Civil Disobedience Examples

Thomas Jefferson once said, “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” I believe that civil disobedience not only positively impacts a free society, but it also helps to keep it honest and working for the people. This is shown through the civil disobedience of Gandhi, Harriet Tubman, and most recently Bree Newsome.
Mahatma Gandhi was a anti-war activist who spent his life fighting racial segregation and the rule of the British over India. He is possibly one of the greatest examples of the impact that civil disobedience can have on a society. Gandhi led the Salt March which was an act of defiance against Britain. Britain’s Salt Acts forced the people of India to buy salt from the British who were very …show more content…
In the summer of 2012, it was voted on to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol. A couple days earlier Newsome and a group of concerned citizens of both black and white decided to take the task into their own hands and remove the flag. A white man helped Newsome (a black woman) over the fence and she scaled the flagpole to retrieve the Confederate flag. “...this is not simply about a flag, but rather it is about abolishing the spirit of hatred and oppression in all forms,” said Newsome. Many people see the Confederate flag as a symbol of the South and the past, but others such as Newsome and her small group see it as an item that divides the black and whites and prevents them from being united. This act of civil disobedience resulted in the removal of the Confederate flag and maybe now the uniting of South Carolina.
Through Gandhi’s Salt March, Tubman’s Underground Railroad, and Newsome’s flag stealing we can see that civil disobedience can have a great effect on society and in many cases is needed. It is much better to be civilly disobedient than take the lives of innocent people. It is our obligation, when we see something that is not right, to do something about it. That is how we will keep the United States government honest and

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