The Red Hen Restaurant In Lexington, Virginia Was Forced To Close After Protests And Threats

[Hekate]

36. He was engaged in civil disobedience (so-called to distinguish it from criminal disobedience)...

...and passive resistance.

The entire movement was not about saying "Howdy do, folks, thanks for breaking my skull and firehosing my friends into the street."

It was about expressing your right to live in civil society, go to school, ride a bus, and be served coffee at a public counter -- standing, sitting, walking where racists do not want you to be, and passively letting them hurt you and arrest you in front of cameras for the whole world to see.

This is street theater where people get hurt and even die. It does not work without mass media present to inform the world of the appalling injustice of the larger society.

Mahatma Ghandi developed it and used it for this exact reason, and ultimately the British couldn't take it any more and let India go. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. studied Ghandi and adapted the method for use in this country -- and the rest of the country was appalled. I was a little kid when the images of snarling police dogs and faces twisted with hate came into our living room via TIME, LIFE, and a b/w tv.

Civil disobedience is not the same as civilly passing the crumpets to a racist in your home. By the same token, you get to decide what sort of behavior you are willing to speak out against wherever you are. Publicly Shaming a member of this nakedly fascist regime seems like an idea whose time has come -- just be prepared to take the consequences.

NB: The issue of passively taking the beatings got to be old for some in the movement after several years. See: Malcolm X, Huey Newton, et al.