Strategies Used by the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Success They Had

3.5.3 TST:Essay

        There were many effective strategies used by the Civil Rights movement. The main goal of these strategies was to get attention to the movement. The most effective strategies used by the Civil Rights movement were boycotts, sit-ins, and marching.

        There were many more but these are the most important. Firstly, boycotts began. Boycotts began and were more effective on the city buses. In Montgomery, Alabama in December of 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not complying with the bus driver's order of yielding her seat to a white man. (During that time, blacks were forced to ride in the back of the bus, as whites sat in the front.) This has triggered a bus boycott in that city for more than a year. Her heroic stance has integrated the city's bus system. Secondly, sit-ins were happening all around the country. In sit-ins, protesters usually seat themselves at a strategic location (inside a restaurant, in a street to block it, in a government or corporate office, and so on). They remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met. Sit-ins have historically been a highly successful form of protest because they cause disruption that draws attention to the protest and by proxy the protesters' cause. They are a non-violent way to effectually shut down an area or business. Lastly, marches were most effective. The most famous of all, the March on Washington. On August 28, 1963, an estimated quarter of a million people—about a quarter of whom were white—marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in what turned out to be both a protest and a communal celebration. It was noted for its civility and peacefulness.