates of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party sought to remove the all-white Democratic representatives who cheated the vote to get there.

In response, the Democratic party chose to seat only two of the delegates, in at-large seats, powerless.

Members of SNCC saw this as a defeat…

…and a breakdown in rapport and ideology between SNCC and SCLC occurred.

James Forman speaks on the Alabama Governor George Wallace’s refusal to let them “sit at the table”…

A little louder now...

As you can see, his tone is not one reminiscent of brotherhood…

…but angry and demanding.

This anger led SNCC to evolve into something new…

…something more demanding…

Black power.

Stokely speaks...

Having no longer a tone of brotherhood and understanding, the movement, as we knew it shifted gears…

…into park.

In 1966, Stokely Carmichael urged his people to take up arms against the Ku Klux Klan…

… and Bobby Seale and Huey Newton formed the Black Panthers, with Malcolm X as a great influence (by any means necessary…).

After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr in 1968, riots broke out in cities all over the United States.

“White America killed Dr. King last night. She made a whole lot easier for a whole lot of black people today. There no longer needs to be intellectual discussions, black people know that they have to get guns. White America will live to cry that she killed Dr. King last night. It would have been better if she had killed Rap Brown and/or Stokley Carmichael, but when she killed Dr. King, she lost.”

-Stokely Carmichael

As nonviolence broke down, so did the effectiveness of the movement.

Laws stopped being passed…

…and instead, violence again reigned supreme, as it did before the movement began.

"African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955-1968)>.

"Congress of Racial Equality." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Racial_Equality>.

"Diane Nash." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Nash>.

"James Forman." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forman>.

"Letter from Birmingham Jail." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail>.

"Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers_murders>.

"National Association for the Advancement of Colored People." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_for_the_Advancement_of_Colored_People>.

"Satyagraha." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha>.

"Slavery in the United States." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States>.

"Southern Christian Leadership Conference." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Christian_Leadership_Conference>.

"Stokely Carmichael." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokely_Carmichael>.

"Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Aug. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee>.