Sunday, January 20, 2013

MLK's Most Important Tactic

I believe that the one thing that can be learned and applied from this movement is strength comes from numbers.  It is a lot easier to get someones attention with a crowd rather than an individual.  When the students held sit-ins they used a large amount of people so that others would take notice.  Also when people retaliated one person wouldn't be alone against a group of people.  When they organized the Freedom Rides both white and black people were involved in several states so the federal government had no choice but to take notice.  As said by John Lewis that was the goal of the Freedom Rides.

One thing that stood out to me was when the riders were attacked they refused to fight back.  Their policy was to remain non violent when approached with aggression.  Martin Luther King said "we will endure" in part of his speech, while the church he was in was circled by an angry mob.  When they were on the bus surrounded by clans that wanted to kill them they hopped off the bus and walked right into it.  If I were in their position I think that I would have fought back. 

3 comments:

  1. i agree that strength can come from numbers but i believe with a few people great things can still be accomplished.

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  2. I was also shocked by the lack of violence that the activists used. Personally, I would not be able to control myself, and I would try to kill every last person that would try to beat me up, so I can't imagine how hard it was for the activists to remain calm, even while getting beat up.

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  3. I think the numbers aspect was important here as well; as seen in the film, when the sit-ins were occurring and the protesters continued to get arrested, more and more protesters would walk right in and sit down at the tables. It was slightly comical and made the police feel pretty helpless.

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