Oscar Wilde, a renowned author, wrote, “It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” Although it is true that some forms of disobedience promote social progress, other types of rebellion can cause turmoil and chaos, without leading to any significant change. While progress can be achieved through peaceful protest, violent rebellions fail to bring about change. Peaceful rebellion draws the attention of the intended audience in a way that will persuade them to support the cause. One example of nonviolent protest that brought change was the disobedience of Rosa Parks during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. In Montgomery, Alabama, the public buses were segregated and African Americans …show more content…
Gandhi advocated for passive resistance in order to fight against colonial oppression. As a young Indian man living in South Africa, he experienced racism and injustice. After he was removed from a railway compartment and beaten, Gandhi began developing and teaching the idea of satyagraha, nonviolent protest, as a way of defying authorities. In 1906, when a new law required Indians in South Africa to register with the government, Gandhi urged his followers to resist the discrimination and suffer the punishments. Over the eight year period of the movement, thousands of Indians were imprisoned and murdered for not complying with the new law. However, the public pressure caused by the movement was substantial, forcing the leader of South Africa to compromise. Gandhi later returned to India and sought to fight for independence from the British through his successful method of satyagraha. However, once violence broke out, he called for the end of the disobedience because he was afraid that violence would undo all of his work. Gandhi renewed the non-cooperation movement in India and called for the Salt March to peacefully protest against a salt tax imposed on Indians. The protest gained worldwide attention and had a major impact in the independence of India. Through Gandhi’s approach of nonviolent protest, he achieved progress for Indians in both South Africa and …show more content…
However, this way of protesting is usually unsuccessful, pushing the subjects to strengthen their force against the protesters. In Dallas, Texas blacks felt that they were being treated unjustly by the police force. In response to this discrimination, Micah Xavier Johnson killed 5 police officers and injured 9 others. Instead of getting the equality that he wished for, he was killed and the police became more violent and active. The police were fearful of more hatred attacks, and therefore raised their amount of officers and tightened their security. This type of incident not only occurred in Dallas, but across the world. The police feel more threatened after violent protest, and they just justify their actions as self-defense. If the protesters would have taken a more peaceful route to equality, maybe they would have achieved their
“ First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” (Mahatma Gandhi). Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar. Throughout his life Gandhi helped those in need. He was taught that everyone and everything is holy. He married at the custom age of 19 and went to London to study law. The thing that helped Gandhi promote nonviolence is that he worked his entire life saying that violence didn’t change the way people acted. He lived his life saying that an eye for an eye only made the whole world blind. Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he had something to prove and everyone else in the world agreed with him.
Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he didn’t believe in segregation and didn’t follow the British’s rules for Indians. When coming back from prison in 1859, things changed in India. The people if India were forced to mimic the English on how they dressed, copy their manner and accept their standards of beauty. When hearing this, Gandhi didn’t accept it and started his movement. According to the background document,” he shed the cloths that made him look like a British lawyer and dressed in a poor man’s traditional loincloth.”(Background document) By do...
According to Oscar Wilde, disobedience is a valuable human trait that promotes social progress. Civil disobedience allows for the unification of various groups to fight towards a common goal, often resulting in change. Historically, there has been much evidence supporting Wilde’s claim. Significant examples of disobedience that led to social progress include the Boston Tea Party, the Salt March, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Transportation was another area where blacks and whites were treated differently. The Montgomery, Alabama city code required that all public transportation be segregated. Almost 100 years after the Civil War, blacks had to sit separately from the whites. Seats could be assigned and blacks could be asked to give up their seats to white passengers. On December 1, 1955, Ro...
The police department does not reflect the demographics of the town’s residents which has three black officers out of a 53 officer department. The people in the community lost trust and respect for an organization that was put in place to protect and serve their people. Instead they have lost complete control of their society. The Rodney King case is another case that was a problem relating to police brutality. Rodney King was severely beaten in 1991 by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. He was severely beaten with batons and kicked and punched by a group of officers. He was also hit with a stun gun, received over fifty baton blows, and kicked several times (Walter, 2014). The officers were acquitted in state court on excessive force charges which led to riots in the city causing multiple deaths and injuries. Researchers have discredited the idea that police brutality is simply an individual problem, which is certain officers are just bad cops, while others are good cops. The videotaped beaten of Rodney King was not a tragic enough lesson for the police departments across the country, police beatings and killings of African
One of the first and most known events of the Civil Rights Movement was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the United States (Montgomer...
