Civil Rights: Pickets and Sit-ins Essay

In the book March Book One the people of Nashville chose to stage the sit-ins to protest the segregation between blacks and whites. They chose to sit and wait to be serve and they wouldn’t leave until they were served. They had to learn how to protest without violence and spend many hours practicing by humiliating each other and learning how to protect themselves when attacked.

The civil rights movement was the time in America in which African Americans and other minorities fought for equal rights. During this movement, many people dedicated their lives to end segregation and discrimination in order for America to be like it is today. Through

Civil Rights Movement in the United States, was a political, legal, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for African Americans and to achieve racial equality. The civil rights movement was a challenge to segregation, the system of laws and customs separating blacks and whites.

The Civil Rights Movement of the United States in the 1950’s and 1960’s, was to end discrimination and racial segregation against African Americans. The African Americans wanted protection of their citizenships by the federal government. Evidence illustrates to us through source 1 of male and female ‘niggas’ holding signs stating “WE DEMAND EQUAL RIGHTS NOW!”.

They were arrested and found guilty in three different court appearances. In the Wichita and Oklahoma City Sit some sat in at a lunch counter and some sat in at a drug store called Dockum Drugs. Sit ins left some of the Freedom Riders severely injured one Rider Jim Peck left the hospital with 53 stitches. The White people who weren’t associated with the Freedom Riders hated their actions and beat them until they were almost dead. Jim Peck was extremely lucky to get out alive. Just because they were beat up, wounded, and tattered they didn’t give up because it meant so much to them to become equal. Sit ins were extremely successful in a way where they caused widespread diffusion of integrating public places. Some sit INS were so dramatic every place around them got rid of segregation. The Nashville and Greensboro sit ins launched a wave of anti segregation sit ins across the South and opened a national awareness of segregation. After most sit ins the place became integrated. Sit ins were very successful in integrating the south.

On February 7th, 1960, a week after the Greensboro sit-ins, The Nashville Student Movement had begun their first real sit-in. The objective of these sit-ins was to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Nashville. Book 1 goes into detail about the preparation for these sit-ins. Months before this

In the first presentation, I noticed an event called the Greensboro Sit-ins. This was a single event that sparked a nationwide movement and flood of support for the civil rights movement and the issue of business owners withholding service from those who were not white. On February 1st, 1960, 4 students of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at a whites-only lunch table, requested service, and were then denied and asked to leave. When they left, they went to tell campus leaders what had happened and as a result gained people that wanted to participate in the sit-in. It is said that “the next morning twenty-nine neatly dressed male and female [NCATSU] students sat at the Woolworth’s lunch counter,” the same counter where those first four students sat (NorthCarolinaHistory.org). After this happened, protests occurred each week and hundreds of students were showing up at Woolworth’s. Following this, more and more students from around the US were staging sit ins at segregated lunch counters as a form of non-violent protest against discrimination.

February 1st, 1960; the Greensboro Sit Ins; Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. “Segregated conditions were as characteristic of Greensboro, however, as they were of cities with reputations for racial violence and intimidation.” The Greensboro Sit Ins made a huge impact not only in North Carolina, but along the Southeast states; thirteen states and fifty five different cities. This was where a group of four black male freshmen college students at A&T State University who

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) used a form of protest by union workers called sit-ins. After it was successful with CORE 4 African Americans Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr, David Richmond and Franklin McCain suggested a sit in Woolworth department store. They were afraid, but they did it. They entered and bought supplied, then sat at the lunch counter and ordered coffee. The people there wouldn’t service them, but serviced them on the other counter. The four stayed until they closed and said they would do that every day until they were serviced. They left the Woolworth exited and persuaded by what they did. This convinced more and more African American to sit-in and wait until they were serviced. The NAACP and SClC were nervous about the sit-in campaign.

The Greensbro sit-ins first started on February 1st, 1960. Four black college freshman in Greensbro, North Carolina, visited a white-only Woolsworth's lunch counter where they demanded service. The black waitress refused to serve them, remarking that "fellows like you make our race look bad,". Regardless of this, the four men stayed seated. They returned the next day with nineteen classmates, and the day after that with eighty-five. By the end of the week there were over one-thousand black students attending the sit-in. The Sit-in movement began to spread throughout the South, though this time not just at lunch counters. The transportation industry, restaurants, and even voter registration were all recipients of this movement. The goal was

Another popular form of protest were sit ins, which were where these colored people would go into segregated area

One of the sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee caught the attention of many. The students involved were beaten but refused to fight back. But 81 demonstrators were arrested anyways for disorderly conduct. This arrest caught lots of attention from many people. One of the student leaders, Diane Nash, led 3,000 protesters in the one of the first major marches in this time period. She led this to challenge mayor, Ben West., to take a stand at the segregation that was going on. They accomplished what they wanted because they caught the attention they needed.

The civil rights movement in the United States was the start of a political and social conflict for African-Americans in the United States to gain their full rights in the country, and to have the same equality as white Americans. The civil rights movement was a challenge to segregation, the laws and ordinances that separated blacks and whites. This movement had the goal to end racial segregation against the black Americans of the United States.

The popularity of sit-ins can be reflected in the involvement of the N.A.A.C.P. (The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People). An article published by the New York Times talks about planned demonstrations that will occur in New York City which will be headed by the N.A.A.C.P (Robinson 54). This example shows how large the movement had become by summer 1961 because a nationally recognized organization was already actively involved in demonstrating. Another article, printed in late 1961, reports that the national director of the Congress of Racial Equality would begin planned sit-ins nation wide, with a focus in the South and the Midwest (“Negroes to Broaden” 18). This again proves how effective sit-ins were because a nationally recognized organization was taking the movement and organizing a nation wide effort to end discrimination.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 50's and 60's was arguably one of the most formative and influential periods in American history. Hundreds of thousands of civil rights activists utilized non violent resistance and civil disobedience to revolt against racial segregation and discrimination. The Civil Rights Movement began in the southern states but quickly rose to national prominence. It is of popular belief that the civil rights movement was organized by small groups of people, with notable leaders like—Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and even John F. Kennedy—driving the ship. That is partly correct. The Civil Rights Movement, in its truest form, was hundreds of thousands of people organizing events and protests,