Civil Rights Movement the \"Integrationist\"

Civil Rights Movement

The "Integrationist" Phase of the Civil Rights Movement

The Integrationist Phase of the civil rights movement is best embodied by Martin Luther King, Jr. And his group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It is through King's leadership that the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s became integrationist, wherein both black and white Americans worked together to solidify the movement, influencing legislation on recognizing black American civil rights as equal to that of white American civil rights.

SCLC demonstrated the integrationist approach by creating an alliance with white Americans in the Northern region of the country, most of which are also Jews in identity. Among King's closest ally was Stanley Levinson, a Jew and member of the Communist Party at the time. Apart from Levinson, King also created alliances among Protestant ministers, wherein King's strong belief in the Protestant religion helped him forge a strong relationship with the dominant white American Protestant members.

The SCLC strategy under King's leadership was primarily the conduct of demonstrations as forms of protest. Protesting against racial segregation, King and the SCLC contributed significantly to the civil rights movement by going further than just conducting demonstrations, that is, lobbying legislature to recognize the civil rights of black Americans, particularly the right to vote and suspension of literacy tests required for voting. Through its active demonstrations and lobbying, SCLC, with King and black and white American civil rights activists, achieved success with the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The "Black Power" Phase of the Civil Rights Movement

Right after the success of Martin Luther King's fight against racial segregation through the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Black Power phase of the civil rights movement rapidly ascended to contest the congenial stance of King's SCLC.

The Black Power phase was best embodied by one of its leaders, Malcolm X, a Muslim convert who used the Islam religion as his philosophy in promoting the Black Power movement's objectives, which promotes the use of violence as replacement to moral idealism in the black Americans' fight against discrimination and prejudice. More than anything else, the Black Power movement promoted the use of violence directly against white Americans -- that is, black Americans need to use violence in order to protect themselves against the oppressive white American society.