The boycott bought 85% of the black community in Montgomery together and led to the establishment of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) by King which continued to campaign for desegregation. The campaign continued with full vigour until the Supreme Court case of Browder vs. Gayle which occurred during the same time outlawed segregation on buses in Montgomery. This demonstrates the importance of peaceful protest, as without this campaign occurring in the first place it would not have led to the court case that bought about change; so there is evidence to suggest peaceful protests played a vital role in encouraging others to bring about change.
How far was peaceful protest responsible for the successes of the Civil Rights Movement in the years 1955-64? There were many occasions during the civil rights movement when peaceful protest played a major role in bringing change and often desegregation. For instance, the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 aimed to achieve desegregation of public places. They not only succeeded, but managed to gain masses of support from others for the civil rights movement and even spread to other areas of public living in America. This was very significant in the civil rights movement, as it showed the amount of growing support and the changing attitudes towards desegregation.
These organizations were actually peaceful and nonviolent organization protesting racial inequality. Their nonviolent and peaceful approaches were the strategies that they used during the Civil Right Movement. The NAACP’s legal victories were the most successful in overturning the South’s systems of Jim Crow Laws, but the SCLC and SNCC received more media recognition. Martin Luther King Jr’s, (founder of SCLC) , goal was to coordinate peaceful protests in response to the Jim Crow Laws and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that had taken place in 1955. He had hoped that he could gather a momentum that would extend the support of black churches because black churches played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Martin Luther King was one of the most influential figures in the civil rights movement in the years 1955-68. He gave many speeches and conducted/participated in many peaceful campaigns in the south fighting for equal rights for African Americans. The peaceful protest method used was adopted from Ghandi, who used these peaceful methods to gain India’s independence from British rule in 1947. Firstly looking at the peaceful campaigns conducted in the period 1955-68, and their effectiveness on the civil rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 showed that peaceful protests could be effective.
Furthermore, the NAACP supported the case against Milam and Bryant in 1955 for the lynching of 14-year old Emmett Till, the NAACP helped by protecting his uncle Moses Wright. This allowed Mose Wright to give his testimony, drawing media attention in the blatant racism in the Deep South. The NAACP was also responsible for the success of the Civil Rights Campaign through peaceful protests, for example they organised the Montgomery Bus Boycott which led to the desegregation of buses in Alabama in the Bowler v. Gayle case. The Role of Individuals was another factor contributing to the success of the Civil Rights Campaign during 1945-57. Rosa Parks helped as she started the bus boycott of Montgomery by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
How Far Was Peaceful Protest Responsible for the Success of the Civil Rights Movement in the Years 1955-1964? From 1955 to 1964 the civil rights movement organised a series of campaigns addressing transport, education, voting and the segregation of public places. These campaigns included the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, the little rock campaign of 1957, the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 and the Birmingham campaign of 1963. Many campaigns during this time period highlighted that peaceful protest was an effective way of achieving change and bringing in extra white support to push through legal battles. One such protest was the Montgomery Bus Boycott that occurred from 1955-56.
The federal government were successful to a large extent in advancing civil rights in the period 1955 – 1968 for a number of reasons. Within this period, the USA had three presidents, each passing or initiating civil rights legislation to advance civil rights for African Americans. Legislation and the attitudes of congress and the Supreme Court had a large influence on the advancement of civil rights, however, it could be said that legislation was happening too slowly to make progress, and many groups within the federal and state governments opposed the advancement of civil rights. Legislation played a large role in the advancement of civil rights between 1955 and 1968, as it effectively ended legal segregation and begun the final destruction of segregation in the USA. Acts passed by Eisenhower and Johnson had a big impact on the advancement of civil rights, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending all segregation of all public places and facilities, and the voting rights act of 1965 outlawing all measures to prevent American citizens from voting.
This phrase, and indeed, his whole letter, instigated the continuation of King’s and his supporter’s direct action campaigns. King’s defence displayed his belief that non-violent direct action was incredibly important, as any other approach, specifically the attack of Black people within America, was evil, King wrote, ‘‘[non-violent direct action is] a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love’’.3 Without the use of violence, King and many others, comprising mainly of Black children and teenagers went ahead with the protest march on the
This event was very crucial in civil rights history because when the guard was called in, it was the first time that the federal government was used to protect African Americans. This government assistance showed the activists that there was someone watching out for them-. Finally in 1955, the mother of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation is unconstitutional. The ruling in this case reinforced the reactions from the Brown vs.
King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. He then became the official spokesman for the boycott. -November 13, 1956: The Supreme Court ruled that bus segreagation was illegal. -1957: Martin Luther King Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to fight segregation and achieve civil rights. -1958: Martin's first book, "Stride Toward Freedom", was published.