The NAACP where at first one of the most popular and largest groups, supported by afro-Americans all over America, founded in 1910 by a group of black and white intellectuals the NAACP fought for racial equality. Over the years the NAACP managed to bring change throughout America but by the early 1960s afro-Americans wanted change to come more quickly. Many of the leaders of the NAACP argued in how would be the best way to achieve change quicker. Martin Luther king was a pacifist Christian who believed that although change was slow , it was coming , so black people should be patient, he and the rest of the NAACP believed in non-violent resistance which was that Afro-Americans should not fight back , using violence even if violence was being used on them, but this was not the views of all the leaders, Robert Williams of the Monroe chapter believed in armed self reliance , this mint that black people had the right to fight back if they where being attacked , he did not believe in violence but he said that it was human nature and a basic human right to be able to defend themselves if they where being attack ed , he felt it was unfair that white supremacist could drive through black communities, shooting off guns, beating people up and threatening them with violence while black people where told to sit there and do nothing. Though Robert Williams did not oppose Martin Luther king, he argued that When African-Americans were protesting or sitting in lunch counters to provoke an reaction they could expect to receive harsh physical treatment , but what about when they are walking down the street or in bed while crosses burned their front yard ? Although these arguments may have seemed true they were to extreme for the NAACP who had a strict non-violence regulation because of this Williams was removed from his post as Monroe NAACP president.
The SNCC (STUDENT NON-VIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE) was formed to give younger black people a voice in the civil rights movement. They organized sit-ins and freedom rides with MLK as one of its leaders, 3 people out of the SNCC had died following attacks from the KKK at there non-violent protesting. As a younger generation the SNCC tired of having to “ignore” racist attacks on them, it was then that they moved away from MLK‘s non-violent resistance beliefs. Stokely Carmichael took over as leader of the group and popularized the term “Black power” this meant strengthening the self esteem of black people and educating them. The SNCC had emerged from the non-violent resistance and support from MLK and became increasingly militant; the many black urban youth felt that MLK was to out of touch with the reality and relied too much on the white government. Black power was aimed that the poorer and less educated black people who wanted to help themselves, and also young black youths
As more and more people started to pull away from these popular civil rights groups , they started to form there own little groups, as a way of achieving civil rights in the way that they thought would be necessary, for most of the groups this meant fighting back with violence. The Black panthers was one of theses type of organizations founded by Hue P. Newton and Bobby Seale, they argued that MLK was an “uncle Sam” and was only accepted because he was that black middle class liberal educated black man who white people considered acceptable, but what about the poor African Americans that had been denied the right to education? They believed that MLK pandered to white people and that because he had not experienced the harsh racism as many people at the time so he couldn’t understand the need for black people to want to turn violent. The panthers where often involved in riots with the police because of their no nonsense approach to the Caucasian authorities. The black panthers would rather fight back when being abused by the racist, they thought that change would come quicker if people thought that the black people were getting violent and would destroy the cities in riots. As these more violent organizations started to form , more and more poor African Americans followed , this is because many of the groups that where forming held their own beliefs whereas before most of them where following groups like The NAACP and the SNCC. Young people were becoming increasingly militant as they where born into the time of change, so when things started to slow down after all that had happened it seemed like they where getting nowhere. Also black people had different ideas of what they actually wanted to happen in the USA for black, for example the nation of Islam was a separatist group who believed in racial diversion they wanted black people to try and get independence and their own strong communities where they could have financial and political empowerment. They held group meetings, protests and marches aswel but they did believe that black people had the right to retaliate against racial violence. Another grouped that formed where The Deacons for Defense and Justice, founded by Charles Sims in Lousiana on July 1910 , 1964, they wanted to protect civil rights workers against the violence of the Ku Klux Klan.They believed n armed self-relaince and set up armed patrol car systems in cities such as Jonoesboro and Bogalusa.