Dorothy Day's Role In Civil Disobedience

Civil rights activist Dorothy Day once said, "If I have achieved anything in my life, it is because I have not been embarrassed to talk about God.” Instead of showing fear of what others expect of her, Day stood strong in her religious stand points and proclaimed her thoughts. Dorothy Day’s involvement in civil disobedience was due to personal influences, she chose to participate in civil disobedience in a religious point of view, and she did achieve success using this controversial method of standing up for what she strongly believes to be right. Civil disobedience is when a person or group protests a law that they find morally wrong. The person is usually peaceful and will accept whatever consequences arise due to breaking the law (Suber). People use civil disobedience to draw attention to the laws they find morally wrong and to get the laws changed (Starr). To understand Dorothy Day’s role in civil disobedience, one must first have knowledge of her personal life. Day was born on November 8, 1897, in New York City. Grace and John Day, active journalists, had five children; Dorothy was the third. From 1914 to 1916, Day attended the University of Illinois,

She found herself in a spiritual awakening after Teresa entered the world. Day took her to the Catholic church to be baptized and later converted over to Catholicism herself in late 1972 (Dorothy). Dorothy’s first arrest gave her forty-five days in jail after she turned down the required involvement in civil defense drills (A Woman). Day’s main act of civil disobedience was the sit in at City Hall to punish America for utilizing nuclear weapons on Japan; the small group with her had strong faith in God. The year after that, Day spent five days in jail and that next year was sentenced thirty but only served five again. In 1973, at age seventy-five, Day was arrested for participating in a protest to help farmworkers