1960s Dbq Essay

During the late 1950s and 1960s the southern states in America were segregated. Black and white people were separated from bathrooms to schools and therefore, blacks had to use their installments or they would be punished by whites. While this was happening, two African American men, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, wanted segregation to come to an end. So they proclaimed their ideas and started to form groups to protest against segregation in America. Consequently, Martin Luther King Jr’s civil rights philosophy made the most sense during the 1960s because integrated schools was the goal, nonviolence could have a huge impact on the enemy and nonviolence was the only practical strategy. Schools in the south were separated and only white teachers taught white students and black teachers taught black students. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted that to change, so he made integrated schools one of his main goals. “The burning of our churches will not deter us. The bombing of our homes will not dissuade us” (Doc D). MLK wanted to show and tell the white people that being violent to black people

had faith in nonviolence being the only practical strategy during the Civil Rights Movement. “Even the extremist leaders who preach revolution are invariably unwilling to lead what know would certainly end in bloody, chaotic and total defeat” (Doc L). Using violence to succeed in something would result in disarray and defeat between the two opposing forces. Therefore having no agreement. “The Negro would face the same unchanged conditions, the same squalor and deprivation” (Doc L). MLK knew that violence would get blacks nowhere in the success of freedom. “Thus, in purely practical as well as moral terms, the American Negro has no alternative to nonviolence” (Doc L). Nonviolence civil disobedience was the only possible way to influence legislation or government policy. During the Civil Rights Movement, nonviolence would be the right thing to