The Freedom to Assemble Program: Protest, Place, and the Civil Rights Movement – Maymester

The Freedom to Assemble Program: Protest, Place, and the Civil Rights Movement will involve a direct examination of the use of protest and demonstrations during the Civil Rights movement and government response. Specifically, the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from abridging the right of individuals to peaceably assemble, and Civil Rights Movement participants regularly used the act of protests, demonstrations, and marches to fight against inequality, segregation, and racism. However, these protests were often met with aggressive responses and arrests to either end protests or block protests before they began through the use of legal injunctions.