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How Does Peaceful Protest Affect Our Society

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Peaceful resistance to laws should be revered as a positive act and has had a positive impact on our free society for as long as it has existed. From the beginning of time, peaceful, civil disobedience has changed not only our American society but the world as well as people such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have fought peacefully for rights that every human should be given at birth. As shown by the people of history, peaceful protest lead our society to discover that some things should be a certain way. The protests of Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1950's and 60's lead to King being jailed. While in jail he wrote a letter to a fellow clergyman and stated his reasoning for protesting so fervently, yet peacefully. King discusses that the freedom of people has never, in the history of humankind, been given voluntarily by the oppressor, but has to "be demanded by the oppressed" if anything is to be done (King). …show more content…

Through this accentuation of injustice in a way that did not involve the violent crimes of murder and assault, as they so commonly do as they do during a time of a new president under President Trump, Martin Luther King Jr. enabled, in our American government and places elsewhere, the ability to accept all people, despite something as simple as color of the skin. King's dream of having little black girls and little black boys play with little white girls and little white boys came true because of his ability to stand up for something that was against the law because it was and is morally just. King himself believed, as all should, that just because something is illegal does not make it right. The acts of Adolf Hitler in Germany were legal, but I believe that all of humanity could agree that what happened there in those years was some of the most morally wrong acts ever committed on this

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Throughout reading King’s letter “From Birmingham City Jail” there are many strong points made that could easily compel the reader to understand his point of view. Each paragraph was intricately written to have a deeper meaning. One paragraph that stood out to be the strongest was paragraph twelve. This paragraph had strong points that put the reader in a poignant standing with in the situations that were brought upon, one could easily feel the inequality expressed. If we look at the previous paragraph building up to this one, King starts off by saying “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (King 5).

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When it comes to America's History you can clearly see how peaceful protest has brought this world to what it is today. If it wasn't for people such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks who voiced their opinions in a nonviolent manner, it's possible that our world would not have reached this equivalent state. While it is true that peaceful resistance has positively affected our society for centuries, these brave people have faced the consequences. For example, King was arrested after one of his nonviolent protests and sent to Birmingham Jail. While there he wrote the now famous piece "A Letter From Birmingham Jail".

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He talks about this in his book Stride Toward Freedom. He talks about the three ways of dealing with oppression through rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos. King uses ethos through the use of allusions to show acquiescence is not good to deal with oppression. King says, “Almost 2800 years ago Moses set out to lead the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the promised

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580 Words | 3 Pages

“We know through a painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”. King is saying that freedom is not always free at all, it must be demanded and sometimes taken. Shouldnt everyone have a chance to be free? “We have waited 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights”. He says that rights are God given, and that everyone should have rights.

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Deluged with remarkable linguistics, King’s rhetoric wholly epiphanized and unified a country that had been stricken with unrest by war and hate and thus became the epitome of the March on Washington and the summation of the Civil Rights Movement Summarized Speech The speech encapsulates the desire to remain equal among the exalted American people, those of White color. At the outset King utilizes a policy signed 100 years ago as reference to a declaration of freedom that has only been contorted to produce new boundaries on freedom;

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The most well-known examples of peaceful resistance come from the civil rights movement. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. defends his protests by stating that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Dr. King’s letter was a response to white men who had called his protests untimely. Dr. King points out that protesting will always be untimely, but that it must be done in order to see change. King was correct.

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Peaceful resistance to laws positively impact a free society because it helps get people's points across, without breaking any rules. People are allowed to voice there opinion, without causing any physical harm to themselves, or anyone around them. Many equal right came about during peaceful resistances. Thomas Jefferson is an example of that. He led a revolution, and changed the lives of millions of African Americans, then and now.

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King writes to the eight clergymen who were critical of his protests and to the indifferent people of the United States. In the essay, he claims that he has done nothing wrong by protesting peacefully. In paragraph 11, King says “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” He is saying that freedom is something they have to fight for because the authorities will not give it to them. He is directing this statement at the clergymen while reaching the apathetic people of the United States.

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Peaceful resistance to laws does positively impact a free society. In American society, citizens are proud of the fact that they have the freedom to speak their minds and protest without violence or fear of persecution. Throughout our history, there have been a number of people who have peacefully protested and changed the nation for the better. There have also been people who have spoken up about certain situations and have not been able to change the unjust law or situation.

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One of the wise words said by Martin Luther King Jr., specifically in a letter while in Birmingham jail, is "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". King was the leader of a civil obedience group and was therefore arrested for it due to it being a group that resisted laws, despite it being peacefully, to show the public and the government that a change was needed and succeeded in making that change to let the U.S. be what it is today. Thus, peaceful resistance to laws ultimately impact a free society positively so that a free society may remain or truly become free. Peacefully resisting laws help inform the government and/or citizens that something is not right. Rosa Parks is known for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man for the laws back then were white accommodating and she was

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The tale of Robin Hood is an interesting one, but whenever the fairy-tales become reality where do we really draw the line? Civil Disobedience on one hand can benefit other citizens, but on another can stir up riots if done the wrong way. Peaceful resistance to laws can pave the way for groundbreaking new laws, and overall is not negative

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People know that what Hitler did was morally wrong and saving the jews from the holocaust was morally right. King uses that knowledge to his advantage to make his point clear that sometimes it is better to disobey the law than to obey it. He employs the connection to the violations committed against the Jews to the atrocities committed against African Americans in America. On a considerably smaller scale, the circumstances can be deemed comparable, with unjust laws bringing about violence and

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Peaceful disobedience had been a key point within the civil rights era, famous examples include Rosa Parks not giving her spot to a white man on the bus, MLK standing up with his fellow supporters for protesting racial discrimination. Their actions gained a national spotlight through the eyes of the masses, especially when the harsh actions of our civil servants (the police) were highlighted through spraying citizens with fire-hoses, beating them with batons, kicking people, etcetera. This spotlight had led a revolution to the end of Jim Crow laws and discrimination all together through ratifying (previous) laws. We as humans living in the 21st century see the laws which existed before the 1970’s discriminatory, but certain people didn’t have that mindset and seen laws as though they couldn’t have flaws within. That said - are we as humans living within 2017 going to view all laws which exist now as perfect?

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501 Words | 3 Pages

I'm not sure there is a such thing as "peaceful resistance to laws" this day and age we live in! It is our right as a citizen of the United State of America to peacefully protest when we feel like it is just and necessary. However, often times it is not peaceful at all. We've seen in recent days the lack of peaceful protests. At one time, a few weeks ago, anytime you turned to one of our national news media stations all anyone saw was the riots and violence going on at a protest.

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794 Words | 4 Pages

Peaceful Resistance no matter what way you look at it, it 's still going against someone whether it involves words or actions, resistance still causes more conflict. The last 5 years we have had people say they want change through these “peaceful protest” but these peaceful protests have done nothing but turn to violent riots were theirs damage to vehicles, business families rely on destroyed, bystanders hurt, officers killed and our country torn apart. Back when Martian Luther King Jr was around and he had his Peaceful Resistance or rallies for equality, they were peaceful and brought our country together with something that needed to be changed, but the protest we’ve had the last 5 years… he would be ashamed of. Peaceful Resistance to laws does negatively impact our free society in America. First going along with what I said about there being “peaceful rallies” even though some people may be at these rallies to make a difference to support their opinion, not everyone can respect that.

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