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Examples Of Civil Disobedience

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Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" is a powerful and influential essay that advocates for peaceful resistance to unjust laws and government actions. Thoreau argued that individuals have a duty to resist and disobey unjust laws, even if it means facing punishment, in order to promote change in society. Thoreau's ideas on civil disobedience have inspired numerous individuals and movements throughout history, including the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, and the Women's Suffrage Movement. Today, civil disobedience remains an important tool for activists and protestors seeking to bring attention to injustices and effect change in society. One example of civil disobedience in recent years is the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau Discusses Thoreau’s ideas on government and its effects on society. Thoreau’s

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“Unjust laws exist: Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them” (Thoreau 945, par.16). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had written about resisting an unjust government in his piece, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. In his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau also discusses the right and responsibility to resist an unjust government. Since King and Thoreau both use current events in their time as examples of injustice, use historical and biblical references, how they can’t wait any longer to make a change, both provide strong arguments on how important it is to stand up against the injustice put upon American people by the government; however, King and Thoreau were inspired to write by different causes

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676 Words | 3 Pages

Thoreau believes that an individual who acts with fairness, righteousness, and moral integrity has the ability to make a positive impact and influence societal change. heavily influenced by Gandhi's principles, expands on nonviolent civil disobedience as a collective and organized approach to challenge unjust laws and societal norms. He stresses the importance of direct action, peaceful protests, and that the power of love can overcome hate. Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" laid the groundwork for later civil rights movements, and its ideas on individual conscience and nonviolent resistance inspired people like Gandhi and King.

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Published in 1849, a time filled with slavery and prejudice laws, Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” was initially written as a speech to help express the importance of individuality amongst those under the government’s rule. Throughout his essay, Thoreau uses rhetorical techniques such as analogies for example, comparing men who serve the government to machines, to articulate his distrust towards the government, while emphasizing the active role that each citizen must play in it through standing up for their beliefs. He found it important to persuade civilians to oppose unjust government because many of the people around him were blindly following the government, without even considering their own moral conscience. Thoreau opens

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573 Words | 3 Pages

Acting civil, but disobedient, is a way to non-violently protest things you believe to be unfair. Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay called “Civil Disobedience” which has been used by many such as Martin Luther King Jr. to help fight injustice. King was a pastor and renowned speaker who headed the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King's “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was based on concepts he read in Thoreau's “Civil Disobedience”. While both writers discuss ways to be civil yet disobedient, they convince the readers in opposite ways.

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Civil Disobedience Compare and Contrast Henry Thoreau and Martin Luther King both wrote persuasive discussions that oppose many ideals and make a justification of their cause, being both central to their argument. While the similarity is obvious, the two essays, Civil Disobedience by Thoreau and Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. do have some similarities. King tries persuading white, southern clergymen that segregation is an evil, unfair law that ought to defeat by use of agitation of direct protesting. Thoreau, on the other hand, writes to a broader, non-addressed audience, and focuses more on the state itself. He further accepts it at its current state, in regard to the battle with Mexico and the institution of slavery.

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Civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or a system of laws. In the documents written by Henry Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr they clearly state their terms of just and unjust laws through a majority of appeals to emphasize the efficiency of their main idea on what civil disobedience is. Thoreau highlights his advocacy on civil disobedience in sufficient literal detail while King’s letter to the clergymen uses more examples of ethos and pathos to illuminate his main idea ultimately making his appeal more effective in my opinion. Henry Thoreau believed that the government was being unjust and he proposed the means of justice by using a more dry ethical and emotional appeal to prevail his main idea. In Civil Disobedience,

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It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right." (Jacobus, 306). He argues that it is up to each and every individual to stand up for their own rights and know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong. As said by Thoreau, by committing acts of civil disobedience or peaceful protests, citizens of the nations are able to have their voice to speak up against the wrongdoings of their own government. They bring attention to the more important issues at hand and allow opinions to be formed, and can thus spark change in society.

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In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” and Henry David Thoreau essay “Civil Disobedience,” both share their opinions on social injustice and civil disobedience. They both believe that people can protest unfair and unjust laws imposed on them in a civil way. In addition, King and Thoreau are challenging the government with their essays, which they wrote after they got sent to jail. For protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama, King spent eleven days in jail; Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax. Both King and Thoreau’s essays present similar plans for a resolution.

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He objected the injustices of war and slavery, and practiced civil disobedience in his daily life. In the time of Thoreau writing Civil Disobedience, many people believed revolution against the government had not been necessary since the time of the American Revolution. However, Thoreau believes that resisting an abusive government is especially important at this point in time considering that, "a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law." According to Thoreau, it is the duty of American citizens to promptly revolutionize against slavery and the Mexican-American War, which have both been supported by the corrupted American

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Civil disobedience is the refusal of something in a friendly manner. Politically, America is in a rough situation. America as a whole is slowly separating as a nation. For instance, African-Americans believe they are experiencing prejudice from “white” people. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana there a revolt organized by the infamous “Black Lives Matter” organization.

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Civil Disobedience by Thoreau is the refusal to obey government demands or commands and nonresistance to consequent arrest and punishment this had an extreme effect on Martin Luther King Jr and Mahatma Gandhi. They were fighting for different beliefs. However they both had the same believes about civil disobedience and they both end in the same place, jail. In the first place Gandhi believed that the only way to confronted injustice was with non-violent methods.

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It is 1945. The Second World War is still going on. The United States of America is in a war with their Pacific neighbours, Japan. It has been like this since December 7th ,1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor which triggered the battles. By July of 1945 no side was going to surrender .The

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For example, a little black woman who refused to stand on a bus showed civil disobedience because she believed in the rights of African Americans. This woman’s name was Rosa Parks. In 1955, on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. This act went against all social norms of the time and sparked the majority of civil rights debates. Through her act of civil disobedience, change occurred, and the first steps toward rights for African Americans were being taken.

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Civil disobedience is the deliberate action against an unjust law to invoke a positive change in government and society. Civilians have the right to refute these types of unjust laws to eliminate inequality and government’s unjust nature by following conscience before laws for moral guidance. As demonstrated in Antigone, this is depicted by the daughter of Oedipus, who disobeys Creon’s law for the greater good because of the laws unjust nature. In Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist, promotes this concept as well through his philosophical standpoint of the flaws of the government. Lastly, in Dr. King’s letter he qualifies the idea of civilians disobeying their government through non violent campaigns to stand up against

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