America is a free society, but the result of that is some people are unhappy with the laws put in place to ensure said free society. When that does happen, those people tend to resist the laws to show their discontent to the government. They can either violently resist, which is illegal and penalties are high, or they can peacefully resist. Peaceful resistance, or civil disobedience is quite popular and has proven to be successful. It is also legal and as long as you don't break any laws in the process, cannot be stopped without a valid reason. Peaceful resistance and civil disobedience in America impacts a free society in many ways, more of which are positive and benefit that free society. Civil disobedience was a term coined by Henry David …show more content…
For example, during the African-American civil rights movements, many blacks took part in nonviolent protests and other forms of resistance to the segregation and racism. Unfortunately, the protesters would have to stay strictly nonviolent, lest they would be subject to many forms of persecution. Unfortunately for them, nonviolence and peaceful protests also meant vulnerability to attack. Another problem was the fact that peaceful protests could easily become violent, and very fast. Peaceful resistance could be a gateway to other, more violent forms of resistance. As Harrop Freeman, a Professor of Law with over three different degrees from Cornell, said, “On the one side of the balance is the long history of Negro non-violence and a strong pacifist leadership; on the negative side is the poverty, injustice, police and civilian brutality of the section in which the Negro is brought up. I hope for this great period of change to be achieved non-violently. But I cannot escape the very real chance of non-violence escalating into violence and the necessity of society being understanding and tolerant.” While it is not absolutely negative, this example shows that there is a negative side to peaceful