Peaceful Resistance To The Civil Rights Movement

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Peaceful resistance is a fairly commonly used method of attaining change. However, there has been a debate occurring in recent times of whether or not peaceful resistance in a free society is positive or not. Some on the negative side says that protests should not overstep the bounds of the law and should not be too disruptive and that even peaceful protests do this. However, American history is filled with examples of people yearning for change and grouping together to peacefully protest against societal problems. From protests at Seneca Falls, to the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s, to more modern protests, peaceful resistance has made a massive mark on this nation. The ability to assemble and petition our government for change …show more content…
Their protests used civil disobedience in an attempt to change the status quo of their era. This struggle was very much in their minds during the creation of our current government. This is why, when they were setting up the defined rights of the citizens of their new nation, the first order of business was to establish that “congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances(Congress).” As a direct result of this, people have been able to fight for progress and to right the wrongs that have popped up throughout the years. Overall, the right to use peaceful resistance to unjust laws is a positive force in a free society because it allows people to use their voice to help ensure that a government does not abridge the rights of their …show more content…
Recently, several protest such as the Black Lives Matter movement have organized actions such as highway blocks and sit-ins(Badger). Several people have outspokenly criticized them saying that a peaceful protest should never break the law and that disrupting the order of other people’s lives is wrong. However, they forget that protests are not meant to be convenient and orderly. The goal of a protest is to raise awareness of an issue and force a solution that will change the status quo. In order to do this, protests must cause some level of unrest, often by engaging in civil disobedience. The reason a group of people go out and organize a protest is because they view some established law or practice as unjust and they wish to challenge it. The fairness of the law itself is the issue they are trying to champion, so naturally certain laws must be broken in a peaceful manner in order to accomplish this. Additionally, it is very easy for people to ignore an issue when they are not directly affected by it and so in order to change this a protest must force them to face the problem. When protesters do actions like boycotts and sit-ins, they are intentionally trying to make things difficult and make a statement. The goal of these actions is to create a discussion about what they are fighting for and to bring the issue out of the shadows. Once the issue is out of the shadows
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