Civil Disobedience Research Paper

Civil disobedience, as demonstrated through Henry David Thoreau, Rosa Parks, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, is an essential characteristic of the United States because of its positive impact on Americans' undeniable right to freedom. Henry David Thoreau illustrates the fact that civil disobedience is essential for the freedom of the people through its positive effect on society. Civil disobedience, according to Thoreau, is essential and has a positive effect on freedom because of imperfections in the state. The state one "who [fulfills] all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men" (Thoreau), but it can never be faultless as a result of the imperfect humans that run society. Freedom can only be obtained by the people when they exercise civil …show more content…
Civil disobedience, according to King, is essential in a society because people have a duty to the state to correct mistakes through civil disobedience. One must be peaceful when disobeying the law because it is wrong to riot in violent ways, but according to King, "it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends". The state is imperfect, so the people have a duty to improve it in a positive way and maintain the right of freedom for all through civil disobedience, or they commit an even greater crime by remaining silent. Furthermore, peaceful disobedience, like King's, is necessary to make proper changes in society that make a better future. Peaceful protest of the law is necessary to make society a just place for all. People cannot live under a corrupted state that denies the basic right of freedom because "the yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself" (King) in the hearts of the people. The government can never truly rise to a place that grants freedom to everyone without the civil disobedience of courageous individuals who are willing to peacefully disobey the law and accept the consequence in the name of what is morally right and in the name of

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Research Paper On Civil Disobedience