Disobedience Leads to Progress
Oscar Wilde believed rebellion was necessary for social progress and confided in disobedience being an essential human trait. In order to experience modification, you rebel against the discriminating laws that bring problems to you and your people. Furthermore, when awareness is given to an issue, there is extensive social progress being taken place.
Martin Luther King Jr. “ dreamed one day all the little white and black children would join hands as sisters and brothers,” a fantasy that once was thought to be insane, nevertheless came true due to the rebellion and disobedience of the those that desired change. African Americans feared Whites, disagreed with the viewing of social inequality, and were dissatisfied
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Discrimination of the blacks was a dilemma without a care to be resolved. Separation of whites from the darker complected people is what caused rebellions and outrage throughout communities, throughout the nation. “Whites sit in the front, blacks sit in the back,” this is the main reason that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, which cause African Americans to boycott against the buses. You are black, you do not have the same rights as we do.” and out of fear, out of lack of courage, the African Americans obeyed their orders. Then one day, a man asked Rosa Parks to stand or head towards the rear of the bus so he may have a seat in the front where white men and women would sit. She refused to stand, and she did not move; she sat ignoring the commands of a “superior white male.” Rosa Parks began a movement after her actions got her arrested; known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This act of civil disobedience of a single female caught the attention of many, causing plenty to refuse to do as the signs announced, and causing many to walk to work rather than ride the bus. The blacks no longer felt obligated to listen to the signs and the laws which were bizarre yet politely rude. White people were not superior, and it was now that the African Americans were realizing they deserved equality.
Both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
Rosa Parks was an important person towards the evolution of a civil rights movement. This occurred on December 1st, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Even though in today’s society, this can be a show of a childish gesture. But, during the time of a civil movement; this had a significant impact on people of both races. African Americans now had a chance to speak up and follow the footsteps of Rosa Parks. This includes people such as the memorable Martin Luther King. However, the actions Rosa Parks committed had consequences. This would continue until the newer generations to come. In, “Rosa Parks Redux: Racial Mobility Projects on the Journey to Work”, it states the following statement. “Her refusal crystallized the insidious nature of segregation in the South and laid bare its brutal banality. Sixty years later, cities in the putatively post racial era continue to generate profound racial inequalities, and commuting continues to embody, reveal, and sometimes contest the twenty-first-century city as a generator of racial inequality.” Even after so much time, people still want change because equality is not wupon every
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, one of the leaders of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, despite being reprimanded by the driver (Schulke 166). Montgomery, Alabama was known for its terrible treatment of blacks. The buses in particular had been a source of tension between the city and black citizens for many years (Schulke, 167). As a result of refusing to give up her seat, Rosa Parks was arrested. Rosa Parks' popularity among the black community, proved to be the spark that ignited the non-violent Civil Rights Movement (Norrell 2).
As a few white passengers boarded the bus and the white sections were already full so the driver shouted back at four black people including Rosa Parks “Move y'all, I want those two seats”. As this demand was made by the driver 3 of the bus riders obeyed to what was shouted back, however Rosa Parks remained in her seat and was determined not to move. She was arrested following the bus drivers order and fined ten dollars. This, however small incited a great wave of bus boycotts which in Montgomery black people chose not to ride the bus for a period of 381 days. This still to date is known as the moment in which the civil rights movement started to gain headway. It was the will of one woman who decided it was time for black people to take a stand and from this point on Martin Luther King was assigned to take this boycott on. Although he was assigned to take this on people also felt as he was young, fresh and people had not formulated enough of an opinion of him, there was little room for him to be hated yet so he posed as the right figure to lead this. After the many days of boycotting the case of this transport issue in Alabama went to the Supreme Court. Here it was decided that segregation was declared as unconstitutional so segregation by law was no
Irish author Oscar Wilde offers up the idea that we as humans are fundamentally made to disobey, as this trait may also lead to great progress in our society. In this way, Wilde is correct in his assertion that disobedience promotes great, positive change, as seen throughout history, despite some instances where disobedience is simply violence and does not directly correlate to any positive change. For one, a prime example
America was highly separated. The blacks ,or coloreds, had nastier restaurants, bathrooms , and etc… than the whites. The white side of everything was so much better than the coloreds people's stuff. Many blacks were fed up with being secondary and not having clean bathrooms and nicer restaurants. One of the many blacks fed up with it is Rosa Parks. Buses were separated by front and back. whites in the front blacks in the back. “ When the bus became crowded, the driver instructed Mrs. Parks and the three other seated in that row, and all african americans, to vacate their seats for the white passengers boarding. She argued that she was not in a seat reserved for whites. He (the bus driver) called the cops.” (An Act of Courage, The Arrest of Rosa Parks) She was arrested for defying a bus driver which was a crime in Montgomery, Alabama. She was apprehended and incarcerated for a short time. When she called her mom the first thing her mom asked was “Did They
“I have a dream, that one day little black boys and black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sister and brother.” (de Kay 75)…Martin Luther King Jr.
