Summary

Though the March on Washington is now memorialized as quintessentially American, most Americans disapproved of it at the time and it was heavily monitored by both local police and the FBI. As a whole, the civil rights movement was largely opposed and disapproved of and its activists were demonized, monitored, and criminalized.

Rosa Parks wrote about the difficulty of being an activist, including the effort required and the ostracism she suffered. Her writings reveal the importance of perseverance, the loneliness of activism, and the fact that the Black community was not united around rebellion. Many student activists faced disapproval from their parents and discipline from their colleges, including Black colleges. If Black people were divided in terms of the best path forward, the majority of white people across the country were united against the movement. Martin Luther...