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Nonviolence and Differentiation in the Equal Rights Movement
Author(s) -
Wehr Paul E.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1968.tb00674.x
Subject(s) - militant , ideology , action (physics) , sociology , movement (music) , divergence (linguistics) , social movement , direct action , population , political economy , social change , law , collective action , political science , criminology , gender studies , aesthetics , politics , philosophy , linguistics , physics , demography , quantum mechanics
The larger movement for racial equality in the United States has experienced considerable structural and ideological differentiation in the past decade, largely as a consequence of disagreement over tactics to be employed. Two direct‐action sub‐movements, the southern sit‐ins and the urban riots, best illustrate the divergence with the former committed to tactical nonviolence and the latter to violent means of effecting social change. To regain the momentum lost through this differentiation, certain leaders must reorganize a major part of the black population around a tactical approach that acknowledges both the peculiar needs and temper of the potential protestors, and the nature and tolerance level of the system it seeks to change. Responding to these criteria, the approach may develop in the form of an extremely militant but basically nonviolent tactic of social disruption, combining all but the most violent techniques used to date by equal rights activists.