Civil Rights Movement Dbq

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A march of over 5,000 women down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in 1913 calling for women to be given the right to vote. A month-long march in 1930, where dozens of Indians walked over 240 miles to collect a handful of salt from the Arabian Sea, protesting a British law that forbade the Indian people from collecting or selling salt. A single individual’s refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, an act that sparked protests over segregation laws in the Southern states of the US. Each of these is an example of peaceful resistance of laws considered unfair and unjust, sparking protests that eventually changed both the laws of the land and the mindset of the people. While there may be some unintended consequences …show more content…
In the same speech in which Martin Luther King said he would fight “until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights” and “the bright day of justice emerges”, he also said of America, “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” As Susan B. Anthony said in a speech delivered in 1873, “…I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny.” Both Martin Luther King and Susan B. Anthony, even as they fought against the unjust laws of their country, fought not to harm but to better their nation, that “We the people of the United States”, may “establish justice” and “ensure domestic tranquility”. They protested peacefully because they understood what America stands for, and they understood that, even though the ideals of freedom, justice, and equality had not yet been fully achieved, they were still worth fighting