Existing comment:
"Ain't Scared of Your Jails"
Their elders in the civil rights movement used legal action to fight segregation. The new generation of leaders took direct action. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of nonviolence, Nashville divinity student James Lawson held training sessions on how to react to confrontations with segregationists. SNCC students faced the ferocity of a dying power structure, especially as they pushed into the Deep South where states fought to preserve white supremacy. Racist authorities, the Ku Klux Klan and white vigilantes were their adversaries. Clubs, pipes, cattle prods and attack dogs were the attackers' weapons. Fractured skulls, broken ribs and long jail sentences were the prices the students paid. Demanding "jail, no bail," the students kept the focus on the injustice of segregation. |