The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee or the SNCC, as the name suggests, revolved around peaceful forms of resistance to the white supremacy ideologies that not only warranted the enslavement of blacks in the antebellum period but also cemented the grounds of segregation. In other words, because of the racial divisions that existed between persons of African descent and their white counterparts, American societies functioned around a social hierarchy that made whites the predominantly superior race at the expense of blacks. Now, to end the racial injustices in the Southern States, the first method that the SNCC employed encompassed the “empowering [of] ordinary blacks” (Foner, 2013, p.770). Apparently, as the SNCC reckoned, if the people possessed the right ideas they would have better control of their lives, and a positive change of the African American populace was sure to disrupt the social order. Secondly, the SNCC made white individuals another target in their efforts. Consequently, and with the Non-violent clause in mind, the committee resorted to peaceful demonstrations that brought the plight of African Americans to the Caucasians’ attention. A perfect illustration of the given claim is evident in the SNCC’s participation in “March on Washington’ on August 28, 1963 (Foner, 2013, p.772). Their actions served two purposes: they showed the SNCC was indeed fighting for all black people and that diplomacy was central to their activities.
At a personal level, Malcolm X represented what one would expect of an individual belonging to a racial group that was at the mercy of another race. In tMalcolm X’s views, peaceful protests were not the right tactics that the African Americans could employ to elevate their social standings or end the segregation laws imposed by the Caucasians. Accordingly, enfranchisement was not a relevant solution to “racism or poverty” because just as in the theoretical application of the Fourteenth Amendment, the law was incapable of changing traditions (Zinn, 2005, p.458). With the given facts in mind, Malcolm X had a better grasp of the problems that the black communities faced at the hands of the whites and, unlike other black leaders he sought to end white supremacy just as it began, with force.
No, the Black Panther Party was not similar to the Ku Klux Klan simply because the goals of the two groups greatly differed. The Ku Klux Klan existed to terrorize black people across the Southern States. Tales of brutal treatment and multiple sufferings by colored men and women at the hands of the Klan make up part of the saddest narratives about the Jim Crow South. Meanwhile, the Black Panther Party came into formation because of the Ku Klux Klan; in other words, not to terrorize people but to protect them from an enemy. In a newspaper article dubbed Racism Brutality in Seattle Court Room, there is information about the arrest of a Black Panther nominee by the southern police department for unclear reasons (1968, p.1). The detailed brutality where the mentioned candidate received beatings alongside another black male and female inside a courtroom highlight the injustices with which black people lived. As one would expect, Black Panther promptly dubbed such injustices as “an outrage” to African American communities (1968 p.1). In that sense, Black Panther Party did not exist to terrorize whites, but sought justice for the minority group of black people.
References
Foner, E. (2013). Give Me Liberty!: An American History (4th ed., Vol. II). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Racism Brutality in Seattle Court Room: Black Panther's Nominee Curtis Harris Attacked. (1968, September 19). Afro-American Journal, 1(43), 1. Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/display.cgi?image=bpp/news/AfAm_9-19-68.jpg
Zinn, H. (2005). A People's History of the United States . New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
