Civil Disobedience In The Civil Rights Movement

The greatest revolutionaries of the United States of America, both past and present, answer to values, principles of American culture and widely-accepted beliefs. They do not answer to laws. The belief that obedience to laws is a sign of patriotism is deeply flawed in the fact that the original patriots of the thirteen colonies were everything except obedient to their government. In the ideal democracy, the core values, moral justices, of the people will be reflected in the laws of the nation. When a split in laws and moral justice occurs, it is the right and obligation of the people of said nation to act as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson; it is their duty to disobey.

The Declaration of Independence, itself, was a document

Anthony accepted arrest for voting in 1872. Anti-Vietnam War protests of illegally burning draft cards surged through the 1960s. Likely the most memorable era of civil disobedience was the 1960s, and this civil disobedience most notably was in protest against racial discrimination. Such civil disobedience by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. stressed the importance of mass civil disobedience, the practice of which brought such notable changes to the law including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Civil disobedience produces results, and generally only the most passionate will participate in civil disobedience. No person wants to tread the difficult trail when it would be much easier to follow the herd along the easy route of following laws. Yet, those who still hold passion for moral truths disobey the law when unjust, and this is a true testament to the power of American perseverance. Most recently, the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline have brought more attention to the pipeline. This is another strong effect of civil disobedience. Even when no legal change is brought about immediately, attention to the cause still promotes change for the future. Though Susan B. Anthony never was given the chance to legally vote, her civil disobedience led the way for millions of

However, democracy can never please every citizen of the United States, and the will of the majority may override the civil rights of a minority, as seen with how slaves suffered for over two hundred years at the will of the white majority. No government can ever please everyone, and the argument can be made that perhaps the rules of one generation should not ever be passed on to the next. The Bill of Rights accounts for freedoms to question the United States, but often acting within those First Amendment rights is not enough to gain the traction necessary to bring problems to the forefront or produce adequate or immediate change. Racism and sexism are not new issues in the United States, but the growth of social media and the internet has given those with the courage to speak out against such injustices more means to share their beliefs. Strongly worded essays can only achieve so much. If writing could achieve everything, nothing further than the Declaration of Independence would have been needed to secure American independence. The Sons of Liberty and militia around the colonies needed to all participate in civil disobedience in order to achieve real freedom from Britain.

Civil disobedience is no new practice, although 2016 has brought about more visible civil disobedience mostly due to the passion ignited by the presidential election. The Constitution of the United States was not perfect when first written,