Direct Action Vs Legalism Civil Rights Movement

Words: 271
Pages: 2

I completely agree that legalism and direct action are two intertwining aspects of the Civil Rights Movement that should be studied along side one another. Mack’s declaration that ‘the success of the movement depended on the interplay of NAACP-style legalism and direct action practiced by other groups’ (178) is completely true and back by the fact that neither approach could stand independently. As King said, ‘a catalyst is needed to breathe life experiences into a judicial decision by the persistent exercise of the rights until they become usual and ordinary in human conduct’ (171). Legal actions, even ones as large as Brown v Board of Education cannot stand on their own because without people pressing for their rights to be acknowledged and