Jade Hewitt
In what ways did the campaign for black equality change during the 1960’s?
The campaign changed throughout the 1960’s when they had won more popular support and Martin Luther King became a figure-head for the struggle for Black Equality. Under King, the campaign remained non-violent but the same could not be said for the radicals who were against his philosophy! The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 saw the rise of Martin Luther King and his non-violent approach to the black equality campaign, this peaceful protest continued into the 1960’s until radicals stood against non-violence and experimented with militant ideas. There were external influences also initiating changes in the campaign for black equality.
In 1960, following Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott, 4 black students sat at a segregated lunch counter in a North Carolina store and refused to move, after 4 days of ‘sitting in’ there were over 1000 activists involved in this peaceful protest. The Greensboro sit-in sparked further sit-ins and economic boycotts throughout America and is considered to be a hallmark in the struggle for black Civil Rights. Although desegregation at a lunch counter was a small change, it was a sign of good things to come. 1961 saw a test of Supreme Court legislation which stated that racial segregation on public transport was illegal; this was tested in the form of Freedom Rides. Black students travelled on buses through the south where racism was fierce and were attacked by angry mobs of white supremacists. This violent reaction from southern whites was broadcast on a world scale, embarrassing the US government and President J F Kennedy into passing another desegregation order. The freedom rides made the black protestors and Martin Luther King realise that if they remained on the moral high ground and didn’t act in a violent manner, they could still provoke the Whites into acting in a vicious manner towards the blacks which would show the southerners for what they really were; racists.
