America's Long History of Nonviolent Protest

Last night’s riots in Baltimore have left me—and the rest of America—shocked, disgusted, and ashamed. Anyone who’s been to elementary school knows that the only effective means of protest is nonviolence. Here’s a history lesson for anyone who may have played hooky.

Before this country was founded, the colonies were controlled by the British Empire. In the most notable event in the colonies’ protests, somewhere between 30 and 130 men boarded three ships used for transporting tea. Careful not to destroy others’ property and livelihood, they sat on the deck of the ship and refused to leave. This “tea party” of 1773 was America’s first sit-in.

As we all know, the Boston tea party didn’t get the point across. Therefore, 56 men assembled in 1776 to sign a strongly worded letter to King George III. This letter, of course, was ever-after known as the Declaration of Independence. The king was so moved by their grievances—as well as Thomas Jefferson’s beautiful prose—that he immediately granted independence to the colonies. This prevented what historians agree would have been about 8 years of violent conflict and tens of thousands of lives lost.

The next big struggle for America dealt with slavery. The North thought slavery bad and tried to outlaw it, while the South thought it was economically useful and tried to secede from the union. The North decided to hold a referendum regarding the secession, which fell just a few votes short of passing. This meant that slavery was illegal throughout the country, once again through nonviolent negotiations.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 saddened the nation. Knowing that violence wasn’t the answer, over ten thousand American citizens sailed across the Pacific and marched in the streets of Tokyo calling for an end to the bombings.

By the 1960s, many parts of the United States were still segregated, and African Americans finally decided to do something about it. They organized boycotts and marches, which attracted attention from the authorities. People of color didn’t mind waiting many years to get protection of basic human rights, and as a result there were no riots in the ’60s. President Lyndon B. Johnson even said that if there had been any riots, he would have changed his mind about the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

This is obviously a very abbreviated history, and I encourage you to do your own research into the nonviolence that won us labor unions, Indian Reservations, and the end of the Vietnam War. America does not solve problems with violence, and whatever problem caused these riots in Baltimore will only be exacerbated by violence.