In the article, “Satyagraha” : Gandhi’s Legacy, it states, “Gandhi developed his philosophy of “Satyagraha,” or resistance through non-violent civil disobedience to defend his rights and the rights of all Indians and non-whites.” He believed that racial and religious discrimination was wrong, leading him to have the motivation to end it because it gave freedom to him and everyone else. As referenced in the article, “... Indians and other non-white people were forced to ride at the back of trains, use separate facilities, and were treated as second-class citizens. Gandhi believed that this was wrong.” He faced major setbacks, including the fact that South Africa was under Britain’s control and limited their freedom for religious practices. The author explained, “Part of the problem in South Africa was that it was a British colony. Much as it had done in the American colonies, Britain controlled the South African government and all its practices and exacted taxes. It was this situation that led to much of the racial tension in the country.” Overall, Gandhi is a very intelligent man who invented a philosophy to end what he believed was
In an effort to help free India from the British rule, Mahatma Gandhi once again contributed to a protest against salt taxes, known as the Salt March. This protest advocated Gandhi’s theory of satyagraha or nonviolent disobedience as the nation came together on March 12, 1930 to walk the 241 miles long journey to the shores of Dandi to attain salt. Although some Indians criticized Gandhi for not achieving direct independence from the Raj or British rule, Gandhi’s execution of the Salt March helped to create a stronger nation for the Indians to live in. Gandhi motivated the Indians to act robustly against the injustices of the salt taxes through nonviolent means. This caused Gandhi to create a temporary compromising pact between Gandhi and the British viceroy over the turmoil created by the salt taxes. In addition, Gandhi drew a plan known as the “Quit India” resolution, whose immediate effect brought India closer to obtaining independence than before.
Through implemented tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to its independence as
One of those was a 16 year old named Joseph Haynes. Haynes was killed January 17th of this year, and from his grandmother’s eyes, Haynes was shot after he tried to protect his mother after the Deputy had shoved her against the wall. The first one of the year was tased to death, his name was Deautry Charles Ross. Eric Garner, Jordan Edwards, William Chapman, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice. All were killed by an officer, somebody who is supposed to protect us. The youngest was 12. All of them fed into a movement that was started in 2013, right after Trayvon Martin died. It was started by three girls, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. It now has over 40 chapters, and it is used to intervene if there is violence in the Black communities. A year after the movement started, 2014, Ferguson police murdered Michael (Mike) Brown. Others were pepper sprayed, tear gassed and the media criticize them. It is our right to assemble, and yet when we do, we have to fear our life just in case an officer decides that what we’re doing is
On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist and progressivist made a decision that sparked one of the largest progressive movements. When told to give up her designated seat for a caucasian man, she refused implying that she was tired of giving in to racist culture. Her decision elicited the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a movement in which all of the African Americans in the area refused to ride the bus to show their support for Rosa Parks. This movement inspired other African Americans to rebel for their basic rights, aiding the civil rights movement. Although rebellion does cause violence and bloodshed, Oscar Wilde is correct in saying that disobedience and rebellion are the keystones of progress.
The Dallas police were protecting the marches when this “protest” turned into a riot. 12 police were shot and 56 were killed thus the right to protest in the guise of Free Speech, turned into a riot with innocent lives lost. This not only creates a negative impact on a free society but also creates a racial divide that will be difficult to repair. Police officers across the country started to back off investigating crime. The overall criminal activity, it appear, has started to rise.
Ghandi’s practices and believes led to the freedom of the Indian people. This positive impact clearly shows how the characteristics of a nonviolent revolution make it a much better alternative to a violent revolution which often leaves countries in a harmful state of
Both of these men were leaders in their countries, they fought for the same goals, but had different ideas of how to achieve freedom. Gandhi believed in nonviolent protest/resistance. Mahatma Gandhi's most famous act of nonviolent protest/resistance was the Salt March on March 12, 1930. This was a big part of an Indian independence movement that protested the British Salt business in India. Along the Salt March, as a part of protest, Gandhi led the people to obtain salt without paying taxes to the British.
On September 21, 2016 in Charlott, N.C. A black lives matter protest occurred, and it ended with 16 officers that suffered injuries, one person arrested, and one person shot to death. Marchers threw bottles and clods of dirt at officers. And after a shooting officers set off tear gas and flash grenades while protesters threw fireworks. It just goes to show that people respond with violence and that's how it's been.