Civil Disobedience Movement

Civil disobedience has been used to peacefully protest for change for decades. The idea that it is acceptable to rebel against injustice is one that is fundamental to the very start of our nation. The American Revolution, while not a non-violent rebellion, is an example of fighting for something that is believed to be right. It is from here that the idea of civil disobedience stemmed, and from here which it grew. Henry David Thoreau illustrated the need for civil disobedience when he said, “The authority of government… [,] to be strictly just must have the consent of the governed.” The changes that have been brought about by this kind of peaceful protest have changed our world for the better. I believe that civil disobedience is something that

Race riots are one of the major news items we hear about via the media when a social crisis occurs. The riots in Baltimore, however, were not so much about race, but more about economic and social class separations. The riots began as a peaceful protest amongst the citizens of Baltimore over the death of one of their own, Freddie Gray. Gray was a young, African-American, from a financially lower class area of Baltimore. Unfortunately, he died while in custody of the Baltimore Police. While this is a tragic loss, he was unlawfully detained by the police (Sarlin, 2015) during this ordeal. On the surface, the riots may appear as a cut-and-dry race provoked, once they are looked into further, that is not necessarily the case.

“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment". 1

Civil disobedience can negatively affect a free society under false pretenses because it can affect the way someone believes something is right or wrong due to the information that is given ot that is stirred up on social media. Another way it impacts society is because there are aggressive protestors that become dangerous. Protesters aren’t the only ones being disruptive, police officers also participate in the disruptive actions. There were also some aggressors that didn’t want to accept their consequences, but their actions differed from what they wanted. In the twentieth century people believe that violence can be the answer to a situation, but it can actually cause a division in our society. This division will build rage that will affect the nation more severely in the

The Civil Rights Movement after World War II in the 1940’s experienced the beginning of use of what civil right activists saw as a more effective course of action. It seemed that despite having won their rights after the Civil War, African Americans still were being oppressed. The idea of civil disobedience stems from the root of the idea that people can fairly choose to disobey a specific law of the country if they find them unfit, in a non-violent way, in hopes of having the law adjusted as needed or removed. Civil disobedience became a very popular way to show the injustices that African Americans faced every day, and refusal to accept it going on any further. In activists eyes, this was completely within reason; they were being denied their rights as humans, and something had be done immediately as the law was in the way

If we look at Thoreau’s perspective in which he stated, "government is best which governs least" we can easily jump to the conclusion that government should let civil disobedience run its course in our society. However, the impacts of this cause great division among sectors of society. We have seen in many cities across the nation in which police officers who are bound by the law to “protect and serve” have left us wondering why innocent people have ended up dead as a result of civil disobedience. We can see the negative

If there were a power that ruled with only fear and violence as its fuel, what would be the best way to counter such a force? The answer is with peaceful resistance. When an unjust rule is imposed upon a person, as philosopher Henry David Thoreau puts it in his essay Resistance to Civil Government, “the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Peaceful resistance, also commonly referred to as “Civil Disobedience,” is the act of disobeying a law that is perceived as unjust in a civil manner, while accepting all consequences that come with it.

Martin Luther King preached and practiced civil disobedience, as in the refusal to comply with certain laws in a peaceful form of protest. From his “I have a dream” speech, to his march from Selma to

Civil disobedience is often considered a coin toss as to how it may impact society and its freedoms. In a free society, civil disobedience is ever more concerning because it is often protesting a lack of freedom in some area. Many do not consider it as extremely harmful to a free society because it is a demonstration devoid of violence, but at times, it does provide an opportunity for some to deliberately instigate riots, carelessly breach laws, or mindlessly project irresponsibility. In many cases, peaceful protests escalate into angry mobs. Civil disobedience, however, can be a positive influence on society when its advocates remember that they protest as a moral responsibility and not solely as an expression of anger.

Civil disobedience isn’t uncommon in America, but the modern idea of civil disobedience has become flawed and distorted from its original intent. Currently, there are thousands of causes and ideals that are spastically flung around and just as soon forgotten. This is because the guise of civil disobedience is often abused by people simply to attract publicity. These methods of claimed civil disobedience often do little to nothing in working towards the goal that they claim to stand for, or their intensions are vague and unclear. For example, in the news, the most popular recent controversial example of civil disobedience is the kneeling during the national anthem before a football game. At its manifestation, this movement was intended to protest the inequalities in the treatment of races by the police especially in Chicago. This effectively accomplished nothing. It raised awareness but the majority of intelligent civilians were already aware of the inequalities. The flaw of this example is that the form of disobedience

The Tiananmen Square Uprising also known as the “June Fourth Incident” was a student-led demonstration in Beijing. This regarded the more popular movement in Beijing protest during this period. Also, known as the “89 Democracy Movement” The protest was by force blocked after the government had declared Martial Law. Troops would ultimately kill several hundred protestors who tried to stop the military blockage with tanks and assault rifles. The civilian death rate was estimated between a few hundred to thousands. Soon a rapid economic development and social changes would follow in the post Mao-era China. These protesters would soon reflect the anxieties about the soon future for China. There was a reform in the 1980’s that had led a nascent

Protesters in Beijing China, 1989, took a stand against a communist government in many protest in Tiananmen Square in the spring and summer months. College students in the area called for the change in early mourning for the death of Hu Yaobang, who died on April 15th, 1989, who wanted to help make more democratic changes to the government of China. Soon more people joined in, leading to the peak of 1.2 million people who came not only for protest but to see General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, plead for everyone to go home and end the hunger strikes so people can get through the area and have peace. But, on May 19th, Martial Law is declared by Premier Li Peng of the communist Chinese government, and not too long after

On April 16, 1989, in Tiananmen Square which is in Beijing, China experienced a protest which was called the June Fourth incident or more commonly known as the Tiananmen Square Protest. China, which had been controlled by the Communist Party since Mao Zedong’s rise of power during the Cold War, had been ruled over by Deng Xiaoping at the time of the protest. More than a million protesters which mostly consisted of students, had gathered at the square, protesting for reforms and the political transition to a democratic society. Through time, the student based protesters soon gained support nationwide as many supporters travelled to Beijing to support the students. However, the protest for reform did not only occurred at the square; the people who sided with the protesters spread the revolt to nearly four hundred cities in China. The protest had been smoothly executed without violence until the government sent forces which ended in a massacre.

An estimate near one million Chinese citizens, most of which were young students, gathered into the center of Beijing protesting for greater democracy. They also demanded Chinese Communist Party authority to resign, because of their restrictive form of governing. Protestors chanted, marched and even staked out for about three weeks. Much of the events were recorded and reported by western reporters to be released in United States and Europe. Both Chinese troops and police mortally attacked the protestors at the Tiananmen Square, the center of Beijing. This brutal attack occurred on June 4, 1989. The troops and police randomly fired into the crowds. Thousands of students tried escaping from the massacre. Some of the protestors fought back. The

The Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, more popularly known as the Tiananmen Square Incident or Tiananmen Square Massacre, were a series of student-led demonstrations in Beijing during 1989. The student-led protests were forcibly suppressed by tanks and armed troops 2 weeks after the government declared martial law and mobilized as many as 300,000 troops into Beijing. The death toll is still widely debated.The protests happened during rapid economic and social developments in China. The students called for political and economic reform, as well as more individual rights and freedoms due to the political corruption that was the result of inflation. At the height of the protests, about a million people assembled in the Square. By May, a student-led hunger strike gathered support for the