7a. Introduction

In this module we will explore the mid-20th century American civil rights movement against racial segregation as a human rights peace movement. The methods used to resist discriminatory laws against African-Americans certainly drew from the Gandhi-led movement for self-determination in India. These included boycotts, sit-ins, and nonviolent protests, all of which represented civil disobedience, given that laws were broken. The writings of Henry David Thoreau (discussed in Module 4) also inspired civil rights activists.

In sum, the aim of the civil rights movement was to bring about social and political change through nonviolent direct action.

The civil rights movement responded to what are called Jim Crow laws that existed in the United States for about 100 years, from after the Civil War up to the late 1960s, but were especially intense from the 1880s and onward. Jim Crow was the name for a fictional character in the 19th century minstrel shows that mocked and made fun of Blacks. The term became an overall keyword for racial segregation. There were a wide range of state-based and local laws and statutes that limited the movement and livelihoods of Blacks, and that enforced strict segregation between Black people and white people.

We are most familiar with laws regarding segregation on public transit, or at drinking fountains, or in movie theatres, or in schools. Here are a few examples of other laws that existed which you may not have thought of:

There are many more. Along with the enforced discrimination against Blacks during this era, there were deliberate acts of violence perpetrated by police, citizens, and hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

The American civil rights movement against racial segregation is most often associated with one of its high-profile leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. King’s capacity to galvanize support for nonviolent action as a method for change, and his inspiring oratory were of course major features of this human rights peace movement. But there were a few individuals who courageously took a position against segregation in the years before King rose to prominence.

Rosa Parks

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, a forty-two-year old Black woman returning from work refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. She was arrested and convicted of disorderly conduct, and her case was then taken up by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to challenge the laws of segregation. Her arrest prompted a mass bus boycott by Black people in Montgomery. With ninety-nine percent of Blacks in the city refusing to ride the busses, the transit system practically came to a standstill for over a year. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of busses was unconstitutional; some say that these events launched the civil rights movement.

You probably learned about Rosa Parks in school at one point. Sometimes her story is told as if her motivation for not moving was because she was tired at the end of a workday. In fact, Parks' action was a deliberate strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience that she had trained to undertake. Along with King, she has become an icon of the movement – the famous bus in which she refused to give up her seat is on display in the Henry Ford Museum: The Rosa Parks Bus.

Here were some instructions to boycotters:

In 1955, the Women's Political Council issued a leaflet calling for a boycott of Montgomery buses.

Don't ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or any place Monday, December 5.

Another Negro Woman has been arrested and put in jail because she refused to give up her bus seat.

Don't ride the buses to work to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. If you work, take a cab, or share a ride, or walk.²

Viola Desmond

Probably because they were working class women, Parks and Desmond were not at the time recognized as leaders of a movement. But their singular acts were extremely important as evidence that nonviolent civil disobedience could be a powerful statement against systems of oppression and of individuals willing to suffer for the success of the cause. There were many others who risked their safety and often their lives in this struggle for the rights of Blacks in North America.