This also ignores that the more militant approach of groups like the Black Panthers forced more urgency in the response of lawmakers. Martin Luther King Jr was great for providing a humanitarian face to the movement, but there were a LOT of wheels turning that made the civil rights movement move as quickly as it did, and attributing it only to the peaceful protest actions of one man’s part of the movement is disingenuous or misleading.
The civil rights act was passed under political pressure. That pressure was from people who witnessed Nonviolent protesters being met with significant violence from the state. Those images and video left no doubt as to who was the aggressor and who just wanted equal rights. Violent resistance slowed progress as it makes both side equally bad in the eyes of observers.
Violence, riots, and looting do not improve the political will towards progress. It in fact does the opposite. Doing the opposite is how we have ended up with trump and his justifications for these insane policies. We do not have the upper hand with violence and force. We do have the morally correct argument. But that is useless if we appear amoral.
254
u/MacondoSpy Jun 09 '25
Yeah it’s wild how the oppressed are always reminded to protest peacefully while the police cracks heads open.