Confrontational Tactics In The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s was a struggle for African Americans to obtain equal rights and be free of racial discrimination. The use of Jim Crow Laws allowed people, particularly in the South, to continue oppressing African Americans after the Civil War. Confrontational tactics such as protests and sit-ins were important in the Civil Rights Movement, however non-confrontational tactics such as litigation, civil disobedience and economic boycotts were most important as they brought about significant change in opposing segregation.

Confrontation is defined as a hostile or argumentative situation between opposing parties. The opposing parties in this movement consisted of African Americans in North and South American fighting

In the Plessy vs Ferguson case in 1896, a law was passed that allowed racial segregation as long as the facilities were equal in black and white schools. A single suit was brought together to be taken to the Supreme Court in 1954 to argue the fact that black schooling was evidently under resourced and of a far lower quality than that of white schooling, proving them to be inferior and unequal. In the case of Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, the segregation of school facilities was overturned. Although segregated school was now deemed illegal, certain people did not comply with the ruling. In Little Rock, Arkansas (1957), nine black students were accompanied by state troops to their first day at Central High School, a previously all-white institution. These nine students faced extreme harassment and hostility from a crowd of white protesters for the rest of the year and were either smuggled in or guarded by federal troops for their own safety. This shows the relentless behaviour of many white Americans that objected integrated facilities even after the new law had been