Down Freedom's Main Line - Essay Example

This emphasis on love as the solution gave people an alternative to active resistance. FOR also established the International Fellowship Reconciliation in Holland. FOR also made Non-violent actions against segregation by organizing its supporters and mounting nonviolence campaigns. FOR mainly used Mahatma Gandhi's approaches (Williams, 48). Question 2 The actions of the Four Black Freshmen, also known as the Greensboro Four in 1960 organized sit-ins, which were basically nonviolent protests, against racial segregation.

The main purpose of the sit-ins was to spark an increased sentiment at a time when US history was critical. The problem that blacks encountered was racial segregation in all places of the US life (education, job market and in social events). The February 1, 1960 (4:30 pm) underscores the extent of racial segregation that blacks underwent. In the incident, four black university students were not served food and beverage at Woolworth's 132 South Elm Street's store, simply because they were black.

The white race and the police reacted to the sit-ins by being antagonistic. Question 3 The reason for the formation of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which was formed in 1960 was to protest against racial, social injustices and even the Vietnam War. This group coordinated southern African American college students in nonviolent protests and activities against lunch counter-segregation which followed the Four Black Freshmen sit-ins. SNCC also campaigned to de-segregate voter registration in America, particularly, in the Deep South.

All in all, it is accurate to state that the SNCC purposed to bring about social change and emancipation, through civil rights activism. According to Williams, the role of Ella Baker in the development of SNCC was that of helping form, and directing the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), under whose auspices, the SNCC operated and existed. Baker (together with Rev. James Lawson) also injected SNCC politics and administration with participatory democracy. Thus, Ella Baker's contributions to SNCC are indispensible (Williams, 61).

Question 4 The reasons for the Freedom Rides were to challenge the non-enforcement of the US Supreme Court, on the cases, I. Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 1946 and Boynton v. Virginia, 1960. In both cases, the US Supreme Court had ruled that the segregation of public buses were unconstitutional but the Southern states ignored the rulings as the federal government failed to make measures to ratify the rulings. The Freedom Riders sought to challenge this status quo by organizing and riding interstate buses in the South.

Participants of the rides comprised mixed racial groups, as a way of discounting the local customs and laws which had solidified segregated sittings. Both the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the SNCC sponsored the Freedom Rides. The involvement of the Kennedy Administration in the Freedom Rides cannot also be discounted. Particularly, the Kennedy Administration got involved in the Freedom Rides after the 1961 Jim Crow South incident which deeply ashamed the administration. A mob set one of the Freedom Ride buses on fire, outside Anniston, Ala.

the Kennedy Admin