“Change never comes from a place of comfort.” Last year, a teacher said this during a discussion about race relations in America. I find this concept to be incredibly powerful and important, especially in regards to the idea of peaceful resistance. The idea of peaceful resistance may make many feel uncomfortable because it implies law breaking, which is why everyone must remember that nothing has ever been gained or achieved from stasis. It is necessary for people to resist laws that they believe are immoral in order to make others understand that there must be change. This is exactly why I believe that peaceful resistance to laws positively affects a free society. In a free society, citizens have the responsibility to stay true to their morals and peacefully disobey the immoral laws in order to progress towards change. Civil disobedience has been the catalyst …show more content…
The Civil Rights Movement brought to light the immorality of segregationist laws, and much in part to the methods of civil disobedience that they used, these laws were eventually removed. Since legal methods proved to be ineffective, peaceful resistance was seen as the only solution to the racial issues that plagued the U.S during this time. As Martin Luther King said in Letter from Birmingham Jail, “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” When negotiations had not lead to action, Martin Luther King realized that civil disobedience would be the only route to justice. The direct-action used in the Civil Rights Movement was routed in peaceful resistance and nonviolent tensions, which created the right amount of constructive tension necessary to spark growth. Where there was growth, there was change. This change and equality would simply not have been reached -- at least not timely -- without peaceful
The author, Dr. Martian Luther King Jr., makes a statement “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” He uses this concept to convey the point of the Negros hard work to negotiate the issue has failed, but now they must confront it. The March on Good Friday, 1963, 53 blacks, led by Reverend Martian Luther King, Jr., was his first physical protest to segregation laws that had taken place after several efforts to simply negotiate. The author uses several phrases that describe his nonviolent efforts and his devotion to the issue of segregation that makes the reader believe his how seriously King takes this issue. “Conversely, one has the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Dr. Martian Luther King, Jr. explains with this that an “unjust law is no law at all.” King does not feel like he has broken any laws in his protest against segregation. In his eyes, laws are made to protect the people, not degrade and punish. “The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him March.” As far as King is concerned, the Negros will continue to do whatever is necessary, preferably non-violently, to obtain the moral and legal right that is theirs. If they are not allowe...
Non-violent direct action and respectful disagreement are a form of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King, Jr. defines “civil disobedience” as a way to show others what to do when a law is unjust and unreasonable. King is most famous for his role in leading the African American Civil Rights Movement and using non-violent civil disobedience to promote his beliefs. King also firmly believed that civil disobedience was the way to defeat racial segregation against African Americans. While leading a protest march on the streets, King was arrested and sent to jail. In response to his imprisonment and an article he read while there, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, explaining that an injustice affects everyone and listed his own criteria for
Martin Luther King Jr. took action to bring change to a nation in which discrimination against the African American community was the norm. King used civil disobedience, because he believed in changing the laws using non-violent protest and avoiding unnecessary conflict. According to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the definition of criteria for direct action is “one who breaks a...
(Ansbro, 231) instead of promoting love and violence among all races. King’s purpose in promoting nonviolence direct action was to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiations. He felt that practicing nonviolence would portray his followers as moral beings while making apparent the brutality of the segregationists. King’s preaching of nonviolence was monumental in succeeding in demonstrations such as the Montgomery bus boycott and the desegregation of public schools. King’s reaching of nonviolent direct action furthers the arguments that King is the most influential person of the twentieth century.
Civil rights are the rights to personal liberty and are provided by the law. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights promises everybody civil rights. But many people, including lots of black people, have been denied their civil rights. Black people, and also some white people who help them, have struggled for these rights for a long time. Many people have helped and many kinds of groups have been formed to help win equal rights for everyone. Things are a lot better used to be, but the struggle is not over.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Junior once said. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” he said. Dr.King had a dream that one day he would “look to a day when people would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” A point that has been disputed about the Civil Rights is using the “passive unless provoked" and the violent approach, but upon research, it seems clear that the Martin Luther King Junior’s approach to the civil rights movement was most effective, because he was a powerful yet inspirational leader.
The Civil Rights Movement brought many accomplishments to African Americans such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The key issues that African Americans fought for were voting rights, integration and racial equality. They were tired of the discrimination and humiliation they received as a result of the segregation laws imposed on them. “State laws mandated racial separation in schools, parks, playgrounds, restaurants, hotels, public transportation, theaters, restrooms and so on” (Blumberg 40). Lawsuits had been tried to gain rights such as the unsuccessful Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 and the successful Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Although, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka declared the “separate but equal” clause unconstitutional, de facto segregation continued in the South. During the 1960s, two methods were used: nonviolence and violence. Violence proved to be ineffective since it perpetuated social tensions among Whites and Blacks. Nonviolence was the most effective method in bringing social change in America during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement because it attracted sympathy towards Black people, provoked positive media attention, and promoted unity among African Americans.
Johnson: Savior of the Civil Rights Movement? The Civil Rights Movement and President Johnson are closely linked in history. Though there were many other faces to the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson’s was one of the most publicly viewed and instrumental in its passing. It was Johnson who carried the weight and responsibility of the issue after the assassination of JFK, and it was he who would sign it.
The 1960’s were a time of freedom, deliverance, developing and molding for African-American people all over the United States. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of black people in the south fighting for equal rights. Although, years earlier by law Africans were considered free from slavery but that wasn’t enough they wanted to be treated equal as well. Many black people were fed up with the segregation laws such as giving up their seats on a public bus to a white woman, man, or child. They didn’t want separate bathrooms and water fountains and they wanted to be able to eat in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted to and be served just like any other person.
The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.
For many years after the Civil War many African-Americans did not truly enjoy the freedoms that were granted to them by the US constitution. This was especially true in the southern states, because segregation flourished in the south wwhere African-Americans were treated as second class citizens. This racial segregation was characterized by separation of different races in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. In addition, Blacks were not afforded justice and fair trials, such as the case of the murder of Emmet Till. This unjust treatment would not be tolerated in America any more, which spurred the civil rights movement.
The civil rights movement in the 1950s-1960s was a struggle for social justice for African Americans to gain equal rights. One activist who became the most recognizable spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr, a christian man dedicated to the ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. Although the Civil war had officially abolished slavery, blacks were still treated as less than human for many years after. Martin Luther King Jr has positively impacted the world with his peaceful protest approach to gaining social justice; but with the increase of hate crimes being committed, I believe individuals today need to pick up where King left
From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.”
Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett Till in 1955 in which the main suspects were acquitted of beating, shooting, and throwing the fourteen year old African American boy in the Tallahatchie River, for “whistling at a white woman”, this country was well overdo for change.
To the American public, events like the March on Washington and Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat for a white man, mark an era of change. Neither of these events were violent. Neither of these events were remembered for physical assault or instigated negativity. The American public remembers the works of individuals who saw an issue greater than themselves. The American public remembers how Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks paved the road to Civil Rights. In modern America, people still fight for equality and defy the laws created by our government. In light of notoriously violent protests such as Anti-Trump rallies and Ferguson, America has also reverted back to peaceful methods of resistance.