Briana Veliz

AP English

January 19,2014

                                       Civil Disobedience

     Civil disobedience is the active, public, contentious breach of the law to bring a change in law or public policy. Martin Luther king shows civil disobedience in his letter from Birmingham jail highlighting racial injustice and explaining moral arguments distinguishing between just and unjust laws. Nonviolence and civil disobedience as opposed to violence and conflict can still be a viable path toward gaining political and civil rights worldwide. There were many accounts that led to martins march towards city hall one being segregation at lunch counters and discrimination in hiring.

     Martin Luther king as a brilliant and eloquent leader took matters into his hands when racial segregation in public schools, police brutality, separation of public restrooms or restaurants reached an ultimate high of inequality, and decided to form a peaceful march to city hall were attack dogs and fire hoses were turned against the protestors many who were in their early teens or younger and were martin Luther king was arrested and jailed for leading these protests.  “ just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create tension In the mind , so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension to society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding brotherhood” throughout his letter to Birmingham he embraces and justifies the importance of tension, he is also careful to not stress that the tension he supports is “nonviolent” he also states Socrates as a archetype of wisdom. He tries to imply that since Socrates was right to create tension so that the mind could grow and tension is good for inspiring mankind to grow. All the actions martin Luther king took to get his message across about the inequality in races were considered civil disobedience because he was breaking unjust laws and was willing to accept the penalty.

    Such an act of disobedience such a martin Luther king took would be very similar in our world today in many aspects. There’s has been many peaceful protests recently were the protestors are asking for a higher pay in wage or the equal rights of marriage, or the stop of police brutality. These are all examples of peaceful marches were in a professed way many are refusing to obey certain laws, demands, or commands of the government. Many acts of civil disobedience are also similar in the way that even through peaceful protests police brutality is still a major component of people going against unjust laws and forming petitions. To form such a protest or march would be effective today because we have the right to assemble and right to freedom of speech which our government takes into consideration. We also have broadcast networks which gives the audience an outlook on what should be changed. Although many will say that civil disobedience doesn’t help earn anything if you want something changed you have to have power or have some say in the creating of laws or decisions made in office or you will just be shot down and killed. The strategy of civil disobedience such as martin Luther king advised his protestors would make offenders such as police look more brutal and downgrading unlike the protestors who are peacefully asking for their rights and respect.                               

       The act of civil disobedience also helps bring attention and moral concept that there are times when law and justice do not coincide. In many circumstances the relatively weak must find tactics of confrontation that avoid the opponents strengths, and take advantage of peoples limited strengths and which help illuminate the issue. The vital act of civil disobedience has the ability to function through a multitude of perspectives an unsatisfied can undertake a process of civil disobedience in their individualized fashion. But nether less the result of any act of disobedience is not meant to benefit the individual but the community at large or even the whole country. The ends of such an act should not be a private gain but a public gain.  

    Martin Luther king consciously offered a middle way that addresses the great inequalities of segregation in his letter to Birmingham and stops short of calling for a violent confrontation with the government, although in his letter he is not suggesting that he act of nonviolent civil disobedience is a tactic plays in the rule of law but is something that acts outside the law and what people usually don’t use as a strategy for confrontation. In his letter he clearly states that his strategy is to purposely break laws that are unjust and unfair to certain people. And the important point here is that kings movement for civil rights was successful, in the long term because they eventually resolved a huge situation that wasn’t going away. Marin Luther offered a simple choice “ witness your country ripped in half and descend into chaos, or follow his middle path or reform and civil rights”.

  It is not to say that nonviolence is a tactic best employed for protest or resistance movements. Kings civil rights movement similarly to ghandis independence movement found itself a position of strength and drew strength from more militant black nationalists. While using the notion of nonviolence he had six key principles. One was to rest evil without restoring violence. Second is to win the friendship and understanding of your opponent not to humiliate him. Third the evil not the people itself should be opposed. Fourth those committed to nonviolence must be willing toi suffer without retaliation. Fifth the nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses t hate him. sixth is that the nonviolent resister must have a deep faith in the future, these six principles gives logic and motivation that helps the resister to not give up hope in their cry and protest for equal rights and justice. These principles also help nonviolence become a way of life applicable o all situations which can be called “a guiding light of our movement”