The twentieth century saw the civil rights movement emerge as a response to unfulfilled promises and also the experience faced by black soldiers during the second world war. The African Americans fought in a separated military while being told about liberty, justice and equality. After the fighting ended, the African American veterans returned home, determined to fight for the rights of full citizenship. The civil rights formed by the veterans came up with different strategies which included legal action, non-violent civil disobedience and black power.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People initiated lawsuits in the supreme court challenging the segregation of black in the society. The ruling held that the separate facilities were inherently unequal and therefore declared segregation in public education to be unconstitutional.
The authorities in the south refused to implement the court orders to desegregate, and now civil rights groups turned to non-violent civil disobedience, Martin Luther King JR emerged as the leader of this movement. This was the first such direct mass action of the contemporary civil rights movement and provided further efforts of activists across the country.
Malcolm X spearheaded the formation of the black-power movement who advocated for the blacks to be self-reliant, maintain cultural pride and have self-defence in the face of racial violence.
Mass direct action through non-violent civil disobedience was effective because it attracted wide media coverage of the protesters being beaten and harassed by the police.
Khan Academy. (n.d.). The civil rights movement: An introduction (article). https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/civil-rights-movement/a/introduction-to-the-civil-rights-movement