Diane Nash’s raised awareness of the color segregation in the South, specifically Nashville, Tennessee, led to her nonviolent fight for equality. By leading multiple sit-ins and protests, she helped increase awareness of the issue, resulting in the desegregation of Nashville. Even though this journey was not easy and roadblocks were encountered, Diane Nash was a determined, hard-working civil rights advocate whose leadership helped make a difference. Her decision to risk her life for others’ rights was worth the fight and the results that came from it. As she continued the fight throughout her life, she was loyal to what she believed and never fell short of working hard for the battle she fought so deeply. Before the 1960s, segregation was …show more content…
It was going to take a true leader to make a difference in people's lives. Before change was brought to the segregated society, Jim Crow laws were enforced among the citizens. These laws made sure to keep the society split into two groups, with different rules for each. Because of this, she may have learned about nonviolence and peace as a young child. Nash continued her education throughout high school and soon went to College. This included signs that said 'white', 'white only', and colored; signs that gave her a deeper feeling about segregation and would only make her feel more moved to do something about it. This interest and concern led to Nash's first involvement in the movement. From there, it took off and led to much more. Soon after Diane Nash joined the group, she was elected chairperson. This was a big role to fill, especially since the first two people who received this position were males, and Nash was the first female to lead the …show more content…
They greatly thought it was overdue. The movement left a great mark on the history of the United States through its efficiency in non-violence and its mission that turned out great. As more and more cities began participating in their own sit-ins and protests of all kinds, slowly, victory was won at great cost. Cities began desegregating parts of their communities, eventually wiping out much of the segregation. Of course, there was also opposing thoughts about the sit-ins and civil rights movement. There were many whites who preferred a segregated society and felt as if the movement was a violation of their rights as citizens to have segregated facilities. However, protests were still seen and violence and threats were used as a counter attack. From these demonstrations, many were arrested and some were even killed fighting for a better, desegregated society. Nothing came easy without a fight. In efforts towards desegregation, a group of blacks known as the "Freedom Riders" rode on the interstate buses, hoping to change the rules for the buses. After the sit-ins and Freedom Rides, Diane didn't want to stop being
On May 4, 1961, the Freedom Riders left the safety of the integrated, northern city of Washington D.C. to embark on a daring journey throughout the segregated, southern United States (WGBH). This group of integrated white and black citizens rode together on buses through different towns to test the effectiveness of newly designed desegregation laws in bus terminals and areas surrounding them (Garry). Founded by the Congress of Racial Equality (Garry) , or CORE, the first two Freedom Ride buses included thirteen people as well as three journalists to record what would become imperative historical events in the Civil Rights Movement. This group of fifteen people would begin to emerge as an organization that would eventually reach 400 volunteers (WGBH). Those involved were mostly young, college students whose goal it was, as said by the CORE director James Farmer, to “…create a crisis so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law.”
The answer served to the explanation of the establishment of the Jim Crow law, which is segregation in the Southern
fought to make it an issue of individual rights versus government rights. As the movement
Despite this is it important to remember there was still disagreement and tension on what would be the most effective philosophy in driving the movement forward; Armed resistance or Non-violent protest. While Rev. Martin Luther King advocated for non-violent protest and peaceful resistance it is important to remember that participants in the movement were ordinary people.
The punishment of the African American race was harsh; when those punishments were mixed with how they protested for civil rights, it only got worse. Not all the time does one stop and realize that some whites felt the need to help out in some way. Whether they could relate or they just truly had sympathy, these whites helped protest. When someone protests, they express their objection to something. Whether it was more a silent protest or an aggressive protest, punishments to both races were given.
...he South were. This became an international embarrassment, which urged the President to act immediately. In 1958, the Supreme Court declared that separate wasn't equal, and that school were to be desegregated. This is a prime example of how peaceful protest got things done. The kids who tried to go to school were acting very passive and didn't show aggression towards the crowd that threatened them.
A few years after this the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, who used non-violent means such as sit-ins, boycotts, and speeches to obtain equal rights for African-Americans.
The citizens and leaders of the reform movements realized that without action, these movements would be nothing (DOC G). So many of them decided to step out and stand up for their cause. Without these important American leaders, our nation would not have grown into the nation it is today. Through their determination and sacrifice, they made a huge difference in expanding America’s democratic ideals by laying the foundation for religion and education, movements through abolition and temperance acts, expanding beliefs by caring for the insane, and taking a stand for personal rights.
