Relevance of the Sit-Ins to the Civil Rights Movement
Question
Literature Review/Historiography. This is a historiography of sorts. In it you must discuss the secondary works available on the topic. The papers objective is to explain why the sources below are reasonable to use. Academic style, Chicago style 17th edition. Please cite by using footnotes The research question and topic for this paper is, why were the student sit ins of the 1960s civil rights movement significant?. Your job is to compare and contrast the work of the scholars/sources provided. I dont want you to write a paragraph for each. I want you to compare and contrast the scholars within the same paragraphs.


Solution
Relevance of the Sit-Ins to the Civil Rights Movement
Racial inequality has been quite
rampant in the US for a time now. That has occurred since the nation’s
establishment; there, the Whites segregated the Blacks and other people of
color. Even though the Blacks were useful as Buffalo soldiers, they were still
viewed as inferior. As a result, the Whites believed that they were not
supposed to share any resources with them. For example, they were restricted
from eating at all White restaurants, sharing schools, and even residential
places with the White people. That contributed to the outbreak of the Sit-in
movements, organized by Black students and focused on agitating for equal
rights. The Sit-ins were peaceful demonstrations that the Black students
demanded equal service like their fellow Whites. One instance is the Greensboro
Woolworths situation that happened in North Carolina. During the encounter,
four black leaners converged at White-restaurant to get some meal.
Consequently, that contributed to the outbreak of more Sit-Ins and resulted in
the formation of the Civil rights movements. That was a result of the fact that
these associations attracted people of all races to fight for equal rights and
treatment. This paper seeks to discuss a literature review of the most sources
related to sit-ins and how they effectively present their importance within the
civil rights movements, the 1960s.
Based on Schmidt’s article The Sit-Ins: Protests and Legal Change in
the Civil Rights Era by Melissa Milewski, the article is significant since
they discuss American law’s stand regarding the demonstrations and sit-in
occurrences. Even though the encounters were peaceful, the participants still
faced arrests and detention. Upon the establishment of the civil rights
movement, many Blacks were arrested. Therefore, the journal presents the White
people’s reactions in the face of the fight and proceedings of the legal wars
that resulted from the sit-in Movements waged by the Blacks.[1]
However, the White authorities remained adamant about giving them freedom and
meeting their civil rights demands. Therefore, the journal is relevant because
it presents all the legal concepts that ensued during the sit-ins and fight
against racial segregation. Moreover, another article significant to the
discussion is The Launching of the Sit-in
Movement: The Role of Black Women at Bennett College, written by Deidre
Flowers. The journal has information on the role played by women in the
encounters. According to the article, the participation of females at Bennett
College contributed to the declaration of the educational discrimination rule
as unconstitutional. Subsequently, such events are triggers that motivated
women to participate in the movements and sit-ins throughout the US.[2] It
is true to say that the Benett College women raised inspirations and
expectations of many Black women. That increased their confidence levels, that
when the demands are met, they would finally enjoy equal rights and freedoms.
Nevertheless, Old’s article Sit-Ins: Social Actions to End Segregation discusses
the start of the sit-in encounters, their progress throughout the nation and
how they contributed to the outbreak of the civil rights movements. The entire
explanation of the article helps people understand how the movements
established a strategy that was used to fight for people’s civil rights. For
instance, renowned public figure Martin
Luther king exploited the sit-in movements in the Montgomery bus boycott. That
occurred in Alabama, where Mahatma Gandhi also applied passive resistance
copied from the sit-in occurrences. Furthermore, as a result of the Blacks’
peaceful encounters related to the movements presented in the Washington Post,
Florida’s Governor, Collins, indicated that it was unethical for the White
people to work in the same places with the Blacks but ended up with them
discriminating against them at lunch encounters.[3] That means the journal
discusses the significant social revolutions that included the Blacks and how
they contributed to an end to racial segregation.
Consequently, The Wiley-Bishop Student Movement: A Case Study in the 1960 Civil
Rights Sit-In by Donald Seals gives an insight into the relations between
the civil rights movements and the student sit-ins in the US. For example, the
article presents that the Texas sit-in organized and controlled by college
students was most iconic. The Blacks were allowed to use all the public
facilities equally. Most of the student participants were later introduced to
the movement created by Martin Luther. Therefore, the article presents a
holistic view and series of the peaceful activities that contributed to racial
discrimination within the US. In this case, the Blacks were liberated and
allowed to access education, good housing and public facilities for all.[4] That
means the article is relevant because it provides information on the sit-ins
experienced in the 1950s by the college learners and the significance of the
1960s civil rights associations. James Farmer became the most iconic for the big four, who assisted in fights for
equal civil rights.
