Evolution of Social Movements

Paper Summary:

This paper shows how the powers of social movements are derived primarily from injustice in society. The paper looks at the civil rights, feminist and anti-war movements in the nineteen-sixties that demonstrated how once a social movement gains momentum it can produce wider public dissatisfaction with the status quo and compel elected officials to take action against injustice. The paper points out, however, that the power to affect social change in society tends to be fluid, for once a social movement achieves a certain degree of social change, it meets increasing resistance, which reduces its power.

From the Paper:

"The Civil Rights Movement of the nineteen-sixties began because of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in 1955, which inspired African-Americans to increase their efforts to win equality. Parks (1999) notes that a few years later, when Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent the FBI into the South in 1962 to enforce laws, prevent violence, and protect civil rights activists, it sent a strong message that the time for racial justice had arrived and that racial segregation must be ended."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Anti-Vietnam War Movement." (2006). CE. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th Edition. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Freeman, Jo. (2006). "The Women's Liberation Movement: Its Origins, Structures, and Ideas." CWLU. Online. Available: http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLU Archive/histwom.html. 10 August 2006.
• "Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail." (1963). Online. Available: http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html. 10 August2006.
• Parks, Rosa. (1999). Rosa Parks: My Story. New York: Puffin Books.

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