The Nonviolent Resistance To The Civil Rights Movement

Words: 799
Pages: 4
Open Document
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson
While Jefferson spoke directly of a violent resistance, the idea of a peaceful, conscious resistance to the law as a means of protest, has probably existed as long as the concept of law itself. Civil disobedience is defined as “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government” (Merriam-Webster), and is not only immensely beneficial to, but is a crucial tenet of a free society. There are few countries in history that came to be without some form of resistance, violent or otherwise, and this is especially true in the case of America. …show more content…
America owes two of its largest steps in social progress to peaceful resistance of the law, by way of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and the Women’s Suffrage movement of the 1980’s. It was through the nonviolent actions that characterized these movements that led to the enfranchisement of Black people and women. two groups that gained the freedoms they had been denied by a society that considered itself “free”, through peaceful resistance. Unless one considers the enfranchisement of Black people and women to be a bad thing, the Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage movements are prime examples of peaceful resistance to unjust laws having a positive impact on a free society; and even go so far as to serve as proof for the need for civil disobedience in a practical society. A society without dissenting opinions is a society of suppression, and by default is not free. Freedom never has and never will be a product of complacency or submission. It is an ideal that must be ever-fought for and continuously earned, because there will always be those who seek to gain power through the subjugation of others. Thus, protest in any …show more content…
Martin Luther King Jr. said that the purpose of nonviolent action is to create so much of a “crisis” and foster so much “tension” in those who have repeatedly refused other attempts at negotiation, that they have no choice but to face the issue being raised (King Jr.). Peaceful disobedience of the law is a way to place direct pressure on those in power, but to do so without causing intentional harm to another member of society; something I find it quite hard to find any substantial drawbacks in. With that said, there are still those who see civil disobedience as a threat to the freedom in society, particularly Morris I. Leibman, a lawyer during the era of the Civil Rights movement. In his address to the ABA in 1964, Leibman argues among other things, that freedom is not “absolute” and can only exist within the confines of society, and that law is not only a protector of freedom, but an “affirmative agent” of it (Leibman), two arguments that show a fundamental misunderstanding of man and the construction of society. Leibman forgets that man is at his most free when unbound from the rules of society, and that law is almost always the loser in the race with
Show More

Related Documents: The Nonviolent Resistance To The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement: The Struggle For Racial Equality

The Civil Rights Movement: Fight for Racial Equality The United States civil rights movement lasted from the 1950’s to the 1970’s and was a challenging journey to achieve equal rights for African-Americans. Throughout the civil rights movement, the white supremacists held on to the principle that African-Americans did not deserve equality with white Americans. However, the black community continuously rallied behind the idea that civil rights should apply to all Americans regardless of race. Historian…

Words 1494 - Pages 6

Why Civil Resistance Works Summary

source Why Civil Resistance Works by Maria J. Stephan who is Director of Educational Initiatives at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and Erica Chenoweth of Wesleyan and Harvard University focuses on why nonviolent methods are the best at promoting change. Using data on major nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006, they found that “major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns”…

Words 400 - Pages 2

Malcolm X's Archetype Of The Civil Rights Movement

law can “abridge 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.” [1] This ever-so-controversial constitutional right has been instrumental in the making of American history, particularly in the shaping of the civil rights movement. Perhaps the very first image that may pop into one’s head when one thinks of the civil rights movement is Dr. Martin Luther King peacefully marching to Montgomery. However…

Words 1088 - Pages 5

Essay about Philosophy 215

enemies”), as well as his intolerance for racial injustice. He melded these ideas with the concept of nonviolent resistance, which he encountered during his first year at Morehouse while reading Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience. King became convinced that a philosophy based on love could succeed as a “powerful and effective social force on a large scale” and adopted the philosophy of nonviolent direct action. Even when confronted with violence, practitioners figuratively and sometimes literally…

Words 526 - Pages 3

Essay about Civil rights movement

- - - - - - - - - - - - The Civil Rights Movement lead nonviolently by Martin Luther King in the 1960s is an important era to examine when analyzing the extent to which the ideology of Carl Schmitt remains relevant to domestic conflict outside of the interwar period. Schmitt’s theory assists in understanding the racial segregation in the United States as political. However, while King identified similar critiques of liberalism as Schmitt, he believed that nonviolent direct action was an effective…

Words 1651 - Pages 7

Examples Of Nonviolent Resistance

best way to overcome it and deal with it today is to use peaceful resistance. Peaceful resistance positively impacts a free society when these issues arise on everyday basis. In order to form a more perfect union we must understand the past uses of nonviolent resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks are phenomenal examples of leaders who practiced peaceful resistance. Peaceful resistance, also known as nonviolent resistance, is defined as, “refusal to obey a law considered unjust.” In “A…

Words 581 - Pages 3

Peaceful Resistance Research Paper

Peaceful resistance to laws positively impact a free society. A free society is people having the right to unlimited freedom in their personal lives. To be able to pursue their dreams and if on the path to completion they feel as if the government has taken some sort of freedom peaceful resistance to laws has helped these issues. The results would be helping others clear their path to their unlimited freedom. The government’s major role to the people is not to take parts of our freedom with laws…

Words 544 - Pages 3

How Did Gandhi Use Non Violence

ingenuity of man." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi uses nonviolent measures to speak his voice. and destruction comes from those with little patience and understanding. Gandhi believed nonviolence was a force stronger than any other to counter any obstacle that comes your way; he thought of it as fighting for justice by not fighting at all. Man can create any weapon he wants, but that weapon won’t stand a chance competed with nonviolence. By adopting nonviolent methods, one can achieve what they want without…

Words 1165 - Pages 5

Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X Comparison Essay

men emerged as powerful, religiously motivated activists fighting for African American rights. While there are many differences between King and Malcolm X, both men looked to their religious beliefs to inform their political views and used the past traditions of their respective faiths to address the issue of civil rights in America. This paper will explore King’s hope in the love of God to promote a nonviolent solution to racism while Malcolm X’s belief in the Oneness of God and humanity left him…

Words 1991 - Pages 8

Gandhi Act Of Deviance Essay

by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment” (Chandler 2010). This quote by Mohandas Gandhi demonstrates his strategy of nonviolently refusing to cooperate with injustice. Gandhi’s act of resistance against the law conveys him to be a deviant hero, his deviance is best explained by strain theory, and his deviance has shown to have made a lasting impact. To better understand what is meant by a deviant hero, one must first know what it means…

Words 779 - Pages 4