A recent civil disobedience training session hosted by Cleveland VOTES brought together organizers and community members to study the structure behind some of the most effective movements in history.

Facilitated by Rev. Raymond Greene Jr. of The Freedom BLOC, the session focused less on protest in the moment and more on movement-building as a discipline. As Greene put it, “Power is not given. It is built, organized and strategically applied.”

The training, hosted on March 31 at the nonprofit’s offices in the Flats, started with some grounding as a group of about 20 people sat in a circle. Greene’s main point: Civil disobedience is not new.

He gave examples from resistance to colonial rule in India – like the Salt March led by Mahatma Gandhi – to earlier acts of defiance like Harriet Tubman guiding enslaved people to freedom. He reminded the group that organized resistance today is part of a longer, global tradition. What has changed is not the existence of resistance, but how it is structured and sustained.

Leaning on King

The training leaned heavily on the philosophy and framework of Martin Luther King Jr., treating his work not as history but as strategy. Nearly 60 years after his assassination in April of 1968, participants in Cleveland engaged with his ideas as something to be applied – not just remembered. The question of “why now” rippled throughout the room. Participants described wanting more than reaction, saying they were looking for strategy, structure and direction. 

Greene made the urgency plain: “We are dying,” he said.

The session was intentionally interactive. The day opened with an energizing group activity (jokingly described as a “battle”), followed by a post-lunch karaoke moment that kept the room engaged. That mattered because the content was heavy. 

Here are seven takeaways from the Cleveland VOTES training session.

1. Community is built by roles, not just relationships

Movements function when people have defined roles. Not everyone marched during the civil rights movement. Some organized logistics, others coordinated communication, raised funds or supported behind the scenes. Community, in this sense, was not just about belonging – it was about function. The training pushed participants to reconsider how quickly people are labeled as “not part of the movement,” when, in reality, movements have always relied on visible and invisible roles working together.

In practice now:
Instead of asking who is (or is not) showing up, the question becomes: What is needed and where can people fit?

2. Collective work requires collective sacrifice

Movement work requires giving something up, often time, comfort, convenience or resources.

That sacrifice isn’t identical, but it is shared. Progress depends on the ways people are contributing that may not be immediately rewarding.

In practice now:
This can look like sustained involvement, supporting work without certain types of  recognition or investing in efforts because it benefits the broader community, not just the individual.

3. Participation doesn’t always look the way we expect

The training challenged the narrow ideas of what it means to be “part of the movement.”

Actor Sidney Poitier, for example, quietly supported civil rights efforts financially, including helping to secure bail for activists. While widely respected, figures like Poitier were sometimes critiqued for operating in mainstream spaces – highlighting a tension that still exists. 

In practice now:
Participation can include funding, connecting networks or creating access – not just public-facing action.

4. Nonviolence is not weakness – it’s strategy and discipline

Nonviolence is often misunderstood. It is not passive, and it is not a lack of strength.

Participants in past movements trained for it. They learned how to endure confrontation, provocation and even violence without reacting in ways that would derail the strategy. That level of restraint required discipline, coordination and shared purpose.

Nonviolence, in this context, is a method. It is designed to expose injustice, shift perception and force response without reinforcing the systems it challenges. It also takes time. Campaigns like those in Birmingham and Selma were not spontaneous. They were built through planning, training and relationship-building long before they reached public view.

As Greene emphasized, “Nobody shows up to Selma and improvises. That takes time, and it takes relationship.”

In practice now:
Effective action requires preparation, alignment and the ability to stay disciplined – even when emotions are high.

5. Tension is not failure – it’s part of the strategy

Nonviolent direct action doesn’t avoid pressure, it creates pressure. Actions like the Birmingham Campaign deliberately exposed injustice by making it ultra visible and unavoidable.

Discomfort, in this context, is not a breakdown of the movement – it’s often the point.

In practice now:
Disruption and tension may signal that something is working, not that something has gone wrong.

6. Movements require working across differences

People within movements have never fully agreed. They come with different perspectives, strategies and lived experiences – but disagreement has not always prevented collaboration.

The training emphasized identifying alignment where it exists and resisting the impulse to disengage at the first sign of difference.

In practice now:
Working together requires navigating discomfort and focusing on shared direction rather than total agreement.

7. Collective action depends on trust and support systems

Strategies such as boycotts, noncooperation and disruption require people to take risks.

Without trust and shared support, those risks can feel unsustainable. This is where building infrastructure comes in: relationships, mutual aid, alternative solutions and resource-sharing. These are primary in the planning. They are what make collective action possible.

In practice now:
Building community before crisis, not during it, may be one of the most critical steps.

If there was one thread running through the day, it was this: None of this happens quickly.

The movements people study took time. Time to build trust, time to train, time to organize, and time to sustain. Movements don’t happen by accident or in a moment, Greene said.

Correction: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Raymond Greene’s last name.