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While much has been written about why people join social movements in general, little has been written about why people specifically join either militant or nonviolent social movements. Using the Black Panther Party as an example of a militant social movement and the mainstream Civil Rights Movement as an example of a nonviolent movement, we see why people joined both types of movements. Six categories of reasons emerge and explain why people choose to join either militant or nonviolent social movements. Comparing the reasons people joined the Black Panther Party with the reasons that people joined the mainstream Civil Rights Movement we find that people do not join militant social movements for the same reasons that they join nonviolent social movements. The largest difference is that while it was common for Civil Rights Movement members to speak of a religious obligation when explaining why they joined the nonviolent movement, this type of language was not use by Black Panther Party members. Therefore we can conclude that nonviolent social movement leaders should try use religion as a tool not only when they are recruiting new movement members, but also to keep current members from becoming frustrated. |
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