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Civil Disobedience Essay

Decent Essays

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr passed away from a sniper’s bullet. He gave us thirteen years of nonviolent protest during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. Before I can give my opinion on the history of race relations in the United States since King’s assassination in 1968 strengthened or weakened his arguments on the necessity and value of civil disobedience? You should know the meaning of civil disobedience. The word civil has several definitions. “The one that is intended in this case is "relating to citizens and their interrelations with one another or with the state", and so civil disobedience means "disobedience to the state". Sometimes people assume that civil in this case means "observing accepted social forms; polite" which …show more content…

The students chained the doors shut, then picked up and carried one dean outside the scene was pictured on the front page of the national newspapers. The administration stated that, “the student demands were out of hand, but some had various points were being or would be considered by appropriate committees and the rest had no basis in fact”.
The Boston Globe estimated that there were 500 student and faculty protestors that grew; by nightfall, despite the treats of being arrest for trespassing. The students formed a human chain across the doorway, even though they had vowed for a non-violent resistance to any attempts to be removed. Meanwhile the school administration contacted the state police, 400 police officers were dispatched armed with mace and billy clubs and arrested more than 100 protesters. Students and faculty alike were outraged by the violent tactics made by the police and how they handle the situation. Tension quickly escalated when students assembled a three-day strike to drop all charges and disciplinary actions to the students and faculty that were arrested. Even though the school administration did not want to further prosecute the charges, the presiding judge went forth with prosecuting the students and some school faculty. Most of the protestors were tried for criminal trespass and had to pay a fine of $20, and the others that appealed the decision, were successful. Two students were charged with assault and battery. They were

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