Civil Rights Movement and Social Change

Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a long struggle for equality for people of color for things such as education, housing, voting, as well as an end to discrimination. One man who played a key role in this movement was Martin Luther King, Jr. As a minister and a devoted son of God, King used his skills as a minister to start a freedom campaign for all black people across the United States.

He gathered men, women, and children from all over the country to help him fight in this campaign to stop the oppression of black people all over the United States. However, it would take harsh work from all age groups as they would come to see. Even though, King only preached non-violence to all of those who listened. He did not believe that violence would solve any of the problems that were facing people of color at the time. Violence would not achieve social change.

In King’s terms, self-purification and direct action are the most important steps toward social change. These steps force white people (the people in power) to look at the abuse and unjustness occurring towards people of color, especially black people, in the United States and hopefully make them do something about it.

Self-purification is a form of mental processing that King used for the people involved in his campaign. It was the part in which non-violence played a role amongst members and oppressive white Americans. Martin Luther King, Jr. described self-purification as this: ‘nonviolence and […] asked ourselves the questions, ‘Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?’ and ‘Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?” (King 1-2).

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified

Proficient in: Social Change

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

It was a form of non-violence to King. It was a way in which one had to physically prepare to go to a protest, whether it be at a sit-in, a bus boycott, a march, or whatever it be that day, and to mentally prepare to get beaten and not strike whoever is hurting them. For King, violence further hurts the cause and puts people ten steps backward. This not only shows a strength from within but a problem with white Americans as they are hurting those who are being peaceful.

A direct action is a form of civil disobedience. King instructed those who were involved in his campaign to go out into the public and break a law. However, they had to very publicly break a law because the goal was to end up in jail and go before a judge. People wanted their day in court in order to oppose any law they saw to be unjust. King defined direct action as follows: ‘Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored’ (King 2). People do not need to break the law they think is unjust; they just need to break a law that will land them in front of a judge. Once in court, they can make a scene, plead their views, or do whatever they believe they can do to make white Americans see the unjustness of that specific law. This process of direct action interferes with how the American public operates, so they are all but forced to listen to what the arrested person has to say.

Self-purification and direct action are important toward social change as they force oppressive white Americans and onlookers from around the world to look at what is happening in American society. The actual suffering that people of color, especially black people, have to face on a daily basis is cruel and unjust. King makes a point of all of this by making the frontrunners of his campaign young children and elderly men and women. Therefore, it is these vulnerable populations of people that are receiving the bulk of the police brutality and beatings from other oppressive white groups. Seeing this type of racial abuse being enacted by other human beings causes all of these negative feelings to come to the surface. It can be anger, sadness, fear, disgust, etcetera. That is the response King wanted from viewers. He knows that people around the country and maybe the world can see what is happening to black people in the United States. He knows that the people involved in his campaign are peacefully protesting and are non-violent but are being beaten to a pulp by white Americans for everyone to see. Social change was possible when people were forced to look at those committing abusive acts towards those being nonviolent.

This is how social change starts. People begin to side with those who are being peaceful and non-violent and start to hate or even despise those who are violent and cruel. White Americans begin to look bad in the public eye as they are seen as the aggressors, and black Americans as pacifists (which they totally are). White Americans have to change their behaviors towards black Americans in order to get back into a more positive public light. All of their behaviors are observed under a microscope by the world. White people have to start treating black people better or else they will still be seen as cruel human beings. Therefore, they start with minor changes, which is still a win for black people as change is happening, and white people are not happy. But it is a start.

To effectively evoke social change, one needs self-purification and direct action. These steps force white Americans to look at their past and their present actions and hopefully make a change in their future actions. Self-purification is the mental processing of being abused at a peaceful protest while being the bigger man and not striking back. Direct action is the process in which one needs to get arrested in order to get a day in court to speak one’s mind about an unjust law. However, the image of actual suffering from self-purification and direct action is what really evokes social change. Violence against the non-violent is a strong motivator when those oppose those who are violent. The Civil Rights Movement and its images still make an impact on people today, in 2018, so maybe King was onto something.