Final answer:
Civil Rights Movement leaders prioritized certain narratives to confront racist social and legal norms effectively. Figures like Martin Luther King Jr. promoted nonviolent change, whereas others like Malcolm X and the Black Panthers addressed systemic issues through different lenses and more militant tactics. The movement's strategies inspired a range of other social justice movements.
Step-by-step explanation:
The leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were driven to emphasize certain narratives and marginalize some individuals due to the need to create a cohesive strategy that could address the deeply entrenched social and legal norms of racism. Individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. focused on nonviolent protest and legal change in a manner that appealed broadly to the conscience of the nation, whereas others, such as Malcolm X, addressed the frustrations and experiences of northern and western urban dwellers facing economic and spatial segregation not explicitly codified into law but nonetheless damaging.
Ella Baker's grassroots approach played a fundamental role, though she is less known possibly because she worked more behind the scenes, emphasizing group-centered leadership rather than charismatic figureheads. Her contributions, though critical, lacked the media attention that often hailed from speeches and public demonstrations led by notable leaders like King.
By the mid-to-late 1960s, the Movement shifted as figures like Stokely Carmichael and the rise of the Black Panther Party contributed to a more militant stance, galvanizing some activists and students who found the nonviolent strategies to be too slow in effecting change. The Black Panther Party, for instance, initiated community programs to address local needs, functions typically expected of the government, but the attention they received focused more on their militant posture than their community services.
The legacies of the Civil Rights Movement's strategies were broad, influencing other minority and social movements such as women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and movements among Latino, Native American, and other communities. The tactics, such as civil disobedience, organized protests, and legal challenges, translated across these various movements, as seen in the 1970s through the expansion of identity politics.