Boycotts:
![Picture](/uploads/5/0/4/3/50430597/2623262.png?250)
Boycotts were peaceful protests towards organizations in which people refused to buy or use certain goods or services. Dryades Street was filled with white store owners and black customers. During the New Orleans Dryades Street boycott, citizens left the entire street of stores empty on Good Friday, which was generally a high income weekend for owners of stores there. Rather, people chose to picket, holding signs demanding stores to hire blacks for jobs other than menial service. New Orleans citizens joined forces with local college students to stop business on Dryades Street for months. Eventually, many businesses were forced to shut down due to a severe lack of income. This means boycotts were successful because affected business owners that were against integration. Boycotts forced discriminators to think about the positives of integration.
Sit-ins:
![Picture](/uploads/5/0/4/3/50430597/6543921.jpg?370)
Sit-ins were a type of peaceful protesting in which people sat down in public places and refused to move until they were served what they had asked. This process caused many businesses to lose customers. One example of a sit-in occurred in St. Augustine, Florida. In June of 1964, black and white protesters alike joined forces and jumped into a whites only swimming pool at the Monson Motor Lodge. When he saw this, the owner of the hotel poured acid into the pool. The protesters were arrested, but the results of this sit-in were one of the reasons the Civil Rights Act to be passed the following day. This sit-in was obviously a success because it changed legislation and laws concerning segregation. J.T. Johnson, one of the protesters of the day said, "That had not happened before in this country, that some man is pouring acid on people in the swimming pool. I'm not so sure the Civil Rights Act would have been passed had [there] not been a St. Augustine. It was a milestone. We was young, and we thought we'd done something — and we had."
Civil Disobedience:
Civil disobedience was a peaceful protest in which people refused to obey a law that was unjust in the eyes of the protester. This process did not involve any sort of violence on the part of the protestors. The Freedom Riders were one example of this type of protest. In 1961, 13 activists began a huge challenge to segregation in the south. They rode busses from the north to the south in an attempt to raise awareness of segregation through sitting at the all-white or all-black lunch counters or bathrooms, using the opposite of the protesters' given race. By doing these things, others took notice. They supported the people who were having violence being done to them. In this way, the anti-segregationists gained followers in their movement. Adding to the amount of followers the integrationists had was a success of this form of protest. The entire movement gained popularity because of civil disobedience.
|
Marches:
![Picture](/uploads/5/0/4/3/50430597/1705596.png?355)
Marches were a popular form of nonviolent protest. Large group of people joined together to march and promote awareness of the injustices blacks were facing. One such march occurred in Marquette Park, an area in Chicago's Southside. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march against segregated housing in the area. Roughly 700 people joined in the march, while thousands of whites taunted and threw things at the protesters. King was among the thirty people injured in this march. The picture to the left shows King being protected after being hit by a rock thrown by a white tormenter of the group. "I have seen many demonstrations in the South, but I have never seen anything so hostile and hateful as I’ve seen here today," King later said about the march in Chicago. However negative these marches seemed while they were in progress, people that hadn't before, took notice. They supported the protesters against the violence being performed against them. This added the amount of followers involved in the Civil Rights Movement, which makes marches a successful form of protest.
Violent, Militant Groups:
![Picture](/uploads/5/0/4/3/50430597/5164891.jpg?242)
Certain groups of people chose to respond to the injustices blacks faced with violent reactions. In these situations, black nationalists and persons promoting "black power" took up arms in pursuit of equal treatment for blacks and whites. The Columbia Avenue Riots is a prime example of one of these situations. In 1964, people of Philadelphia took violent measures against police officers on the corner of Columbia Avenue and 22nd Street. Bricks and other debris were thrown at policemen in attempts to receive attention towards rumors of a white policeman beating a pregnant black woman to death. This one riot was the cause of the ensuing riots of the days to come. the following riots consisted of many businesses being looted and partially destroyed. Overall, these riots was successful because it got the attention of city leaders who proceeded to place an emphasis in the city on law and order for both black and white residents. The president also got involved and national attention was paid on cities where riots existed.
Overall:
I believe the sit-ins were the most effective forms of protest. Anyone could do them and the people involved did not have to travel far to be able to participate. There were opportunities for sit-ins all over every town.
Information from:
Ms. Digmann's PowerPoint
http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/new-orleans-citizens-boycott-us-civil-rights-1960-61
http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321380585/remembering-a-civil-rights-swim-in-it-was-a-milestone
Images from Google Images:
"Dryades Street Boycott", "Chicago March 1966", "Freedom Riders 1960s", "St. Augustine Pool Sit-in", "Columbia Avenue Riots 1964"