Peaceful Resistance In Civil Disobedience

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Recommended: Martin Luther King on civil disobedience

Peaceful resistance, in the forms of civil disobedience, marches, and non-cooperation, can be traced throughout history as one of the most commonly used forms of protest. Marginalized groups often utilize nonviolent protests to raise awareness towards certain issues that they believe are unjust. Peaceful resistance is not only a positive force in a free society, it is crucial towards maintaining individual rights and expressing discontent to those in power. Governments were formed to protect individual rights, and are therefore accountable to the people. Without civil disobedience, the possibility for abuse of power arises. As Thoreau argues in his essay “Civil Disobedience,” “a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be …show more content…

When a country expands, the need for a method for people to voice their concerns increases in urgency. Martin Luther King Jr. highlights the importance of peaceful protest, explaining that “nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis … that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” Drastic measures such as civil disobedience sometimes are unavoidable, forcing those in power to pay attention to an issue they would rather ignore.
Unfortunately, civil disobedience is often confused with mere lawlessness. It is important to keep a clear distinction between breaking laws that are unjust in order to protest them and simply breaking the law. Those who practice civil disobedience accept the consequences of their actions, and nevertheless, perform these illegal activities in order to bring attention to an issue. King distinguishes between just and unjust laws, arguing that “an unjust law is no law at all.” If a law is unjust, it is the right of an individual to protest that law so that it may be …show more content…

During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, people protested racial segregation by purposefully breaking laws, accepting the consequences because they believed those laws were unjust. The wave of nonviolent protesters was met with violence from police officers and other civilians. In this case, civil disobedience was the only effective way to change society’s perspective on what was right and wrong. By maintaining nonviolence, the protesters gained sympathy from those who witnessed the unprovoked hatred they faced. Forms of peaceful resistance continue to be widely used to express citizen discontent. A few weeks ago, I participated in the worldwide Women’s March, a protest against certain policies and attitudes that our current administration holds. The act of millions of people worldwide coming together to march peacefully, bonding over similar opinions despite the wide range of backgrounds that everyone came from, was incredibly inspiring and crucial towards maintaining freedom of expression in a free

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