Yesterday, we learned about the story of Emmett Till by watching a video. Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old black boy from the North who went to visit relatives in the South. He had been warned that the South was a dangerous place for black people. While there, he whistled at a white woman and was brutally murdered by two white men. His body was thrown into a river and was found shortly after the incident. When the body was returned to his home, his mother decided to put the body on display at his funeral so all people would understand what happened. The 50,000 people who attended the funeral were greatly angered by the sight of Emmett's mangled body. When the white men who killed Emmett were declared innocent, the entire world became angry. As the Till case was publicized, it sparked the Civil Rights movement by bringing attention to the horrors of racism that were still occurring in the US.
Only 100 days after the Till case, a Civil Rights protest known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. Today, we learned about the boycott through a series of documents. The boycott began after Rosa Parks, a black woman, would not give up her seat on a bus to a white person. She was arrested. Around the city of Montgomery, AL, black people stopped riding the buses in a non-violent protest. These actions were ultimately successful because they were dedicated to their non-violent cause and began to find alternative modes of transportation. Also, the bus companies relied on their black riders to continue running. I believe non-violent protests were most effective during the Civil Rights Movement because people could spread information about their cause without harming others.This method greatly contrasts with other protestors during the Civil Rights Movement, like Marcus Garvey.
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