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The Civil Rights Movement: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

539 Words3 Pages

In the 1960s, the issue of civil rights plagued the United States. The main purpose and goal of this movement was to help the cause of African Americans. These people were discriminated against, causing many of them to live in poverty and suffer from poor economic conditions. As segregation was still widespread, many African American people could not get well-paying jobs and their finances suffered because of this. Many Civil Rights leaders attempted to turn these tough econmic times around. Two separate schools of thought came from the civil rights movement; nonviolence and black nationalism. The former, mainly lead by Martin Luther King Jr., sought cooperation between African Americans and their white counterparts for progress. The Latter, …show more content…

This movement was lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is the main reason for the progress of the civil rights movement. Unlike the black nationalist group, detailed in Passage #2, nonviolence was popular among activists. Many leading figures of the fight for civil rights were a part of this. It was so prevalent as it was safe. While the black nationalist movement wanted uprisal and revolt, the nonviolent resistors simply wanted everyone to get along and become equal through peaceful means. This called for African Americans to work with white Americans in order to create social change. The cooperation would be limited however, as nonviolent resistors would only work with whites who were willing to, in turn, help African Americans. This included boycotts, something that the black nationalist movement was against. In Passage #2, it states, "Create employment for the people of our community so that they won't have to constantly be involved in picketing and boycotting" suggesting that the black nationalist movement does not believe in boycotting whatsoever. Thus, this is completely different from the nationalist group as it is about passive resistance and not violent

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