Civil Disobedience And Martin Luther King Jr.

Disobedience is a valuable human traits because through disobedience it have bring great change in the society which have impact all people around the world. For example people who disobedience the law to bring change in their society are such as Martin Luther king, Malala yousafzai, and Mahatma gandhi. These three people had a great impact on people's lives and change the society forever by disobedience.

On April 29, 1992, the City of Los Angeles was surrounded in a riot in response to the "not guilty" verdicts in the trial of four white Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers accused of unlawfully beating Rodney King. Six days later, when the fires were finally extinguished and the smoke had cleared, "estimates of the material damage done vary between about $800 million and $1 billion, 54 people had been killed, more than 2000 injured, in excess of 800 structures were burned, and about 10,000 people were arrested."(Khalifah 89) The 1992 riots in the City of Los Angeles were arguably the most devastating civil disturbance in the history of the United States.

In other words civil disobedience indicates that the main objective of disobedience is to bring changes in the social or political order that would affect the freedom of citizens. Nonviolence is the right answer to moral issues and is crucial in politics for any government on our time the need for human mankind to overcome oppression avoiding violence without resorting to oppression with violence.

Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail were written approximately 114 years apart. However, both publications share a common theme. Each of these authors express their opinions on government injustices. The political environments in which each author lived provided their inspiration for their writings. Although many years separate these two works, there are similarities as well as differences between Thoreau's and King's written opinions.

Feeling the blast of a hose, watching dogs bite people, and routinely receiving insults all happen during the civil rights movement of 1960s. The film Glory Road shows the story of Texas Western University’s journey to the NCAA Championship with a lineup of five African Americans during the civil rights controversy of the 1960s. The championship lineup includes Harry Flournoy, a colored player from Gary Indiana who helps lead the team to a national title. During this controversy colored people choose between the ideas of Malcolm X and self defense and pride in yourself or Martin Luther King Jr and. civil disobedience to earn civil rights While Martin Luther King in “Letter to Birmingham City Jail” provides a good idea of using civil disobedience to earn civil rights, Malcolm X in “On African Self-Hatred” reflects the actions Harry Flournoy from Glory Road throughout the whole film.

Civil disobedience is present in our day to day lives. During the civil rights protests occurring in Birmingham, AL, Eugene Connor was the Commissioner of Public Safety who publicly attacked African Americans with fire hoses and dogs. The Boston Tea Party was a rebellion which led to major tax reformation. Another moment in history of disobedience would be the Civil Rights movement. Oscar Wilde claims social progress is promoted through disobedience and rebellion which is valid.

In Thoreau 's essay Civil Disobedience he makes the point that bystanders are just as bad as criminals and that people should stand against unjust crimes even if it means going against the law. And to some extent I do agree because in the past people have broken unjust laws and have created change. A well-known example would be when Rosa Parks sat on the bus in the "White-only" seating area, which lead to important events that helped push the Civil Rights movement forward. But I think that it depends on which laws they choose to break and how far they choose to go with it.

The idea of creating protest based on one's belief has been around for thousands of years and has continued to be spread throughout the world ever since Henry Thoreau published his essay “Civil Disobedience” back in 1849. Civil right leaders including Martin Luther King and Gandhi were inspired to revolt against the government based on their evaluation of the well known essay written by Thoreau. The interpretation of “Civil Disobedience” was acted out through peaceful protest towards the government. Although the objective was to create peaceful protests towards the government, occasionally the move would initiate violent acts. Thoreau did not believe in these violent acts because he thought that if he was going to be punished for something that he believed in, then he would rather just be thrown in jail considering his home life was worse than what prison life would be. Non violent acts were also encouraged by Gandhi and King, a trend that they all followed along with by accepting any penalties towards them while protesting. This trend has followed over to our present day movements around the world including protest towards military funerals, as people are going to continue to protest these funerals even though new restrictions have been put into place in order to try and stop the rioters. Civil disobedience has led to many modern protest including the protest against military funerals, which is a great example of the power of civil disobedience.

