Printer-friendly versionThis piece is to accompany No School Like Freedom School
The most powerful component of the Montgomery Bus Boycott was the people who identified the injustice, devised a strategy to change it, and developed methods to communicate the plan and use alternative transportation.
It’s a perfect example of the type of effective grassroots movement we saw recently as protesters in the Occupy movement sprang up across the country.
“The Occupy movement is the Montgomery Bus Boycott of our day,” says Kathy Emery, executive director of the San Francisco Freedom School. She says building an effective movement requires “planning, strategizing and thorough training in the discipline of nonviolent direct resistance.”
There is no one way to effect change. What’s needed is steady conversation exploring the issues needing change, says Emery. In addition to use of the arts and nonviolent resistance, the following steps help build a movement:
Think creatively about solutions to problems.
Build relationships one at a time.
Form networks and coalitions.
Study the civil rights movement.
Locate the civil rights veterans in your community and learn from them.
Take direct action.
