Civil Rights Movement

I find the Civil Rights Movement one of my most favorite movements for the practice on non-violence. It is just incredible to believe they achieved so much through non violent actions, granted they did break the so called "law" a few times such as during the sit-ins and freedom rides but I believe it was absolutely necessary to get the attention of politicians and higher up people who had the power to give blacks all the rights they deserved. Even after slavery was outlawed these people were judged only by the color of their skin and not by what kind of person they were, how they thought, or how intelligent they actually were. All people saw was a different color of skin and that was enough for them to exile them from a normal life. Obviously this wasn't enough for black people. They wanted something better, something they've never had before and that was the freedom to do as they please which is what they rightly deserved.

The fight for freedom first actually began with a group of students, trained and proficient in the art of non-violence who attended workshops put on by other black members trying to obtain the same thing. These students, once they had learned how to be completely non-violent in their actions then preceded to go to lunch counters and sit in until they were either served food or arrested. As they were beaten by white people and arrested under the harshest conditions they did not once fight back or resist arrest, they just went along with the plan and more and more students sat down as others were arrested and wave after wave of students just sat down until the police didn't know what to do with them. As this continued they got the great idea to do what they called "freedom" rides where normally on a bus white folks sat at the front and black folks sat in the back but with the "freedom" rides, they switched it completely around and road from city to city and town to town proposing that it doesn't hurt anyone to be black, we are perfectly normal people and this actually worked. It changed how peoples thought process worked and with the help of president Kennedy, separatism finally ended! It's just amazing how perseverance and hard work as well as fighting with passion for something you really believe in can get you what you want in the end.