Civil Disobedience Dbq

In the course of history, the civil rights of individuals have often been violated and reaffirmed. Documents such as the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights specifically sought out the inclusion of others, limitation of ruling powers, and the restitution of liberty in society and in the human spirit. When the People's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is violated most impetuously, it is the common principle and moral duty of that People to reverse the aforementioned violation and revert back to rightful autonomy. To do this, many activists turn to civil disobedience. The issue of civil disobedience attracts two crowds of society who debate whether or not peaceful resistance impacts a society in a positive or negative

In the turbulent decade of the Sixties, the Civil Rights Movement grabbed the nation by the throat. The leaders of this movement included Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Bayard Rustin, and the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone. But these apostles of the Cause were the disciples of Martin Luther King Jr., the spearhead of the Civil Rights issues. King himself was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, charged with loitering. From his jail and his confinement, King wrote his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail". In such letter, King wrote the basic principle that all laws should be followed, but when a law is applied unjustly towards the people, even if they are not the common people or favored people, then that law must be challenged. "An

Gandhi. Gandhi was trained as a lawyer in Britain and fought for human rights in apartheid South Africa. Later on, Gandhi returned to his homeland to fight for independence from the Empire that the sun never sets on. Gandhi achieved this goal through peaceful resistance. But the euphoria of liberation was short lived. Muhammed Jinnah, a comrade and leader of the Indian Independence movement, demanded that a separate nation be made for Indian Muslims. That nation would become Pakistan and Gandhi would regret not doing more to prevent the disunity until he was killed by an assassin's bullet while going to pray in his garden. To this day, Pakistan and India hold a very bitter taste in their mouths towards one another. Furthermore, the racism towards Indians has also risen in Britain since the former's liberation. The racial slur "coolie" is to English Indians what "nigger" is to African