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Guards It may be hard for you to think of some guards as people, but it may be hard for them to think of you that way, too. Keep in mind that they are there to do a job, and protests should be reserved for situations when guards are harsh, rather than when they are simply carrying out duties. "Our matron, a formidable looking woman from Alabama, was at first very rough with the girls. She rarely spoke, and although we thought she was sympathetic to us as prisoners, we were sure she hated us as Free- dom Riders. But some of the girls, in the true nonviolent spirit, saw her as a human being and not as a sym- bol of authority and oppression. Little by little they began to speak to har At firet it was iuat 'good ee Pe ee morning' or ‘thank you, ' and “then we began to joke with her and have longer and longer conversations. Before | left Parchman she was singing for us on our make-believe radio programs and was often heard humming our freedom songs." Marilyn Eisenberg, in We Shall Overcome 106 Agitation inside the jail Many persons when they go to jail take the attitude of Gandhi, which is that jail is not a grim necessity 20 much ae an honorable aae. eiVhiterbsit sseuswse Teer Cees sss A OK OS vice for the cause, If Gandhi broke the law, even an unjust law, he willingly accepted the punishment. This is why it is called civil disobedience rather than criminal disobedience. However, Gandhi felt that if the prisoner's dignity was being trampled on and his rights as a prisoner being violated, resistance inside prison became a duty. In India prisoners some- times refused to cooperate with the guards as a means of correcting wrongs. One of the common ways civil rights actionists demonstrate inside the prison is by noise-making. Spoons are hit against the bars, there is yelling, and shoes are pounded on the walls until the authorities make the concession, While noise-making is sometimes effective, it is not well-suited to maintaining a nonviolent discipline and can get out of control and become a riot with windows being smashed and prisoners and guards getting hurt. Another method of demonstrating is to conduct sit-downs when outside the cell or when moving from one place to another. An impor- tant precaution here is that you should relax your body as much as possible, for tissue can be damaged and torn when you are lifted or dragged if your muscles are tensed. 107