Civil Rights Movement

The Morris article “A Retrospective on the Civil Rights Movement: Political and Intellectual Landmarks”, is an overview of the importance of the Civil Rights movement in our history. Morris points out how important this is because he says that you can see a huge change in history because of the direct doing of the movement. There are a number of elements of this particular social movement that make it different and important from other social movements. One is the use of nonviolent protests that occurred in the Civil Rights Movement. This was a different strategy than most movements that had been seen, and as a result, it had a huge affect on the public. It showed maturity in part of the African Americans fighting for what they believed. It showed they were so serious about their cause that they were willing to try new methods of protest to fight earnestly and persistently. Martin Luther King and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement knew that violent protests before them had failed miserably, and so they knew that a different, unique approach would be in their best interest. Another strategy of the Civil Rights movement was communication technology. As this expanded, so did the social movement. The Civil Rights movement was one of the first large movements to be heavily covered by the media, with recordings and photos. This helped spread the news to people all over the country and worked in favor of the movement. Thirdly, there was much migration of blacks into cities, which made it easier for them to socialize and team up together. Although the pace of the Civil Rights movement seemed slow, these strategies helped to lead them to change in a permanent and effective manner. Each nonviolent protest led to another one, and created a ripple effect.

The Gordon article entitled “Black Males in the Civil Rights Movement” discusses the importance of individuals within movements. For example, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are just two prominent leaders of their movements who were responsible for much of the work that was accomplished within their movements. Gordon says that individuals are important in movements because they provide leadership for the movement and they create a symbol which encourages other leaders in the future. He also says that these leaders are largely responsible for their movements.

I would agree with both of these articles. Examining movements that occur today, you can see how the example of nonviolent successful movements has modeled the behavior for most current movements. There seems to be a lot less violence in movements today, and as a result, I believe people have a lot less tolerance for violence within social movements. It would be extremely offensive in America today, if an extremist group against blacks violently attacked a black community. In the 1960s, this was a common occurrence, but today it would be unthinkable for the majority of citizens.

Leaders are still a prominent component of social movements. Movements need a figure in charge who can be the head of the movement, and the face and voice that represents the movement. I do not think that movements are as effective without one leader who serves as the spokesperson. I think that if the Civil Rights movement did not have MLK, or someone similar in charge, they would not have attained the change that they did because they would not have appeared as organized and serious. It would have been easier for the government to ignore them if they did not have one leader on top, with mature realistic plans of action. Due to the success of the Civil Rights movement, the organization of social movements in our world has been forever changed.