The American government was originally built on the idea of England's parliamentary system. After America had an outline of a well-rounded political system, they established the Constitution. In the Bill of Rights, the very first amendment listed is the freedom of speech. The right to state your opinion is the critical base of the first amendment. I believe peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society. Peaceful resistance has led to a global change and will continue to impact the society in the future. In 1955, because of peaceful protest, segregation on public busses is now unconstitutional. This iconic historic movement has given more recognition to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. who is now commonly associated with putting forward the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. Without the well known Rosa Parks standing up for herself on the bus and starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, it might have taken society even longer to achieve the racial equality that we have today. In 1913, …show more content…
We see it on the news, social media, and printed on the front cover of newspapers. Everywhere we go, media follows us. Peaceful protest influences others around us and encourages mass participation. Having a population unite with the same mindset and goal can accomplish more than violent protest. Violent protest can lead to injury, imprisonment, or death. With more and more people standing up for what they believe in, the exchanging of these movements are rapidly spreading throughout the world. Nonviolent protests tend to work more than riots because it’s easier to create a larger group of protesters and the last thing a government force wishes to do is fire on unarmed citizens, especially women, the elderly, and children. If they harm these citizens, more people will want to step in and the tables will turn, with the government losing more supporters and the protest group gaining more
When it comes to America's History you can clearly see how peaceful protest has brought this world to what it is today. If it wasn't for people such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks who voiced their opinions in a nonviolent manner, it's possible that our world would not have reached this equivalent state. While it is true that peaceful resistance has positively affected our society for centuries, these brave people have faced the consequences. For example, King was arrested after one of his nonviolent protests and sent to Birmingham Jail. While there he wrote the now famous piece "A Letter From Birmingham Jail".
Peaceful resistance to laws has a more positive impact on a free society because it allows people to express how wrong something can be and stress the need for change. In the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King demonstrates how nonviolence allows those who "refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue" (King). Martin Luther King explains how effective nonviolence can be. This demonstrates how those protesting aren't causing chaos, yet are still being able to get their point across.
During the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s, shifts in the political and societal views were very apparent. Through out the time era, we saw figures of great importance and the strength of activists are its highest. The build up of severe racism and discrimination led to the beginning of the civil rights era, which led to several divides in blacks, as well as a beginning of a more enriched society.. The Civil Rights era had several key events leading up to the full force of the movement - including bus boycotts, Freedom Riders, and the Little Rock Nine. Once the movement began to increase in involvement, many supporters were gained.
Non-violence is fine as long as it works” (X 3). , Malcolm X said, and according one of Erica Chenoweth's books, it does. Why Civil Resistance Works: The strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, has many statistics to prove it. For example, that of the 323 violent and nonviolent campaigns between 1990 and 2006, the nonviolent protests had higher success rates (Chenoweth 7). This statistic demonstrates how nonviolent methods of protest are more effective.
Non violence protest has been practiced by multiple people all over the world, and it has shown to be successful. Specifically Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with his form of non violence within the Civil Rights Movement. He is a legend, he has influenced many people to follow his tactics, in order to make the world a better place and to progress the country. Cesar Chavez is a Civil Rights Leader himself and writes an article on DR. King’s 10 year anniversary of his untimely death and his article was on how non violence protests are better than any form of violence by using elements of pathos and ethos.
Initiating a violent protest will alert their communities of the issue but in a negative way. While a peaceful protest is more likely to positively bring awareness to the issue and spark change. Standing alone can be hard because it means going against social proof. People who stand alone on certain issues and beliefs notify their communities to the existence of a
One more well-known peaceful protest in the era was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, led by Martin Luther King Jr., to help advance African American rights in the U.S. This protest started after Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks was peacefully protesting, as she was given the right to do from the Bill of Rights. This protest is just one of many examples that shows that civil disobedience is beneficial to society, because African Americans eventually got equal rights after more peaceful protests such as sit-ins at diners. Martin Luther King Jr. remains a famous historical figure because of his success with nonviolent protests.
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. "-Socrates. Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society because the society is not free unless it's able to check the government. As long as the protest of the law remains peaceful it is a good thing. It is the public telling the government that they will not let them gain to much power and crush their human rights.
Peaceful resistance positively affects our country in ways that are so essential to our American way of life. If America did not have a way to peacefully share their opinions and political views, opinions would rupture and would turn violent. America has a democratic process for this very reason built into it’s government. In fact, the whole government was built on the idea that the people should appoint the leaders that rule the country and if those leaders did not rule justly, to rightly replace them. Peaceful resistance is one of our rights as Americans.
Cesar mentioned that, “If we resort to violence…the violence will be escalated and there will be many injuries and perhaps deaths on both sides, or there will be total demoralization of the workers” (Garcia, 77). He created this idea that violence does not solve anything, and will only create bigger problems. However, a nonviolent movement is a protest
The consequences of peaceful protesting is, the marchers from Selma to Montgomery, had to go back and march three times. The first march wasn 't what they wanted to achieve and got sent back to the bridge. The second march was when they were crossing the bridge. The police officers attacked them with stick, teargas, clubs, arrested innocent people, guns were fired, knocked people to the ground, whips, rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire was a weapon that the police officers whipped at the marchers. The third time they went to march, they won Federal Protection and they successfully marched for their cause.
Accounts of civil disobediences have made their way into the paper many times since the start of this country: the Boston Tea Party, Thoreau's refusal to pay a poll tax, and Rosa Park's decision to stay seated on the bus. All of these examples represent a time of distress when people responded in non-violence to prove a point. But many would ask if this is really proving a point or if it is simply disregarding the law and setting a bad example? Well let me ask you this: would it be better to sit back and to hope that someone will speak out about the problem, or to go forward in violence thinking that that is the only way to achieve something? It seems that an act of non-violence is a way of being heard without coming across as irrational or
Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to be noticed. Everyone wants to make a change in this world, and allowing them to do something in protest peaceful gives them that voice that they so desperately crave and desire to have on this ever so cruel
Peaceful Resistance no matter what way you look at it, it 's still going against someone whether it involves words or actions, resistance still causes more conflict. The last 5 years we have had people say they want change through these “peaceful protest” but these peaceful protests have done nothing but turn to violent riots were theirs damage to vehicles, business families rely on destroyed, bystanders hurt, officers killed and our country torn apart. Back when Martian Luther King Jr was around and he had his Peaceful Resistance or rallies for equality, they were peaceful and brought our country together with something that needed to be changed, but the protest we’ve had the last 5 years… he would be ashamed of. Peaceful Resistance to laws does negatively impact our free society in America. First going along with what I said about there being “peaceful rallies” even though some people may be at these rallies to make a difference to support their opinion, not everyone can respect that.