For many marginalized groups, nonviolence is but one of many tactics used against the powers oppressing them. The Black Panther Party’s nonviolent actions, particularly their community programs, were far more than a tactic though.
civil rights
A Militant Priest’s Nonviolence: Critical Reception of Father Groppi
As marches proliferated in the Jim Crow South during the 1960s, movements also gathered in the North, protesting segregated housing and unequal treatment of Black Americans. In Milwaukee, a priest named Father Groppi—after witnessing the maltreatment of Black Milwaukeeans throughout his youth and adulthood—decided to use his position in church leadership to aid the efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to achieve fair housing.
James Farmer: Co-Founder of CORE
James Farmer was “one of the major leaders of the African American freedom struggle.”
Teaching History as an Act of Nonviolent Protest: SNCC’s Freedom Schools and History Curriculum
This article was written by Axell Boomer and was awarded the Civil Resistance Prize by the History Department in 2024. It was originally written for the Nonviolence Project: As systemic inequalities—which arrived from the institution of American slavery—manifested themselves into the classroom, Black students were left with less federal support than White students in the American South. Black students in Mississippi, despite comprising fifty-seven percent of “school-aged children,” received “only thirteen percent of state funds.”
Uncovering Apartheid: The Conclusion
This article is the third of a three-part series that dives deep into the nearly five decades of Apartheid in South Africa and the movements of non-violence that impacted it. If you have not already read the first two articles, I suggest exiting this article and doing so as it will provide additional context and clarity.
Barrier Breakers – Remembering Ada Deer
Earlier this month, on August 15th, the esteemed Menominee leader Ada Deer passed away. Her impact on Native communities across the nation, as well as her influence at UW-Madison, was enormous and serves as inspiration to all who hear her story.
Uncovering Apartheid: The Defiance
This article is the second of a three-part series that dives deep into the nearly five decades of Apartheid in South Africa and the movements of non-violence that impacted it. If you have not already read the first article, I suggest exiting this article and doing so, as it will provide additional context and clarity.
University Failure and Student Response – Linking Today to the 1960s
Earlier this month, a horrific, hate-filled video of a UW-Madison student spouting racist slurs, threats, and a desire to own enslaved people began circulating around the UW-Madison community. It didn’t take long for the video and responses to it to go viral online, resulting in a petition for the expulsion of the students involved with the video amassing tens of thousands of signatures.
CORE Set the Foundation
When taught about the civil rights movement the names of Martin Luther King, Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, the NCAA, and various others are brought up, but many have never heard of the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE. It is important to understand the impact this group had on civil rights and the fight against discrimination in the United States.
Dr. Matthew Levin’s Cold War University and UW-Madison’s Legacy of Student Activism
Dr. Matthew Levin’s Cold War University offers a look at the circumstances that surrounded UW-Madison’s burst on to the national scene in the mid 20th century as one of the most politically active campuses in America. Through an interview with Dr. Levin himself and an analysis of his book, this article discusses how Wisconsin’s politically diverse climate, combined with the blending of in-state and out-of-state students informed what would become an epicenter of anti-war and Civil Rights protests.