Letter From A Birmingham Jail, By Martin Luther King Jr.

In order to bring about change, peaceful resistance is necessary. In a free society, the nonviolent violation of a law regarded as unjust is referred to as civil disobedience. Peaceful resistance to laws creates a positive impact in a free community because it inspires change. To understand how civil disobedience inspires change in a free society, one must first understand what civil disobedience is. In a democratic community, laws are created for the benefit of people. Once the citizens start to feel oppressed, a change in the law becomes essential to preserve their freedom. To do so, citizens must rally together and protest until the issue has been remedied. The process of peacefully and nonviolently resisting laws considered unjust in order

Peaceful resistance begins with one person or group battling an injustice, like Rosa Parks who inspired others to protest segregation during the Civil Right’s Movement. Protesters must next raise awareness about the issue and invite others to protest with them so that the issue can be “brought out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with”(Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”). As the movement grows, the government is forced to comply with the demands to change the law, the result of King’s effort against segregation. Once that law is changed, the government is altered to accommodate that change, leading to greater changes in the nation’s morals and ideals. These changes are then able to influence how others perceive those issues and may subsequently influence other nations to change their governments. In a free society, civil disobedience is used to nonviolently protest laws against injustices to create positive change. Change is accomplished with the best intention and through nonviolent

Consequently, those protesting an issue must work to bring about change earnestly through truly believing in their cause. Henry David Thoreau shared this sentiment in his “Civil Disobedience”, writing that one person who maintains their beliefs can change the world “For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once done well is done forever.” Though while not all peaceful protests are successful enough to inspire true change, many of today’s free societies were inspired by those that did. Mohandas K. Gandhi was able to coerce the South African Boer government to “end the most objectionable parts of the registration law” and convince the British to grant India its independence from Britain”(Gandhi and Civil DIsobedience”). Therefore, it only takes one individual to inspire a change in the world because “Without their courage those injustices would never have received the attention required to compel national action” (“Civil Discourse and Petitioning”). Peaceful resistance to laws has changed history and left a positive impact on free