Civil Rights Through Civil Disobedience In March By John Lewis

Civil Rights Through Civil Disobedience "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison" (Thoreau). This is a quote from Civil Disobedience, an essay written by Henry David Thoreau in 1849. Within this essay, Thoreau emphasizes the importance of taking action to combat injustice instead of doing nothing beyond pointing it out and calling it wrong. Civil Disobedience eventually became a strong influence for the civil rights movement, as illustrated in the graphic novel March by John Lewis. The book tells the story of the civil rights movement from John Lewis' perspective, enlightening its audience with numerous previously unknown details about various protests and marches during the time

Such was the case for both slavery and segregation. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau wrote that "a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it." Shortly after, he continued, "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward" (Thoreau). This resembles the perspective of the civil rights leaders. Primarily, their focus was on being men and achieving justice for their people. In order to do this, they were willing to break any laws they deemed necessary. In the book, this can be seen in many instances. After one sit-in at the downtown lunch counters in Nashville, the police showed up and arrested many of the protestors. Lewis stated, "82 of us went to jail that day" (1:104). It was the first of many arrests for him. The members of the movement still remained subjects secondarily; they followed laws that they viewed as morally right, as proven by their use of nonviolence. Nonviolent protesting is all about refraining from fighting back and hurting attackers physically or verbally, damaging property, etc. "The hardest part to learn--to truly understand, deep in your heart--was how to find love for your attacker" (Lewis et al 1:82). Love was the focus of their movement, not violence. In other words, they did not kill, steal, assault, or anything else that is common sense for a man of

"If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood" (Thoreau). Thoreau made this claim to show the readers that without the money they pay the government, war and bloodshed cannot continue. By refusing to pay bail money in so many instances throughout the civil rights movement, the members of this movement were abiding by this principle. After his first arrest, Lewis and the others would not pay bail, even when it was reduced to $5. "We weren't about to cooperate in any way with the system allowing the very discrimination we were protesting" (Lewis et al 1:105). Again, after being arrested around the time of the freedom rides, Lewis declares, "But for me, and nearly every other freedom rider, we just would not pay that fine" (2:97). Had they paid the bail money, the state government simply would've received more money it could spend on enforcing segregation