direct action
direct action is the use of strikes, demonstrations, or other public forms of protest rather than negotiation to achieve one's demands
types of direct action
Picketing
Boycotts
Freedom rides
a form of protest in which people block access to a building that represents the cause which they are protesting against.
refusing to buy goods or services.
Sit ins
an example of economic pressure: black protesters would sit at segregated restaurants until they were served. If they were not served, they would be taking up seats, so white paying customers could not find places. The idea was to force the restaurant to desegregate.
when integrated groups of civil rights activists rode on interstate buses to defy segregation and monitor whether Supreme Court rulings against segregation were being ignored.
Direct action between 1945-1955
Success
Fail
CNO’s Arkansas-based voter reg campaign increased the proportion of black voters from 1.5 % of the black population in the state in 1940 to 17.3% in 1947.
The NAACP lynching investigation squad set up in the 1946 would visit lynch scenes, collect evidence, mount court cases to bring the perpetrators to justice and this led to lynching being on the decline by 1955, although it had been common in 1940.
Later campaigns would learn from the experience of the UDL and organise more effectively as a result.
The UDL bus boycott even though did not achieve its aims, united the black community in the city in protest.
CORE’s Journey of Reconciliation, although it did not achieve it’s aim, was groundbreaking as it inked a legal campaign with non-violent protest - the experience of protest increased confidence of African Americans and showed it was possible to stand up to segregation.
CORE’s Journey of Reconciliation failed to force bus companies in southern states to desegregate their interstate bus services
UDL’s bus boycott was unsuccessful & Baton Rouge’s buses remained segregated too.