Civil Disobedience: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts free societies. When Henry David Thoreau coined the phrase civil disobedience he sought to better the free world by giving a voice to every single citizen in America. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks practiced civil disobedience in order to promote social justice. In today’s society civil disobedience is being practiced to advocate for and help the environment. Thoreau anticipated and believed that the government would not always be just and fair to the whole people. He believed in the human conscience and that the only way for government to be fully just, was to give the people a chance to correct it. Civil disobedience is practiced in almost every country. It is almost impossible for any country to survive without the help and support of its people. Thoreau wrote in an article called “Civil Disobedience,” “Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? - In which majorities

practiced civil disobedience countless times. He was a non-violent protestor who brought change to his community using Civil disobedience. In his letter from Birmingham Jail (where he was arrested for civil disobedience) he provides an explanation for his actions on this account and many others. He says, “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here….. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In order to bring attention to the social injustices he and countless others where experiencing he knowingly disobeyed the law, and paid the price. In another example, Rosa Parks practiced civil disobedience for the same reasons as Martin Luther King Jr. To promote social change, she knowingly disobeyed Jim Crow laws and sat in a white section of a public bus. She said, “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” I whole heartedly believe that civil disobedience is the best way to promote change on these