Martin’s article The Lawson Affair, the sit-ins and Beyond,
also has some important contributions on the Sit-ins and the civil rights
movements. In the discussion presented by Lawson, who witnessed the events
ensued in Tennessee and later the civil rights associations. James was among
the six black students who were enrolled at Vanderbilt, the Divinity School. He was a key witness in the peaceful
demonstrations, which involved both the police and students. Rather than being
fair, the law enforcers acted as key masterminds in triggering the public to
engage in the promotion of violence. The article discussed James Lawson’s
involvement, the sit-in encounters in Nashville, and the general results that
came out of it. As a result of the inequalities that the African Americans
experienced from the policies, the sit-ins made James be expelled from school
for his involvement in the civil rights fights. Moreover, James explains the
unlawful arrests and detentions that came from the peaceful demonstrations in
Tennessee.[5] The
African-Americans got arrested just for coming out openly and condemning racial
discrimination in educational institutions and the various restrictions on
their residential places, restaurants they would be served in. When some of the
journal articles discuss the positive effects of the sit-ins and how they
motivated the African-Americans to fight for equal rights, Martin’s article
explains the suffering and oppression experienced by them in their various
encounters. Student expulsions, continuous bullying and detentions are some of
the experiences and effects of the Sit-ins.
According to Oppenheimer’s “Institutions
of Higher Learning and the 1960 Sit-Ins, the Negroes are described as one
of the most influential groups that participated in mass social action against
the American authorities. The students in these groups had heightened morale
that united them in the face of the inequalities. First, the Negro group began
by developing a differentiated economic framework to provide services to the
whole race. The majority of the population were offered opportunities within
the civil rights unions and got trained as well. During the initial 1960s,
students were involved in the social movements as they continued to succeed in
their door or die social demonstrations. However, the group also faced
unprecedented failure in their social actions.[6]
Their failure was heavily related to the action directed by the resistance
level from the discriminative pressures. As from the studies, the higher the
number of the Negroes in a particular region accounted for more threats to the
dominant White population within the same area. Continuous economic and
political developments led to high demand for educational reforms and services
to the college Negros. That also made the Black movements continue enjoying
freedom and popularity across the US.[7]
This article is a significant and effective source as it contributes to
information on the Negro groups’ involvement within the Sit-ins and civil
rights movements.
Conclusively, the essay has discussed
the literature review of most sources related to sit-ins and how they
effectively present their importance within the civil rights movements, the
1960s. The sit-in movement’s progress was a key contributor to the end of the
racial discrimination that occurred in the US. During this era, new policies
and regulations were adopted to bring an end to the inequalities. A decent
number of the Black participants got arrested, while others weres detained by
the law enforcement departments. However, the positive effects of the Sit-ins
we continue to remember as they contributed to the formation of civil rights
movements. Subsequently, it opened future opportunities with the majority of
the students joining activism. The occurrences assured people that well-coordinated
and peaceful encounters were powerful and attracted masses who assisted civil
rights movements. They applied both legal activism and mass protests.
Bibliography
Flowers,
Deidre B. "The launching of the student sit-in movement: The role of Black
women at Bennett College." The
Journal of African American History 90, no. 1-2 (2005): 52-63. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/JAAHv90n1-2p52
Martin
Jr, A. W. "The Lawson Affair, the Sit-Ins, and Beyond: Observations of an
Eyewitness." Tennessee
Historical Quarterly 75, no. 2 (2016): 142-165. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26540228
Milewski,
Melissa. "Christopher W. Schmidt. The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in
the Civil Rights Era." (2019): 1105-1106. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz494
Olds,
Victoria M. "Sit-ins: Social action to end segregation." Social Work 6, no. 2 (1961):
99-105. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23708066
Oppenheimer,
Martin. “Institutions of Higher Learning and the 1960 Sit-Ins: Some Clues for
Social Action.” The Journal of Negro
Education 32, no. 3 (1963): 286–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2294379.
Seals,
Donald. "The Wiley-Bishop Student Movement: A Case Study in the 1960 Civil
RightsSit-ins." The
Southwestern Historical Quarterly 106, no. 3 (2003): 418-440. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239346
Searles, Ruth, and J. Allen Williams. “Negro College
Students’ Participation in Sit-Ins.” Social
Forces 40, no. 3 (1962): 215–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/2573631.
[1] Milewski, Melissa. "Christopher W. Schmidt. The Sit-Ins: Protest
and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era." (2019): 1105-1106. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz494
[2] Flowers, Deidre B. "The launching of the student sit-in movement:
The role of Black women at Bennett College." The Journal of African American History 90, no. 1-2 (2005):
52-63. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/JAAHv90n1-2p52
[3] Olds, Victoria M. "Sit-ins: Social action to end
segregation." Social Work 6,
no. 2 (1961): 99-105. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23708066
[4] Seals, Donald. "The Wiley-Bishop Student Movement: A Case Study in
the 1960 Civil Rights Sit-ins." The
Southwestern Historical Quarterly 106, no. 3 (2003): 418-440. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239346
[5] Martin Jr, A. W. "The
Lawson Affair, the Sit-Ins, and Beyond: Observations of an
Eyewitness." Tennessee
Historical Quarterly 75, no. 2 (2016): 142-165. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26540228
[6] Oppenheimer,
Martin. “Institutions of Higher Learning and the 1960 Sit-Ins: Some Clues for
Social Action.” The Journal of Negro
Education 32, no. 3 (1963): 286–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2294379.
[7] Searles, Ruth, and J. Allen Williams. “Negro College Students’
Participation in Sit-Ins.” Social
Forces 40, no. 3 (1962): 215–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/2573631.




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