Although many of us have not been a part of protests and don’t know how it feels from the inside, we can put ourselves in the protestors’ shoes. It is often hard to watch as property is destroyed and lives are taken, but without social unrest many situations would not have the effect on America as they have had to this day.
Often with protests, the effects are not clearly shown and many results do not happen until many years later. Throughout American history, there have been large social movements regarding race, work, war and property. Many of which have been effective and some not so effective, but how do we constitute effectiveness?
Peaceful protests often get a better reputation. One of the most successful peaceful protests in America was the Montgomery Bus Boycott that took place in 1955 and 1956, where Montgomery’s black population refused to ride public transportation with the objective of lessening the inequality and segregation in the South. This peaceful protest was very successful and got an Alabama court to rule that the racial segregation was unlawful. The boycott gained national attention and in turn, served as a motivator for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
In 1970, students, faculty and friends marched together on the Kent State Unversity campus for four days in order to get President Richard Nixon to stop the invasion of Cambodia and end the Vietnam War. Although the protestors were preaching a message of peace, on May 4, the National Guard took action on the protests and fired rounds at unarmed college students, killing four and injuring nine. The protest did not cause an immediate action with U.S. foreign policy, but it did cause a chain reaction for many other protests to happen across the country. These additional protests may have had an effect on the president and helped end the war.
While many protests start out as peaceful, they can often take a turn for the worse and end in tragedy. Chicago workers came together in 1886 to push the idea of an eight-hour workday. On May 1 of that year, 35,000 laborers walked out of their jobs, and thousands more joined them just days later. On May 4, the crowd held a meeting at Haymarket Square. Police officers marched to the gathering and ordered the protestors to disband. Someone from the crowd threw a bomb at the police, killing an officer, which led to the police opening fire on the crowd. Throughout the upheaval, 60 officers were injured and eight were killed, but the number of protestors who were killed or wounded could not be determined. This riot got the American Federation of Labor to set May 1 as a day when American workers should not work more than eight hours. Over the next 20 years, many other unions and organizations would win their battles for the eight-hour day.
In 1968, riots took place in at least 110 cities around the nation following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Rioters smashed windows, started fires and looted stores. Many firefighters were met with rioters throwing bricks and rocks. Over the next couple of days, over 13,000 troops would be called in where the riots were taking place. Although Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong supporter of nonviolence, his followers could not stop from turning to ferocity after his death. These events had been the greatest wave of social upheaval that the U.S. had seen since the days of the Civil War. These events led to the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which provides equal housing opportunities no matter a person’s race or national origin.
Although many of us do not like seeing the devastation that our fellow countrymen can cause by taking action, we can look back in history and see that it sometimes takes that push in order for movements to be successful.
Follow Tanner Owens on Twitter @T_Owens21