Alexis Ray
Zach Smith
Diversity/World Cultures
12 April 2017
Analytical Essay
In a time period where protesting is a very popular solution for major issues, what makes a good protest? There were many impactful protests in 1968, each of these protests had powerful characteristics. But power did not determine the success or failure of these protests. Successful protests consists of a set goal, knowing the issue, taking the right procedures to address the issue and following through. John Lewis was a protester of passion and persistence. Although the beginning journey of drafts of his speech, Lewis insisted on a direct, “pointing the finger” molded speech. But to have the result of a successful and well received speech from the audience he had to step back and realize that in the revised speech the point was still getting across and it wasn’t ruffling any feathers. Had he had delivered the first draft of the speech the way it was originally written, his message would not have been received as openingly. I believe that John Lewis and others had a big impact on why the Civil Rights Movement was so successful. Being open to suggestions and having different educated opinions contributing to a greater outcome. Whereas in the French May Revolution, it was the opposite of the the Civil Rights Movement. I believe that it did not have any structure and inflicted a great deal of violence. It seemed as if In Civil Rights Movement wasn’t all good decisions and good outcomes, and the Culture Revolution wasn’t all bad decisions with all bad outcomes. There were things from both protests and other protests that can be used to make a great protest but there are also other things that contributed to the reasons why the protest did not succeed.
The Jim Crow Law was established in 1877, that made it legal for racial segregation and was heavily enforced at the start of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. A successful protest began to rise around 1963 when Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders arranged a large demonstration around Birmingham. City police violently attacked the peaceful protesters with police dogs, batons, fire hoses etc. Because this protest was supposed to be peaceful, it caught the eye of many people in the media because of the excessive violence used on this protesters who were not there to promote violence, only trying to send a message. The peacefulness of the protest made it quite successful, as it created many more supporters of the civil rights movement. However white racial attitudes did not disappear. The fact that these protesters would not fight back and they were continuing to cause a “disruption” to their normal world only made them want to act out on more violence. You would think they’d get tired right? This was not the only tribulation limiting the success of CIvil Rights Movement. Many blacks were in poverty and had poor housing making it hard for them to get a decent job, which was already hard because they were black. That reason drove some people to to protest harder but it also drove people away from the protest because some people had families and could not risk it all like others. In the summer on July 2, 1964. the Civil Rights Act was passed by Lyndon Banes Johnson. This act prohibited discrimination based on race, sex, and etc. But this act did not matter to the supremacists. Things as far as being able to be in public places equally, and being able to have a political voice, none of that changed. The Civil Rights Act was in place but it was definitely not enforced.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, was founded in April 1960. SNCC was created after a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. SNCC coordinated these sit-ins across the nation, supported their leaders, and publicized their activities. SNCC sought to affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of their purpose. In the violently changing political climate of the 60's, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today's black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.John Lewis was an influential SNCC leader and is recognized by most as one of the important leaders of the civil rights movement as a whole. In 1961, Lewis joined SNCC in the Freedom Rides. Riders traveled the South challenging segregation at interstate bus terminals. Refusing to give up their seats and move to the back of the bus. “To those have said ‘be patient and wait’ we have long said that, we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now!” (March 169) In 1963, Lewis helped plan and took part in the March on Washington. In his successful speech that raised eyebrows because of his choice of words. Lewis fought for the revision of his speech but soon realized it’s better to get your point across to the people that matter, than upset them and cancel out the opportunity to be heard. Carmichael, a fellow Freedom Rider, was elected chairman of SNCC and soon after raised the cry of "black power." Some were alarmed by the concept of black power and many were critical of Carmichael's new approach. Some took the concept of black power as a threat to others. Blacks never had power, so it was time to take that power back. All of these protests and boycotts lead to the repeal of the Jim Crow Laws, which made racial segregation illegal. All of the issues were these protesters were fighting for were not solved but the protests also opened a lot of eyes, but it was very limited because in this time African Americans did not have very much pull, and yes changes were made and rights were given. Getting the Jim Crow Law reversed is a huge deal which leads me to believe that this protest was successful. But the fight for equality among all races has not yet been concluded.
In the French May Protest of 1968, the student revolution began with a protest against visitors of the opposite sex in dormitory rooms at a Paris campus. Within a few weeks it had taken hold with the student occupation of the Sorbonne. The students were joined by 10 million workers, half the French labor force, who shut down the economic machinery of France for several weeks. There was no mail, no banking, no transportation, no gas and dwindling food. By May 10, the number of student demonstrators was at least at 20,000. At every street leading to the Sorbonne, they found their way blocked by vans and ranks of riot police. This time, the students did not scatter. The students began gathering cobblestones, building sites and turning over parked cars to construct their own barricades facing the police ones. It seemed as if this protest began because of a small issue and people began to join and latch on, so their voices and complains could also be heard and addressed. It went from a small student protest, that had meaning but not enough to form into a protest that needed a part two. As workers began to join and things were getting boycotting, the protest became bigger because it was interfering with the government which cause this protest to more and more violent overtime. This protest was challenging the immigration rights, the fashion rights, education, and also gender roles. This protest seemed to jump from one issue to another which made it harder to understand and follow. I believe that these protests should been broken up and separated so that each of the demands that the students and the workers had could have been met.
In the Civil Rights movement it was not peaceful from beginning to end but a lot of the peaceful protests are remembered to this day. The peacefulness of these protesters made people realize that their is an actual meaning behind what they stand for. It may not have turned every head or turned every cheek but it definitely changed a lot of people outlooks. This protest went on for quite some time, but the persistence of these people and the drive that that had to get this equality was remarkable. Being able to have these meetings with higher officials and discuss the rights among their communities was a win for this protest. I believe that peaceful protests today are still in effect and still can provide a useful outcome. It did not fix every problem but it definitely brought a great deal of change. It seemed as if the French May Revolution was just a swarm of people upset with their own issues and they all banned together to try to come to some kind of equilibrium. Which in my eyes was not a good strategy for a protest because it did not have a main focus which left a lot of issues untouched.
Bibliography
Fraser, Ronald, editor. “The French May, 1968.” In 1968: A Student Generation in Revolt.
203-239. New York: Pantheon Books, 1988.
Lewis, John, and Andrew Aydin. March: Book
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"Nanterre, or How to Train Stuffed Geese," (Mid-March 1968) in Michael Hunt, ed, The World
Transformed: A Documentary Reader, Second Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015),
Stokely Carmichael, The Pitfalls of Liberalism (Jan 1969) in Jeremi Suri, ed., The Global
Revolutions of 1968 (New York: W.W. Norton and Co, 2007)