Civil Rights DBQ

By: Ariel Van Kleef

Violence or nonviolence? A question that was asked on how to
approach the treatment of inequality during the Civil Rights Era. While
groups such as the SNCC and the Black Panthers tried to prove which
way was better to guide peoples actions I say that the philosophy of
non-violence guided peoples actions during the civil rights movement.
This was done through the use of non-violence being used in marches
like the March on Washington as a way of protest against inequality,
through the promotion of non-violence by the SNCC and Martin Luther
King Jr., and because of the principal of non-violence it helped the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 to get passed.
First, people used non-violence as a way of protest to help gain
equality of rights. This was done by boycotts, sit ins, and freedom rides
such as the Freedom Ride in 1961. Another way that non-violence was
used to guide people in protest was marches like the March on
Washington. The March on Washington was on August 28, 1963 and
Document 4 says, The Match.was primarily organized by Martin
Luther King, Jr. (MLK)SNCC... CORE. and ...demonstrated support
for the passage of civil rights legislation, the elimination of racial
segregation This shows that Martin Luther King Jr. and the other
non-violent organizations (SNCC and CORE) started this march for the
purpose of passing legislations and for segregation to be gone
peacefully. It was known that the March on Washington was peaceful
march that because of it influenced many people to take action as they
used the March of Washington as a guide to be non-violent during their
protests.
Secondly, non-violence started to gain its popularity as a major
philosophy for civil rights by the promotion of it by Martin Luther King
Jr. and the formation of the group SNCC. In Document 9 Ella Baker talks
about the SNCC, a very non-violent civil rights organization, founding
statement, "We affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of
nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose, the presupposition of
our belief, and the manner of our action. Baker also goes on saying
that non-violence represents the crucial first step towards such a
society. The society Baker is talking about the racial society where
many is for segregation and many against it. Overall, Baker is saying
that the reason of SNCCs founding it to promote the use of nonviolence as the action of course people should take to protest against

inequality. Another example is from Document 11 where Martin Luther

King Jr. says that their are, "Five points can be made concerning
nonviolence as a method in bringing about better racial conditions.
Martin lists these conditions as saying that non-violence is
not cowardly and that the aftermath of non-violence blooms a better
community that understands eat side better. Martin also makes sure
doing this letter of speech that violence is not the answer as he
says, ...violence solves no social problems; it merely creates new and
more complicated ones Martin aimed this towards Malcolm X that
promoted that it is ok to use violence to get what they want (equality)
and that non-violence is no good. According to 14b Malcolm says, "The
time has come for the American Negro to fight backThis tells us that
Malcolm believed that violence, fighting back, was the answer and
because of this Martin Luther wanted the American people to have
non-violence guide their actions not violence.
Thirdly, the principal of non-violence helped the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and many other legislations to get passed. You see before the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 as passed there was the 15th Amendment.
According to Document 1 the 15th Amendment was "The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied...by the United
States or.State on account of race, color This ruling however was
not entirely enforced. Especially in the South many states and local
people and authority forbid any black men to vote and even forced
blacks not to. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 according to Document 6
says that, ...All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal
enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and
privileges which meant that black men had the right to vote and
that, .any person...intended to deny the full exercise of the rights
herein described, the Attorney General may bring a civil
action which meant that the Government is finally enforcing the
15th Amendment and that if any person went against it you will be
tried. This helped as if you look at Document 7 the graph of voter
turnout skyrocketed for blacks in between the 1960s and 1970s and
continued to increase later. This shows that after the Civil Rights Act of
1964 that equality of blacks increased and through the use
of nonviolence helped made the 1964 act possible. If you look back at
Document 4, the March on Washington helped support passages of civil
rights legislations. One of the major reasons for the March on
Washington was to peacefully help support the Civil Rights Act of 1964
and President Kennedy who was trying to pass the bill.

In conclusion, the philosophy of non-violence helped guided people

through the civil rights movement as many people used it to protest
with many different methods of protesting. Also, through their efforts
of peaceful protests many legislations were influenced to pass such as
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and with major leader/icon Martin Luther
King Jr. to lead America to the future of equality by method of nonviolence, this philosophy helped guide many people.