Opinion Assignment #1

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Minister Malcolm X were leaders of the civil rights movement. Both King and Malcolm X had very different ways of promoting their message. Malcolm X had a much more extremist approach and King had a much more calm approach. Malcolm X was an Islamic minister, he preached about separatism between blacks and whites. He believed that only through violence would conditions change. King urged non-violence to his followers. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, King wrote, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.”

Along with the civil rights movement, other social movements had emerged, such as the anti-Vietnam war movement, women’s movement, the gay rights movement, and the Chicano protest movement. All movements used diverse tactics, such as legal demonstrations, grassroots organizing, congressional lobbying, electoral challenges, civil disobedience, self-immolations, and political violence.

Just like many social movements, the anti-Vietnam war movement had a mix of political notions and visions. According to Wells, “Militant protest, mainly youthful, continued to spread, leading many Americans to wonder whether the war was worth a split society”. Just like the similar division of tactics with Malcolm X and King, many participants questioned its effectiveness, spawning dropouts, hindering the organization of protests and the maintenance of antiwar groups, and aggravating dissension over strategies and tactics. In spring of 1970, President Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings sparked the greatest display of campus protest in U.S. history. A national student strike completely shut down over 500 colleges and universities. Other Americans protested in cities across the country; many lobbied White House officials and members of Congress (Wells). The American movement against the Vietnam War was the most successful antiwar movement in U.S. history. The movement played a significant role in constraining the war and was a major factor in the administration's policy reversal in 1968 (Wells).

The Women’s liberation movement had manifested in a split view which was often called as “reform” and “radical.” Despite there differences, they had strong similarities and used the same non-violent tactics to convey their message.

Gay liberation groups saw themselves as one component of the decade’s radicalism and regularly addressed the other issues that were mobilizing American youth. Such as the resolution on the Vietnam war and the draft demanding that “all troops be brought home at once” and that homosexuals in the armed forces “be given Honorable discharges immediately” (Emilio 32). The stonewall riot was the spark that gave “liberation” effort among gay men and women which also contributed to the growth of lesbian-feminist movement.

The Chicano movement was both a civil/human rights struggle and a movement for liberation. According to Rodriguez, “Universities became one of the focal points of protest in the movement. Some of the principal demands were to open up of the doors of
universities to people of color and the establishment of Chicano studies.” The movement demonstrated nonviolent protests.

The protest that I chose to focus on this semester is anti-immigration. The protests such as the Americans for Immigration Control (AIC) is about stopping the millions of illegal aliens who sneak across our border from Mexico every year. The minutemen protestors are against immigration and use non-violent tactics, but in some occasions have turned into violent strategies when confronted with illegal immigrants.

Keeping all these social movements and protests in mind, I believe the most effective strategy is the non-violent protests. Although, violent strategies catch the media’s eye and may be televised more than non-violent ones, I certainly believe that it won’t have an easier way to recruit potential followers. Although, Carson believes that Malcolm X came to realize that nonviolent tactics could be used militantly and King increasingly recognized that mass militancy driven by positive racial consciousness was essential for African-American progress, Carson believed they were both reconcilable. At the time, I believe that Malcolm X and MLK both complimented each other for their efforts to achieve equality between all races. In my opinion, nonviolent protests deems to be appropriate for social movements.