October 16th, 2017
Thesis: John Lewis and those who have used nonviolence within the civil rights community have proven that peaceful protest and nonviolence is an effective way to make a difference.
Examples:
Bloody Sunday, the media’s exposure and the public’s response (Pg. 345)
It speaks to someone’s character if they inflicts harm upon another who presents no threat or causes no harm. Especially if there are laws prohibiting the infliction of harm upon those adhering to nonviolence. Then, to showcase this unlawful behavior to sympathetic and law- abiding citizens, could change the way the world views those who take up arms against nonviolent activists. Those who have campaigned for civil rights through nonviolent …show more content…
It showed the mistreatment and illegal harm being done to nonviolent protestors. John Lewis motioned for his masses to kneel and pray after they refused to turn around on their march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, on their way to Montgomery. This caused an outburst of violence from the authorities. Within the crowd of protestors, there were media agents who were also harmed. There was footage of the mistreatment and barbaric behavior that aired on television. The public was ashamed and stunned at the response of the authorities. “And the response from across the nation to what would go down in history as Bloody Sunday was immediate. By midnight that evening, even as I lay asleep in my room over at Good Samaratan, people from as far away as New York and Minnesota were flying into Alabama and driving to Selma, forming a vigil of their own outside Brown’s Chapel.” (Page 345) SNCC and SCLC’s members who were brave and chose nonviolence showed the nation what they needed to support, and support came to Selma, ready for a second march. Although the second march was not pursued, their acts of nonviolence led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act. Without those brave men and women who chose to pursue nonviolent direct action, there might not have been a substantial amount of progress made within the civil