Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of nonviolent Civil Rights movements, once proclaimed, “...non-violent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding...The aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness” (MLK Jr. Doc 11). The Civil Rights Movement began as a nonviolent movement in order to integrate white and black Americans to create an equal nation. In 1870, The Fifteenth Amendment was published and stated that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” and that, “The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation” (Doc 1). During the 1950’s black Americans decided to act upon their frustration that whites were …show more content…
Additionally, black men had to suffer the draft of World War II and other consequences of full citizenship while not having access to any of the socio-political benefits, and were still treated as second-class citizens when they returned. They had fought to serve their country alongside others, and were treated no better for it. Black soldiers got a taste of what life is like when treated as an equal, and so this absence of freedom, that they met when they returned home, drove them to fight for their rights, causing the Civil Rights Movement, a grapple for justice, to experience the four stages of protest: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline. The Civil Rights Movement emerged when African Americans began to combat the abuse and mistreatment of American society simply because of their race, and it declined because certain factions of the movement became impatient, and moved from non-violent resistance to violent