“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” –Mahatma Ghandi[1]
From the very discovery of the Western continent and the land that would become the United States of America, to the events that would culminate into two World Wars, there is much that has been significant in the shaping of the America of today. That being said, for my piece I have decided to choose among those great many events that were the twentieth century the one event that spoke most to me. An event, when looking back through the tomes of history, was hundreds of years in the making. It was a single event that would spark the fires of a new kind of revolution and reshape America today. It is something that will reflect on the best of human nature in the future. And it all began with a college student walking into a café.
Ninety nine years after a Civil War broke America into two sides, pitting brother against brother in horrific battles and where unwarranted destruction of civilian life and home was excused with the phrasing “total warfare” one of the root causes of the war still alive. Racial Nationalism has existed in some way since the dawn of man’s existence. It is an ideal created by one ethnic or cultural group for a sense of belonging and is often used to defend actions against another ethnic or cultural group. It was felt as white European settlers moved to the Americas and met with the Native American tribes. It was felt when the first slave ships arrived off the shores of Africa.
This racial nationalist ideal against African Americans was introduced in 1619, when slavery was introduced to the United States as labor to increase production of tobacco crops. [2] It was an ideal that carried long after the Civil War and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, evolving from the freedom of slaves into a state of segregation. “Separate but equal.” [3] For 99 years, it meant that African Americans were entitled to the same facilities that white Americans were, but they were completely separated. It was this that created rules such as African American children being sent to separate schools. It created rules and laws that stated African Americans had to sit at the back of public transportation, take separate train cars and allowed business owners to discriminate.
On the last day in January, 1960, a young North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College freshman by the name of Joseph McNeil visited a local variety store, F.W. Woolworth. He became distressed as he saw the discrimination that prevented African Americans from taking a stool at the store’s lunch counter as it was open to “whites only.” [4] The following day he and three other classmates returned to the store, each taking a seat at the counter and placing an order to the shocked and confused waitresses. Their service never came, but they continued to wait, leaving peacefully when the store closed, only to return the next day with more students.
By February 4th, the incident had gained the attention of the press. So too, had it gained the attention of other students. The non-violent protest gained momentum as more students joined and the idea spread throughout other towns and cities in North Carolina. The protestors began to meet with opposition, but each stood their ground and did not budge, even in the face of escalating violent behavior towards them. These protests began to gain the attention of important figures in government as well as Civil Rights Advocates such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. whose non-violent philosophy was well known, and a new chapter in the long debate of civil over social rights began.
These young students, by sitting at the counter and ordering service that never came had challenged the racial inequality that was prevalent throughout the South. By the end of the six month long protest, hundreds of students, civil rights organizations, and community and church members had joined. [5]As the protests waged, the debate supporting “separate but equal” was beginning to lose its grip on American culture and the debate took National hold. Many began to question why segregation was necessary while others saw-and sometimes feared-the tides of change. Lawsuits were filed and lobbying for Civil Rights intensified. Protesters took to the streets as both non-violent and violent protests spread throughout the South and into the Northern States.
In 1963 Civil Rights Activist and leader Martin Luther King Jr. led a demonstration-the march on Washington-with over 200,000 attendees. He gave one of his most popular and significant speeches, “I Have a Dream”. He spoke of freedom and how both white and black freedoms were tied together. He spoke of the failure of the United States Government to keep its promise to the African American people, and he spoke of the hope that one day mankind would shirk its racial nationalist ideal and everyone would be able to co-exist peacefully. His protest, like those of the students in Greensboro, was still met with resistance by Southern Governmental leaders.
The following year would see change, as The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in all public places and authorized the Justice Department to act with greater authority in school and voting matters.[6] Though the war of Civil Rights was not over, the battle for service in public places was. The young college students had succeeded in their goals. Their non-violent protests had won over violent tactics and reactions from those they protested against, and even those that would have used violence within their protests.
In conclusion, it takes bravery and sacrifice to do what the young men in Greensboro did. With the Sit-In protest came a new wave of protests that did much to change the tide of the Civil Rights Movement. Thiers was not the first non-violent protest, as the bravery of Rosa Parks to make a stand against giving up her seat has shown, but it became one of the most inspiring. It is with non-violence that change should always happen, and in the future, hopefully it will. It is why, I feel, that the sit-in movement deserves praise as one of the most significant in recent history. Many great men have spoken about the use of non-violent protest, but it is the actions that, throughout history, show the practice is a good one. And we should remember the words of Martin Luther King Jr. that “At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.” [7]
Works Cited
"Emancipation Proclamation." Archives.gov. 11 August 2014 <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/>.
"Jim Crow Stories." 2002. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. 11 August 2014 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html>.
McClellan, Jim R. Changing Interpretations of America’s past 1877 to Present. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014.
Nash, Gary B. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society Vol. 2 1865. Boston: Pearson, 2011.
National Museum of American History, Behring Center. Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Educatio. 10 August 2014 <http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/6-legacy/freedom-struggle-2.html>.
Network, The Learning. "Feb. 1, 1960 | Black Students and the Greensboro Sit-In." 2012 1 Febuary. The New York Times . 11 August 2014 <http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/feb-1-1960-black-students-and-the-greensboro-sit-in/>.
Non-violence quotes. 11 August 2014 <At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.>.
Staff, History.com. "Civil Rights Movement." 2009. History.com. 10 August 2014 <http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement>.
staff, History.com. "Slavery in America." 2009. History.com. 11 August 2015 <http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery>.
[1] (Non-violence quotes)
[2] (staff)
[3] (Jim Crow Stories)
[4] (McClellan)
[5] (National Museum of American History, Behring Center)
[6] (Nash)
[7] (Non-violence quotes)