In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he discusses the duty of citizens to enact civil disobedience when there are immoral actions or laws put into place. In accordance with Martin Luther King, Jr. this concept applies to our society today with the recent presidential election of the United States of America. As Donald Trump has been elected the President of the United States, there have been various acts of civil disobedience because millions of individuals do not support him in his presidency. Along with this topic, there are two distinct questions that need to be answered. First, what is civil disobedience in the eyes of Martin Luther King, Jr.? Second, are Donald Trump protests

From the time we are children and throughout the duration of our lives, we are told to abide by certain sets of rules. In most situations this is a perfectly acceptable expectation; speed limits, remaining quiet in libraries, and waiting until the age of twenty-one to drink are all reasonable things to ask of people. After all, these rules and laws are put in place to ensure a peaceful and safe society. However, when these rules begin to infringe upon the rights of certain groups, some citizens turn to civil disobedience as a form of protest. While some may argue that civil disobedience is nothing more than a violation of the law, it has also proven to have a positive impact on society, in more ways than one. Used by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin

Furthermore, a person who acts with civil disobedience means, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “One who breaks an unjust law… openly, lovingly…, and with a willingness to accept the penalty”. In other words, civil disobedience is respectfully breaking a law that is disagreed with, and then openly accepting the consequence. During the world’s history,

Disobedience has been a man’s virtue ever since laws have been constructed. As a progression that has developed in our society , it is safely to indicate that disobedience is morally acceptable by the common people. In order for change, people have demonstrated  disobedience successfully to promote social progress, change is impossible without disobedience.Our society has failed to realize that there is no such thing a “perfect society”. There are people in our society who agree with change and would sacrifice themselves for it through violence and multiple times of rejection. Many individuals known as the majority simply do not like change. This majority is the group that construct these laws that we must follow.  Thoreau states ,” A majority is permitted , and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are mostly likely right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority,  but because they are physically the strongest.” Although we do perceive the system as the strongest, citizens still use disobedience to challenge the system’s authority. Disobedience is a man’s virtue when our natural rights are being violated by the majority . In order for change to occur the common people must use disobedience to fight the injustice in their society to promote social progress.

Disobedience is often viewed as a non-honorable trait, and is generally a bad term to use as a description, nevertheless the mentality of an individual who disobeys in order to up-rise social progress outweighed the common perception of disobeying. Irish author Oscar Wilde refuted the common idea of "disobedience," said, "Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It’s through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."  Being disobedient doesn't mean being reckless or unethical. It means thinking for oneself and resisting authority.

The term civil disobedience means “refusal to obey civil laws in an effort to induce change in governmental policy or legislation, characterized by nonviolent means”, theories on this term have been around for a long time. (American Heritage Dictionary 3rd Edition pg161) People like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. have took up and preached their own theories on civil disobedience. The two have there own reasons why to practice civil disobedience but there view on it is in similar manner. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to stop South African government from making all Indians register with Registrar of Asiatics.

When most people hear the word civil disobedience or the concept of civil disobedience, many people will think about Mohandas K. Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.. Mohandas J. Gandhi was someone who fought for Indians rights. Gandhi led a Satyagraha campaign for Indians. This Satyagraha campaign was the idea of nonviolence resistance. This shows that he supports the concept of civil disobedience. Gandhi was a leader who led people to, “hold to the principles of nonviolent resistance even in the face of violent tactics by those in power” (On Nonviolent Resistance speech). Here, Gandhi encouraged his followers and supporters to be nonviolent when they encounter problems. For example, when people threatens them violently, Gandhi wants them to protest quietly and not harm them. He believed that when you fight them violently, there would not be a victory because you are harming them, you are becoming like them. Gandhi says how fighting violence with violence, like a war, that there would not really be any victory. There would be no real winner because with violence, there would be