One of the first documented incidents of the sit-ins for the civil rights movement was on February 1, 1960 in Nashville, Tennessee. Four college African-Americans sat at a lunch counter and refused to leave. During this time, blacks were not allowed to sit at certain lunch counters that were reserved for white people. These black students sat at a white lunch counter and refused to leave. This sit-in was a direct challenge to southern tradition. Trained in non-violence, the students refused to fight back and later were arrested by Nashville police. The students were drawn to activist Jim Lossen and his workshops of non-violence. The non-violent workshops were training on how to practice non-violent protests. John Lewis, Angela Butler, and Diane Nash led students to the first lunch counter sit-in. Diane Nash said, "We were scared to death because we didn't know what was going to happen." For two weeks there were no incidences with violence. This all changed on February 27, 1960, when white people started to beat the students. Nashville police did nothing to protect the black students. The students remained true to their training in non-violence and refused to fight back. When the police vans arrived, more than eighty demonstrators were arrested and summarily charged for disorderly conduct. The demonstrators knew they would be arrested. So, they planned that as soon as the first wave of demonstrators was arrested, a second wave of demonstrators would take their place. If and when the second wave of demonstrators were arrested and removed, a third would take their place. The students planned for multiple waves of demonstrators.
The laws known as “Jim Crow” were laws presented to basically establish racial apartheid in the United States. These laws were more than in effect for “for three centuries of a century beginning in the 1800s” according to a Jim Crow Law article on PBS. Many try to say these laws didn’t have that big of an effect on African American lives but in affected almost everything in their daily life from segregation of things: such as schools, parks, restrooms, libraries, bus seatings, and also restaurants. The government got away with this because of the legal theory “separate but equal” but none of the blacks establishments were to the same standards of the whites. Signs that read “Whites Only” and “Colored” were seen at places all arounds cities.
It would be comfortable for me to continue believing that the Civil Rights Movement forced an end of de jure segregation and routine discrimination, ignoring the continuing de facto segregation and injustices faced by African Americans, viewing incidents such as Michael Brown’s shooting as isolated incidents. I could continue to shake my head and say that these events are tragedies, but surely they do not justify nation-wide protests. If there is no systematic pattern of disadvantage and abuse, then I am not morally obliged to take action. In this class it is impossible for me to simply brush off the complaints of groups like Black Lives Matters as overreactions. Like the rest of the nation, I now have to engage in the serious work of examining reality, acknowledging that racism is alive and well in America, and begin actively working to correct
The Greensboro sit-in was the launch of the civil rights movement. The sit-in took place in a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The sit-in movement was started on February 1, 1960 when four African American college students sat at the white’s only counter in a Woolworth’s store and were refused service. Woolworth’s was a diner that allowed everyone in despite their color but they only served whites. After being refused service the students sat patiently while being threatened. This caused a spark of sit-ins that no one has ever done without a serious purpose.
...be enforced. Olds wrote, "The Freedom Riders were an integrated group of highly motivated, well-disciplined, dedicated people" and the Rides were "effective as a demonstrations of strength, a source of leverage for influential coalitions, and a means for focusing public attention on the issue of civil rights" (18). Those involved single-handedly expanded the freedoms of all African-American citizens to travel throughout the United States. During the rides, the civil rights struggle reached a level of intensity that even sit-ins had managed to avoid" but though times were turbulent, the rides were effective, furthering the advancement of the African American people (Arsenault 3).. Through the most violent and fearsome events, the Freedom Riders stood firm to their cause which led them to be one of the most influential and effective parts of the Civil Rights Movement.
Politics had played a large part in the movement’s beginning, and they continued to be...
The main reason why the Greensboro sit-in was born was because of segregation. Segregation is the action of separating someone apart from a group of people based on their racial group. Segregation was supported more with police and the legal systems (Stonaker and Arica). African Americans suffered greatly from segregation because they were black. For Example, they were not allowed to vote. Some of the ways to prevent them from voting are; poll taxes, fees for the voting booth that was way too expensive for blacks to pay. Another obstacle that African Americans had to suffer was literacy tests. In order to vote, they would have to take very hard literacy tests. People did not think that blacks were smart enough to be able to pick the country’s leader. So in return, they had to take test to see if they were smart enough. Because blacks did not get a very good education like whites d...