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Activist Participation In The Civil Rights Movement

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The statement made by Martin Luther King jnr. (King), “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” is indeed very true, relating to the effectiveness of protests for civil rights. Despite the efforts made to achieve these objectives of civil rights many times the protesters did not succeed, due to the fact that the government often ignored these problems even though they were aware of their wrongfulness.

In the minds of the committed protesters, they too believed that the social movements ultimately did not succeed. Activists participating in social movements were driven by democratic ideals affecting them and their communities and often disregarded political reform as success. Some of their ideals could not be implemented by the government and were only recognized within the activist community. Although protests did provide change, with regards to civil rights of excluded groups, many protests struggled for more “radical transformation” then what they achieved. Similarly, black activists in the United States of America (USA) of the 1960s ultimately were seeking more than to achieve the civil rights acts (Carson, no date: 19.) …show more content…
The first was developed before the Civil War (1861-65). The aftermath of this war, affected the victors even more so than those who had lost (Marable, 2007: 12). Almost a century later a “second reconstruction” occurred. This included a number of massive confrontations concerning their civil rights of black Americans and other national minorities. Both movements ended “in-racial structures”. However still left newly elected African American working class leaders with social issues to last throughout their leadership (Marable, 2007:

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