Civil Disobedience Thesis

The textbook definition of civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. We have seen throughout history the many acts of civil disobedience and it has come in many forms. From the Boston Tea party where the Americans dumped chests of tea into Boston harbor to go against British rule, to the more recent #Me too movement marches to get awareness for victims of sexual abuse. Looking through these events in history I argue that civil disobedience has helped us progress through the years. Civil disobedience should be encouraged to make societal progress although it should not be the first option. We should promote civil disobedience because it helps get people who

When injustice has presented itself to the American people we have gone against it and shown a passion for the injustice's expulsion. Civil disobedience is usually never the first option. Although, when we are not being heard or getting the actions promised it must be taken to that further step of civil disobedience. Dr. Martin Luther King discusses the factors that go into civil disobedience. In his writing “Letter from Birmingham jail,” he examines the promises made by Birmingham's economic community. “In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants--for example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial signs... As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise.” (King 38). Dr.King discusses how they gave the right authorities a chance to fix the problem, only to be led on an untruth of false hope. They took the first steps to getting the problem heard and fixed, however, it came to the point where no action took place to deal with the issue at hand like promised. People can only endure so much injustice before they take the problem into their own hands. Civil disobedience is the way most go when they are not being heard. Like Dr.King did they protest and boycott to show that they won't back down on their fight for justice. A more contemporary example of civil disobedience is the Abortion Rights protests of 2022, when the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade. Many individuals took the time out of their day whether it was taking the day off of work or walking out of their everyday lives to protest the unfair ruling on female bodies. They created signs and took to prominent political sites to be seen and heard by the public to show their disapproval of the ruling. Unlike the insurrection of January 6th they stayed peaceful and nonviolent using their words instead of their fists. When we have