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Examples Of Civil Disobedience

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Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience is an act that opposes the law peacefully, and are willing to accept the consequences to their decision. There is civil disobedience in the world today, because people believe in something at needs to be changed and need to grab the world’s attention to do so. Civil disobedience has a positive impact upon a free society and there are some examples to prove this. The disobedience of people towards the government has affected many lives, especially in America. The Boston Tea Party and Dr. King are two popular examples in history, but we can still see disobedience in today’s time. In South Carolina recently, a woman climbed up a flagpole and tore down a Confederate flag. These examples will show you why we …show more content…

These men took a stand for what they believe in and were willing to get punished for what they did. This event was done to show the colonies are against the British rule of taxation. If you think about it, this whole country was founded by civil disobedient people. Without it, maybe our country wouldn’t be the same today. A philosopher named Henry Thoreau has said, “I ask for not at once no government, but at once a better government.” Thoreau agrees with the idea of civil disobedience being positive and makes many great points. One of the biggest examples in American history is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He took up the courage to be the leader of this movement and made African Americans and other races, equal to everyone. This made our country more united and more of a free country, like we were supposed to be in the first place. This civil disobedience needed to happen, because imagine today without equal rights to every human being. How can this event bring a negative response to America. We even have a holiday for Dr. King, and all Americans appreciate his courage for the difference he has made for …show more content…

All governments are not going to be perfect and won’t all make good decisions. With people disobeying the law is a way that we the people can change laws that we think are wrong. Howard Zinn, a political science professor has written, “Historically, the most terrible things; war, genocide, and slavery have resulted not from disobedience but from obedience.” A good example of disobedience not working is in the Vietnam war. A big reason we lost that war was because so many people were disobeying the draft call and were protesting instead. But the reason WWII started is said by Howard Zinn. “We know the problem was at Nazi Germany and people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong. They should have challenged, and they should have resisted.” This would be an example of when civil disobedience should have been use. Yeah there are more examples were civil disobedience didn’t work, but without it, our country would not be the same. Being dishonest to the law is what makes us a free nation and other nations as well. If we don’t speak up the government will soon realize no one is complaining about certain laws and we will give them total control over

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546 Words | 3 Pages

No matter how much the nation progresses, there will always be times where civil disobedience is desirable. When there is good, there will be evil; and we must recognize when to act against it. The idea of civil disobedience is still applied today through the influence of Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr., as society will be constantly going against government ideals. Thoreau’s position on civil disobedience is that he believes breaking laws is necessary towards a government with unjust laws. He believes in having a better government that does not control and abuse the people; being “at best but an expedient” (Thoreau 240).

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Martin Luther King Jr once stated, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” in his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963. He was invoking the principle of civil disobedience. He wasn't justifying breaking laws just because, but instead, meant that you break the law and accept your punishment, in hopes that people will come to see that the law is unethical. Civil disobedience plays an important role in how our society has been shaped up until this point.

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Civil disobedience against unjust laws allows people to recognize the faults in our society and government. This is especially true when large numbers of people come together to protest for a certain cause, and against a law, they believe the government should not enforce. For example, Mahatma

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The Brown decision sparked controversy about integration in schools. Linda Brown was a little girl who was eight years old and in third grade. She grew up in Topeka, Kansas. On February 28, 1951, her dad filed a case that would help her be able to go to school with white children. Linda wanted to go to the school that was closer to her, but she was not allowed to because she was not white.

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141 Words | 1 Pages

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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As Martin Luther King Jr. observes in his "Letters From a Birmingham Jail," it is a sad thing when people condemn the effects of civil disobedience without considering the conditions which festered and led to such a nonviolent protest. As Thoreau writes in his "Civil Disobedience," too much respect for the law can lead people to blindly to terrible things. Consider the Germans who, out of fear of the law, committed the atrocities of the Holocaust; or, the participants of the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures, in which men were instructed to continuously 'shock' a hidden person, and which, goaded on by the authority figure, continued even until the subject of the punishment (in actuality an actor) 'died.' Those who choose to take action to take down laws that do not uphold the morals of the people as a whole work instead towards a society based on considered values that respect all of its

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800 Words | 4 Pages

Civil Disobedience is a form of non-violent protesting of a specific law,(Suber) with the aim of having that law changed. (Brownlee) Henry David Thoreau’s involvement in civil disobedience was due to Thoreau’s strong moral standards and individualism. He chose to participate in acts of civil disobedience to protest slavery in the 1800s. His writings on the subject would later influence many to follow in his footsteps.

