Ghettos and black American radicalism Violent activities during the 1950s and 1960s
In the early 1960s alternative approaches to the Civil Rights movement developed. Organisations which advocated different approaches included the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers.
From the early 1960s onwards, there were disagreements about what direction the civil rights movement should take. There were several reasons for this:
Martin Luther King began to doubt whether non-violent protests were effective, due to the high number of injuries and deaths of protesters.
The main aims of the campaign had been achieved. Efforts to end discrimination in the southern states were more or less over.
The problems experienced by black Americans in the northern ghettos had not been addressed. Many northern black people were attracted by a more aggressive approach to achieving equality.
The video below shows a black teenager, James Cross take a walk around Harlem and describe what its like living there in 1964.