Because of the master/slave relationship, African Americans were seen as an inferior race. They had to put up with racism and segregation, among other things. In order to be treated as equal citizens of this country, they had to fight for their civil rights. From 1955 through 1968, African Americans faced an up hill battle. It all really started on May 17, 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that it was harmful to colored children to be segregated from white children in school. Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” was deemed unconstitutional. The court said that by separating the races, it signifies that the Negro group was inferior. Then Rosa Parks refusal in giving up her seat on a Montgomery, AL bus in 1955, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. With the help of Dr. Martin Luther King, the 382-day boycott succeeded in a
The idea that disobedience promotes social progress is valid because there is a saying that says “we learn from our mistakes” so through the trouble people make, they learn and grow from that situation. For instance, in schools, many students face tests that did not study for and fail it, but later they try to study again to do better the next time. Hardship opens the mind to a different perspective which also means people would rebel to give them a different meaning in their life. This mentality creates a sense of hope and pride that makes people want to do better or try to progress from that mistake. Most people like a challenge which helps encourage them to work harder and help them to realize that there is always a way to finding a better
This act of peaceful disobedience was one of the acts that started the Civil Rights Movement that eventually created equality between blacks and whites in the United States. Though there is still conflicts between blacks and whites in today’s time, there is an equal opportunity for everyone in public areas, job markets, and educational environments. This equality would not be possible if Rosa Parks would have not refused to give up her seat.
On Thursday evening December 1, 1955, Rosa boards a Montgomery City Bus to go home after a long day working as a seamstress. She walks back to the section for blacks, and takes a seat. The law stated that they could sit there if no White people were standing. Rosa parks never liked segregation rules and has been fighting against them for more than ten years in the NAACP, but until then had never broke any of the unjust rules. As the bus stops at more places, more white people enter the bus, all the seats in the “White Only” section was filled and the bus driver orders Rosa’s row to move to the back of the bus, they all moved, accept Rosa. She was arrested and fined for violating a city regulation. This act of defiance began a movement that ended legal Segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom devoted people everywhere.
Disobedience is a necessary human trait needed to rebel against unjust authority, to see unfairness in a society that prefers one type of person, and to do the right thing in the face of the law. Irish author, Oscar Wilde, wrote in 1891 that disobedience is a valuable human trait that’s necessary to progress, which is a sentiment that holds true to this day.
Because of the outcome of the Brown case a lot of African Americans took matter into their own hands and wanted to end forms of racial segregation. December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks, a black seamstress and a NAACP activist denied giving up her seat to a white man. This caused mayhem and sparked a bus boycott due to the fact that Rosa Parks got arrested for not wanting to get up. This was a tactic that the civil rights movement leaders used to stop racial discrimination between blacks and whites in the United States. After more than a year of conflict, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the complete desegregation of Montgomery buses. (Hewitt and Lawson
On December 1, 1955 a black seamstress, after a long and exhausting day at work, got onto a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama and sat in the back where the blacks were portioned off. A few stops following, a flock of white people boarded. They seized all the remaining seats in the front, except for one white man who was forced to stand as the seats were filled up. The bus driver ordered the four black people in the rear end of the bus to give up their seats to the white man.Three of the four stood up hesitantly. Rosa Parks, the work-weary black seamstress did not. She was arrested later that evening. She was angry at the hate and disrespect towards blacks and minorities. She had enough of the way the world has treated them and she knew that
African American’s experience prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 can be explained with the use of the sociological imagination. African American people were troubled. Troubled by the inequalities of their fellow man, some trying to survive and some looking for self-advancement. The feeling of inequality is what led Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in 1955. Rebelling against inequalities such as this by the African American people is what drove the Civil Rights Movement. The greater issue was not that Ms. Parks was not allowed to sit in the front of the
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.