How does this add to your understanding of nonviolence?
Workshops in Nonviolence
Read the document in the above link. You only have to read the introduction and part 1 and 2 on the first page and that's it. Don't read on as it will take more time. You could check out one of the scenarios they present if you so desire.
Then answer these questions:
1. What is the purpose of this document?
2. Why did CORE believe it was important to train people in nonviolence?
3. What, if anything, surprises you about this document? Why?
Making a brief slideshow - no more than 8 slides.
What did those principles of nonviolence look like in practice?
With your partner, join another pair to form a group of four. With your group, choose one of the following events from the civil rights movement: Montgomery Bus Boycott; integration of
Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock; lunch-counter sit-ins; voter registration
drives (Freedom Summer!); Birmingham Children’s March; 1963 March on Washington; march from
Selma to Montgomery.
Research (as briefly as possible) your chosen event. After you have read about the event, copy the “Six Principles of Nonviolence” into a slideshow. With the members of your group,
see how—or if—each principle was part of the action you have read about. Present to class in 2-3 minutes.
Then...
Think about how nonviolence might be a way to approach injustice today. The problems might be in
your own community—for example, maybe there are homeless people living on the
street—or they might be larger-scale—for example, racial profiling by police or workplace
discrimination faced by Muslim Americans. With your group recall the different nonviolent strategies that were used during the civil rights movement. Which, if any, of these strategies might be useful for addressing the problem you’re looking at? Why do you think they would be useful? Which, if any, might not be so useful for addressing the problem? Why do you think they would not be useful?
