Nonviolent Resistance as a Path to Change

Despite the frequent wars and violent protests of the 20th century, movements around the world also used nonviolence to bring about political change. Three of these movements were particularly large and effective, in part because of their visionary leaders.

Mohandas Gandhi Topic 7.5 described how Mohandas Gandhi led nonviolent marches, boycotts, and fasts to oppose British colonial rule in India. In 1947, India became independent.

Martin Luther King Jr. The most prominent of African American civil rights leaders in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s was a Baptist minister, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights movement used various tactics to achieve its goals:

• Court decisions, such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that banned forced racial segregation of schools in the United States

• A year-long boycott of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama (1955–1956), which ended segregation in public transit

• Massive marches, such as the 250,000-person March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1964

These efforts provided the foundation for the movement’s biggest successes, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which is covered in Topic 9.5.

Nelson Mandela In South Africa, the white-minority government codified a system of racial segregation, called apartheid, into law in the 20th century. Leading the black resistance to apartheid was a socialist lawyer, Nelson Mandela (1918–2013). Though early in his life he sometimes supported sabotage and other forms of violence, he was known for leading nonviolent protests. The victory over apartheid is described in Topic 9.5.