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

way. The answer is simple and concise. Peaceful resistance impacts a society in positive ways with often lasting side effects that can range from bitterness to utopian attitudes of the future.

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

unjust law is no law at all" wrote King from the concrete walls that were put against his will. King wrote that the Cause would prevail and it did. Nevertheless, racist attitudes in the South stood its ground even when Jim Crow left. The Southern United States is a mirage. Amongst the flowing weeping willow trees of Mississippi that dance in the evening dusk, the rolling hills of Tennessee that guide the sun to the sky, and the harbors of the Carolinas that glean the Southern moonlight on their gentle waves, lies the racism that is embedded in the roots of the souls of Southerners as deep as the cotton is embedded in the field of Alabama and then sugarcane in Louisiana. Although, peaceful resistance did bring about a positive impact in the American and Southern society with end of Jim Crow and voting rights for blacks, racism was put in a flimsy cage and put in a corner only for everyone to hear the growling of that beast from then on.
King preached often about non-violence and peace among brothers and sisters of the Earth, but he learned these teachings from the great advocate for human rights and minority rights, Mahatama K.

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

Americans.
In conclusion, there are moments in history that stand the test of time. So it was when Caesar crossed the Rubicon, so it was when Columbus landed, so it was at Lexington and Concord, so it was at Appomatox, and so it was in Selma, Alabama. These moments stand the test of time because of what the participants believed in. What they fought and prayed for. The peaceful protests of many withstand the test of time because of that same reason. Peaceful protest can gain a positive change, but the future becomes muddled due to the disturbance that has occurred. That's not a bad outcome, it's a good thing. It shows us, humanity of all traits, that we have much more to learn and fix and work for in order to leave this Earth more pure and more joyful than we found and made it.