The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement in the United States involved a number of different types of persuasive communication, beginning with soft-spoken appeals for justice and equality and evolving into acts of "creative dissent" on a mass scale. Indeed, the movement derived much of its vigor and forcefulness from the in-genuity of leaders. Martin Luther King, in particular, helped dramatize the plight of blacks in the United States, especially in the Deep South. Antecedents for some of the methods used can be traced to the passive resistance movement instigated by Gandhi as India struggled to win her independence from Britain. But other facets of the movement are uniquely American, emanating directly from the black experience, first as slaves, then as disen-franchised citizens.

It is difficult to assign a precise date to the beginning of the civil rights movement. The struggle for franchise, due pro-cess, and other constitutional rights for blacks dates back to the Civil War and the antebellum period. Emancipation of the slaves, while it represented a significant step forward for blacks, also created aspirations for justice and equality that were to be denied to blacks in both the North and South for over a century. Black leaders continued to struggle quietly i

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the intervention of federal marshals to restore order. In Mississippi, more than 300 freedom riders were arrested for refusing to vacate segregated areas. Charging that local authorities had exceeded their lawful power in arresting the protesters, the U.S. Attorney General interceded to halt the arrests. The protest did not result in the immediate recession of segregation laws, but it did focus national attention both on the blacks' quest for justice and on the virulence of white resistance to this cause. Civil rights' leaders were fully cognizant of the rhetorical effect of these activities. King informed the world that "we will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts" (King 215). Roy Wilkins, head of the NAACP wrote that such demonstrations "act as a powerful persuasion upon the national conscience," exhibiting "a courage in the face of psychological and physical threats" (Bosmagian and Bosmagian 9). Jurists and scholars have also acknowledged the rhetorical function of boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. In Garner v. Louisiana, a case challenging segregation laws, Justice John Harlan wrote that "we would surely have to be blind not to re-cognize that petitioners were sitting
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Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)