FREE ESSAY ON CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE

CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE

Civil Disobedience
I believe that civil disobedience is justified as a method of trying to change the law. I
think that civil disobedience is an expression of one's viewpoints. If someone is willing
to break a law for what they believe in, more power to them! Civil disobedience is
defined as, the refusal to obey the demands or commands of a government or occupying
power, without resorting to violence or active measures of opposition (Webster's
Dictionary). This refusal usually takes the form of passive resistance. Its usual purpose
is to force concessions from the government or occupying power. Civil disobedience has
been a major tactic and philosophy of nationalist movements in Africa and India, in the
civil rights movement of U.S. blacks, and of labor and anti-war movements in many
countries. People practicing civil disobedience break a law because they consider it
unjust and hope to call attention to it. In his essay, Civil Disobedience, American
author Henry David Thoreau set forth the basic tenets of civil disobedience for the first
time. The independence of India in the 1930's was largely a result of the nonviolent
resistance by Mohandas Gandhi to the British colonial laws. In the United States, the
nonmilitant efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped bring about civil rights
legislation. There are numerous examples that illustrate how civil disobedience is
justified.
In late 1955 Rosa Parks, a leading member of the local branch of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was jailed for refusing to give up her seat
to a white passenger. I don't blame Parks at all for what she did. The African American
people had to take a stand on some issue some where in life. Martin Luther King was soon
selected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association(MIA), the organization
that directed a bus boycott prompted by Park's jailing. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted
for more than a year. By late 1956 King was a national figure. These types of civil
disobedience are clearly justifiable in my eyes. Everyone should have equal opportunities
in life. In 1957 King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC), an
organization of black churches and ministers that aimed to challenge racial segregation.
King and other leaders encouraged the use of nonviolent marches, demonstrations, and
boycotts to protest discrimination. They did this because that was there way of getting
the message across. They always had reason to back up their claims or arguments. I could
go on and on with examples of civil disobedience displayed by Martin Luther King but
there are other conditions from which to discuss.
The man who most clearly formulated the concept of civil disobedience for the modern
world was Mohandas Gandhi. He was an Indian nationalist leader, who established his
country's freedom through a nonviolent revolution and whose teachings inspired nonviolent
movements. In 1893 Gandhi went to serve as a legal adviser in South Africa. He was
appalled at the denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants to
South Africa. He threw himself into the struggle for elementary rights for Indians.
Gandhi remained in South Africa for 20 years, suffering imprisonment many times. In 1896
Gandhi began to teach a policy of passive resistance and noncooperation with the South
African authorities. Gandhi considered the terms passive resistance and civil
disobedience inadequate for his purposes and coined another term, Satyaqraha (Sanskrit,
truth and firmness)(Internet). In 1914 the government of South Africa made important
concessions to Gandhi's demands. His work in South Africa was complete so he returned to
India. This only being part of Gandhi's work, it is still amazing. I respect the courage
and strength he had, to stand up for what he believed in until he received what he was
fighting for. His actions were clearly justified. He was fighting for the civil rights of
people of his own kind. I admire that man greatly. He is a role model for people to come.
Everyone could learn something from his position on violence. The violence was
nonexistent.
Another great man who justified civil disobedience was American writer, philosopher, and
naturalist Henry David Thoreau. In 1846 he performed an act of civil disobedience by
choosing to go to jail rather than to support the Mexican War (1846-1848) by paying his
poll tax. He clarified his position in perhaps his most famous essay, Resistance to Civil
Government (also known by the title Civil Disobedience) written in 1849. Thoreau asserted
that the United States government lacked moral authority because it condoned slavery, and
he saw the Mexican War (1846-1848) as an attempt to extend slavery to the western United
States. Thoreau believed that publicly disobeying the laws of an unjust government would
bring other people to oppose that government's actions. Resistance to Civil Government
inspired leaders of 20th-century resistance movements, such as Indian nationalist leader
Mohandas Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. That shows what
an important role Thoreau played if he inspired two of the greatest leaders ever.
In all of these circumstances the persons involved have felt the need for civil
disobedience. They feel like the given law was unjust. Therefore they are not going to
obey it. A perfect example of this would be if the government banned a certain book. They
stopped the circulation of it and said nobody was allowed to read it. If one wanted to
disobey the law and perform civil disobedience, that person could get a group together or
go alone and set out front of a government building and read that banned book. Voice your
opinion on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Civil disobedience is justified
here because it is not right to ban a piece of literature no matter how unethical it is.
These laws limit human freedom and hinder spontaneity.
I think there are always times when disobeying a law is morally justified. They are
sometimes unfair and repressive; common sense, social custom, and religion already
provide enough guidance; and morality can never be legislated (Kessler 154). Thoreau
argued that any given law is not as high or not above what you believe in or what your
conscious tells you is right. We all have a moral duty to obey our consciences (Kessler
154). I believe it is very clear how I stand on the subject of civil disobedience. After
researching this topic and formulating my own opinions I have learned a great deal about
my morals and myself. It simply shocks me when I think of the accomplishments of people
like King, Gandhi, and Thoreau. 
Bibliography
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