ABSTRACT
The 1951 Moton strike foreshadowed subsequent developments in the Civil Rights Movement, which included many actions by high school and college students. Violence had been one of the principal responses by white supremacists to Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War, it had helped to reestablish racial subjugation after the abolition of slavery, and it was needed to maintain Jim Crow. King and others worked hard to discourage violent responses by African Americans to the bombings and other violence against civil rights activists. A judicious use of violence in self-defense is widely regarded as justified, but violent replies to attacks during public civil rights actions were not tolerated by the leadership of most civil rights organizations. One of the most important organizers of the period was Ella Baker, who in 1960 was director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference SCLC, which had been organized by Reverend King after the Montgomery bus boycott.
