Examples Of Civil Disobedience

He had been arrested numerous times, beaten, and still remained a vital role in the civil rights movement. He would later be known as a member of the “Big Six”, (Vol 2, 150) consisting of Martin Luther King, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Jim Farmer, Whitney Young and himself. The injustices at the time lead to a much needed March on the nation's capital: Washington. Though Lewis’ speech seems to to be less well known as Martin Luther King’s, it was a great accomplishment for the civil rights movement. One of my favorite Lewis speech lines was “We will splinter the segregated south into a thousand pieces, and put them together in the image of god and democracy”. (Vol 2,

Although they had enough money to purchase a ticket, they were still denied for being someone of color and would peacefully go back to the end of the line to wait and try again. These protests continued every night for about two weeks. The local white teenagers begun to spit and throw rocks at the students within the movement that were standing in line. The local teenagers weren’t the only ones though, the police had stepped in and ended up being violent towards the students too. The following night after the police abused two students, John Lewis led a protest. They had all stood in a line in front of the theatre, holding hands peacefully, but once the police arrived, twenty-six people were arrested. Because of this arrest, Lewis had spent his twenty-first birthday in jail. Later that same year, they had successfully ended segregation in movie theatres through persistent nonviolent

The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s to the 1960s was a period that significantly changed America forever. African-Americans did not have the same rights as white men, and were faced with segregation and discrimination. Under the Jim Crow Laws, blacks did not have equal access to public facilities and were treated as lower beings than whites. After many years of pain and struggle, all the while remaining silent, blacks finally decided to stand up for themselves and refuse to be compliant. Many acts of civil disobedience took place during this time, some were peaceful, while some were violent. An example of a civil disobedience from the Civil Rights Movement was Robert Williams’ protest to integrate facilities, where he uses armed self-defense, so that blacks were able to have equal access as whites. This was an effective form of protest because without the arms to protect themselves, the African-Americans wanting their voices to be heard would be suppressed by the brutality of racist white men.

John Lewis was one of the most notably influential leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC. SNCC was founded in the 1960s in Releigh, North Carolina and initially consisted of black students as its members (Murphree 2006:11). The first members of this organization made use of nonviolent ways of protests such as sitting in and occupation of certain public places. The organization was successful in making other people aware of the injustices that black people were usually exposed to. Moreover, SNCC supported more nonviolent protests such as the Freedom Rides in 1961 and the March on Washington in 1963 which paved the way for the amendment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The history of American, non violent, civil disobedience depicts how peaceful resistance can shape public opinion, voice dissent, and change unjust laws. In both Contemporary and past history do we see the role that protest has on our Democracy,and how dissenters, such as Susan B Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr, can become American heroes. The United States was founded on an act of civil disobedience, and even in Modern America, principled dissent has become the highest form of

According to the SNCC website, “In 1981, Lewis was elected to his first official government office as an Atlanta City Council member. In 1986, he was elected to Congress, where he is currently serving his seventh term.” If John Lewis wasn’t involved in the SNCC then he probably wouldn’t have been as involved in the Civil Rights Movement altogether, and Lewis wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to serve seven terms in

According to John Lewis’s Speech he states, “While we stand here, there are sharecroppers in the Delta of Mississippi who are out in the fields working for less than three dollars a day, twelve hours a day. While we stand here there are students in jail on trumped-up charges.” This is in the introduction to his speech with in the first 5 lines. Therefore he is starting with very high energy and powerful tone. So this wakes up the demonstrators at the walk. Also in John Lewis’s speech he states, “They’re talking about slow down and stop. We will not stop. All of the forces of Eastland, Barnett, Wallace, and Thurmond will not stop this

Protests riots in the United States has proven to an issue for both the country’s financial strength and the unity of the nation. With the presence of social injustices, combined with the increased impact of social media propaganda, protests riots are beginning to reach an all time high. Protest riots destroy individual communities and businesses, jeopardizes the safety of others and taints the protest’s cause by resorting to civil disobedience. Action must be done in order to prevent these random acts of violence from continuing after every social hot topic. The goal is not to prevent citizens from protesting; in fact, this should be encouraged. The goal is to change the way the protests are handled from both the citizens and authority perspectives, in order to prevent these protests from escalating into something dangerous.

John Robert Lewis was faced much adversity through his life, whether it be from a sit-in, or the freedom ride, John Robert Lewis was an inspiration, and an idol to many after him, not only that but a political ingenious. Lewis knew how much of an impact he had made on the Civil Rights movement.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the southern half of the United States of America was segregated in every way of life you could possibly imagine. People of color were treated as less than human, and were denied even the most basic God given rights. African Americans were barely considered human by some, and were physically, emotionally, and psychologically harassed day in and day out. The March trilogy, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, shows us how civil rights activists such as John Lewis led the fight against racial segregation in the US. Strong ideals were the only thing that allowed these men to stay inspired during their peaceful protests.

This was openly embraced in the Civil Rights Movement in America. The faces of the movement were many but most notably among them were Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. As he explicates upon in “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”, when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. practiced civil disobedience, he did it to bring attention to plight of African Americans at the time and attract the news outlets to Birmingham, the capital for racial injustice. At the time, African Americans were facing horrible treatment, including unfair treatment in courts, unsolved bombings of churches and homes, a refusal by “city fathers” to negotiate, and countless other transgressions. In the light of this, the acts of civil disobedience the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. took part in sparked public attention and led to changes in the public’s regard fro civil rights issues.

Civil disobedience has a largely positive impact on free society, as the respectful manner of disagreeing displays maturity and grace to opposing viewpoints. Throughout history to modern day, it has shown to benefit the parties involved and their society. While some would argue that peaceful resistance is unacceptable because it promotes the objectionable behavior by otherwise law abiding citizens, it is not a legitimate argument due to the nature of government. Overall, civil disobedience provides an opportunity for concerns to be voiced in free society, paving the roads for change.

These protests and rallies against the President and his policies are necessary. They are showing the President that the majority of the citizens he’s meant to honor and represent do not feel like he will protect and serve them in the way that they deserve. These protests are letting the government know the problems that the people are facing and what they care about most, which helps them run things more smoothly and address these problems as they move forward in their legislation during the next four years. Without these protests and outcries, the government wouldn’t realize that a large portion of voters won’t stand for the mistreatment of immigrants, that women’s issues are becoming more important than ever, or that both parties are going to have to work harder to regain trust and votes in the next

Not only were many laws changed and created, but even more were broken in an attempt to better our once unjust society. Martin Luther King Jr., arguably the most influential leader of this movement, was an avid supporter of civil disobedience during this era. He participated in countless sit-ins and protests, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956, in which he and almost one hundred other activists were arrested for peacefully protesting discrimination in the Montgomery public transit system. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written in 1963 after he was arrested for partaking in a nonviolent protest, King offers explanation as to why he practices civil disobedience and what he hopes to achieve in doing so. In this letter, King admits, “In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law…that would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty”. However, he also stated that in this fight, it is necessary to “[stand] up for what is best in the American…thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence”. In his words, civil disobedience is more than ignorance of law; it is just one of the necessary measures that must be taken to restore equality in a

This order caused all immigrants, including permanent residences and green card holders from major Muslim states to be ban from entering the country, “Trump's executive order bars citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days.” This executive order also caused major airports to be shut down by strikers pleading for ‘hostages’ to be released back to their families and to be allowed back into the country. The protest lasted two days, with the success of a temporary blockage on deportation, “"The petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the petitioner and other similarly situated violates their due process and equal protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution," US District Judge Ann Donnelly wrote in her