Civil Movements are Often Practiced

In The Power of Moments, the authors describes a campaign in one city in the US to remove segregation, specifically the whites-only lunch counters. Here’s the surprising aspect of that (successful) movement:

“What’s less well-known about this story is that the demonstrators didn’t just show courage. They practiced it. They rehearsed it.”

Huh? A civil rights leader from the era, James Lawson explains:

“The difficulty with non-violent people and efforts is that they don’t recognize the necessity of fierce discipline and training.”

Lawson taught the crowd “how to behave”, how to avoid breaking other laws, how to step-in for others, even how to dress for the occasion! But he didn’t stop there: he had them engage in role-plays. He got in white friends to come in, to crowd the protestors, to try and provoke them, even push them a bit.

“The simulated attacks were brutal but essential… (Lawson wanted to teach them how to) suppress the natural urges to fight back or run away.”

And so the crowd was ready when they hit the streets:

“They were afraid, of course, but they had learned to restrain their fear.”

Being prepared, practicing. That makes sense, right?

Now consider what Wyatt Walker, another black civil rights activist, did a few years later at another city, Birmingham. The authorities knew enough not to attack the black protestors, something that would get caught on camera and be broadcast nationwide on the still new medium called TV. So Walker came up with a plan, explained in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath.

He persuaded parents to send school kids out for the protest. Let them get arrested. Over a few hundred kids did get arrested. The jails were in the city were now full. Time for Step 2. The authorities lined up fire engines for the all too common water cannons used for crowd control. Walker made sure the fire fighters were in the boiling sun for long, ensuring their patience would be low. Then he got out even more school kids for the protests. The jails were full, so no more arrests could be made. And so the water cannons “had” to be turned on. It was an ugly sight: kids getting soaked, thrown against walls. And then came Step 3. Another “front” was opened up in another part of town with yet more kids. With no more water cannons, the authorities “had” to use police dogs, one of which attacked a kid and… got caught on camera, a clip that went viral on TV.

Which is more horrifying here? The fact that one of their leaders played such a “complex and duplicitous game” to bait the other side to show their worst colors on TV? Or that blacks had been backed into a corner to such desperate measures?

This too was a form of preparation, of meticulous planning. Was this going too far? Or is this, as Gladwell says, the only way David can beat Goliath, by preparing and forcing the terms of engagement to suit David?