Most white southerners believed in the 1950s that they lived in a humane racial system; their myth was that they treated black people wel. They also believed that black people accepted segregation, except for a few malcontents. It was shocking for them to see nicely dressed black college students reading their textbooks while sitting at a lunch counter waiting for coffee, when they could get takeout coffee at the back door. Doubly shocking to see white men beating them up. Two secrets were exposed at once: black people want freedom, and segregation requires violence. Millions of slogans on picket signs could not do what a simple sit-in could do. Campaigns have power when we get beyond words-when we show rather than tell.

— How We Win by George Lakey (Page 96 - 97)