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Henry David Thoreau once stated in his book Civil Disobedience, If a law “is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law” (About Thoreau). He had strong beliefs in standing firm in what you think is right. Civil disobedience is explained as a person or group of people who stand against a law that they believe in unjust (Suber). The group or individual participating in civil disobedience usually peaceful, and do not fight against any repercussions against their acts. Their purpose for doing this is usually to bring attention to the law or laws that they view as unjust.

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As stated before civil disobedience allows for minorities to have say when it comes to making laws. Other forms of protest like legal protest, boycotting, and protest with permit are not as good. These methods are not as likely to get the attention of the majorities because you are not putting yourself at risk and not showing how bad the law is. They also cost money and time for the person to use these forms of protest. If a person performed civil disobedience and got arrested for it, the majority can then see the effect of the

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If people know their cause, and rally about it peacefully, then great reform will happen. Violence and Law breaking, is not an acceptable form of civil disobedience, it does not solve any problems, in fact it causes new ones to arise. Gandhi knew this:"No country has ever become, or will ever become, happy through victory in war. A nation does not rise that way;"("On Civil Disobedience" by Mahatmas K. Ghandi, 148).There are so many plausible reasons not to break the law, in fact, it rules out any reasons to break laws. Think about it, you can’t protest, or rally if you’re sitting in a jail cell, and you can’t show your opinion when your confined.

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599 Words | 3 Pages

However, there are a few cases of civil disobedience that would be justified today in order to insure that the government hears the citizens opinions. For example, some of the issues in today's society concerning the treatment of women and lesbians justify civil disobedience. One does not need the government's permission to be happy or have a procedure on their own body. Moreover, if the government would prevent them from doing either of these things, I think it would be important that the people disobey the government and show that they will not stand for

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909 Words | 4 Pages

There are times when people must rebel to make a change. It has happened throughout different movements to change unjust laws, and go against unjust people. One big example of civil disobedience during the civil rights movement were sit-ins. Sit-ins were when people continued to peacefully sit in on a restaurant when they were denied service. It was almost a way of life for many people.

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1290 Words | 6 Pages

Herbert J. Storing, an Associate Professor of Political Science, in “The Case Against Civil Disobedience,” writes, “One of the practical consequences of this institution [civil disobedience] is to divert disobedience and even revolution into the channel of law” (97). What Storing is saying is that civil disobedience will encourage people to break the laws and they will hide under civil disobedience to avoid the law. Also, civil disobedience might split society by creating disagreements with the people, and it could create a political instability. However, Storing fails to see that those who break an unjust law, as discussed above, do not avoid the law, in fact they show respect to the law as they willingly accept the consequences. By accepting the consequences, they show that they are not acting for their own interests but for society’s.

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

In the end, both of them succeeded and the use of civil disobedience was in fact effective. A more recent example of civil disobedience in history is the protesters of the Keystone XL pipeline. There is a scene in the “Reject and Protect” video of a man speaking in front of a crowd holding a banner. He is using his voice to get his strong message through to others instead of using violence. If more people join their protest, the more likely it is that they will succeed because the president will see that an extreme amount of people are unhappy with the idea of the pipeline.

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1360 Words | 6 Pages

Civil Disobedience is known as breaking the law because you don 't agree with a certain law or have a peaceful protest about that law or what you believe in. An example would be when Mahatma Gandhi walked miles to the Indian ocean as the citizens gathered more and more to fight for there Indian Independence. This occasion was called the Salt March. The reason for The Salt March was a March were all the citizens from India walked with gandhi to fight back for their Independence from the British, since it was taken away from the British.

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