Dalton RobertsOne of the protesters camped out on the courthouse lawn called me and asked what I thought of their protest. I asked, “What is it you are protesting?” and after fumbling a little with his answer, he finally said, “I am not sure.”
I said, “The most important thing in a protest movement is to have a clear message about what you are protesting. You can’t rally the troops without it and, more importantly, you cannot sway public opinion.”
The first point (rallying the troops) is essential to success. The reason the civil-rights movement prevailed was that there was a hard-core group of supporters who were convinced they were right, and many of them were willing to die for it. Indeed, many did.
The PBS documentary on that movement was a stirring account of a large number of people who would not be denied.
It was that kind of moral certainty that finally turned the tide and gained enough support among the people and their elected representatives to create positive change.