Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi once said, “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” What Gandhi is saying is that nonviolence is a stronger force than using destructive tools like guns or explosives. He is saying you can achieve your goals without the need to use violence like harming innocent people or causing chaos and havoc. Historical figures like Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela used non-violence civil disobedience Although non-violent civil disobedience is the best way to bring change to an unjust system, it is not always successful. Non-violent civil disobedience is always the best choice is always …show more content…
achieved his goals through non-violent disobedience. Like Mohandas Gandhi, he used marches, speeches, and boycotts. What is somewhat different is that he fought against institutionalized racism in the U.S., especially in the South. Martin Luther King Jr. was a social rights activist and achieved his goals successfully, just like Gandhi. One of his famous marches was the March on Washington in 1963. It was the largest political rally ever seen in the U.S. and had between 200,000 and 300,000 police and colored people, in which 80% of the participants were black. In this rally, Dr. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Also, one of his famous boycotts he lead was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It started after Rosa Parks, who was a secretary of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, had refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. She was then arrested after. For 381 days, activists coordinated a bus boycott, which placed a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. This was because the majority of people using the buses were colored people rather than whites.These activists chose Martin Luther King Jr. to be their leader and the official spokesperson for this protest. Because of events like the Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which were non-violent protests, they were able to help bring about such landmark legislations like the
Because the African American population as a whole worked together and all refused to ride the bus, they boycott was a success. With a leader such as Martin Luther King Jr the population were enabled to build a movement to a point where it got the exact result they wanted. “In Montgomery, Alabama, king found a receptive audience for his sermons. ”(Doc F) He found the perfect group of people that were bind by the hope for change to stage such a mass protest that lasted 13 months.
Martin Luther King Jr., plus his own beliefs and conclusions, shows that nonviolence methods historically and analytically accomplish much more than violent tactics. The utilization of formal diction in Chavez’s article is proven to be most evident when he mentions, “The greater the oppression, the more leverage nonviolence holds. Violence does not work in the long run and if it is temporarily successful, it replaces one violent form of power with another just as violent. People suffer from violence” (Chavez). By the author using formal diction, especially towards the conclusion of his article it makes the audience have to or want to agree with him as the statements he provides don’t leave much room for counterarguments and instead reaches to the audience's logos or reasoning.
Bus drivers got to choose who stood and who had the right to sit down when the bus was full. Parks thought this was unjust. African Americans all around town refused to get on the buses. King ended up being a part of this boycott.
Black citizens loved their Montgomery city they did not want to destroy it, but they did want to end segregation before it destroyed their race. Immediately WPC Would distribute thousands of leaflets to every black home in Montgomery letting them know about the Boycott. The black minster and their churches made the Montgomery Bus Boycott the success that it was. Shortly after Dr. King was the elected spokesman for the boycotting people.
Only eight percent of blacks remained taking the buses during the boycott. Since the majority of the passengers were black the companies lost money and eventually decided to lift the segregation. King pulled this off by getting taxis to pick people up at the bus station and eventually buying vehicles for the movement which were paid for with donation money from around the United States. After his success in Montgomery King felt the need
An example of a powerful movement of nonviolence is from Ghandi. His salt march, a peaceful and very effective form of resistance and nonviolence, brought about change for the benefit of the mass. While many may think there are other forms of getting things done, disobedience has been shown to be the only way to get change for the people. This is proven in the speech of the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry. He claims how he and the American people has tried many forms of negotiations and arguments for ten years yet it has failed to work.
This campaign does not start with civil disobedience, rather it begins with collecting facts. These facts could be how the law came to be, the context of the law, who wrote it and why. These facts prove the injustice of a law. Then negotiation of the law takes place, in hope one can avoid breaking the law. If and when negotiations fail, the third step is self-purification.
Civil disobedience is the act of protesting over action that seem unjust. Martin Luther King became tired of the segregation of public spaces and the mistreatment of his people. He believed that the country that they lived in was unjust in their laws and policies toward African Americans. King emphasizes the history of slavery and the war that was fought to end such treatment and yet over the course of the years they were being treated as unequal in comparison to white men.
"Actions prove who someone is. Words prove who they want to be." Although words are important, actions are the essentials that are the most significant to revealing a persons character, such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi. Martin Luther King is a great example when it comes to actions. During the Civil Rights Movement Dr.King did not fight with words but with non-violent actions such as boycotts and strikes.
“People try nonviolence for a week, and when it 'doesn't work' they go back to violence, which hasn't worked for centuries.” Theodore Roszak. This saying represents the change that happened in my point of view why nonviolent resistance is better and more effective than violent resistance. Actually, I had believed that the best way to defeat injustice and fight for rights was to use violent actions to prove the power of protesters. However, I started supporting nonviolent resistance, when, I studied Martin Luther King, who broke segregation law by practicing nonviolent actions using civil disobedience (non-violent protests and peace rallies), and listened to his inspirational speech “ I have a dream “.
Civil Disobedience Compare and Contrast Henry Thoreau and Martin Luther King both wrote persuasive discussions that oppose many ideals and make a justification of their cause, being both central to their argument. While the similarity is obvious, the two essays, Civil Disobedience by Thoreau and Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. do have some similarities. King tries persuading white, southern clergymen that segregation is an evil, unfair law that ought to defeat by use of agitation of direct protesting. Thoreau, on the other hand, writes to a broader, non-addressed audience, and focuses more on the state itself. He further accepts it at its current state, in regard to the battle with Mexico and the institution of slavery.
Martin Luther King organized a boycott of the bus system. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted over a year, and so many people refused to ride buses that the bus companies lost a lot of money. In December 1956, the Supreme Court declared that segregated busses were unconstitutional. This was a major victory for the civil rights movement and it proved that peaceful methods could create change. Between 1957 and 1968, King worked tirelessly to promote civil rights.
Thus Mahatma Gandhi was non-violent. When I say Gandhi was non-violent I mean that he did not respond to violence and was very peaceful.
He grew up with a deeply rooted determination to obtain equal rights for all American citizens. He led many protests and gave extremely motivating speeches that eventually made him the most known Civil Rights leader. “Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the head of a movement for justice and equality that branched out from Montgomery and swept through the south” (ramsees7). This established the success in his accomplishments within the marches
Known as a political campaigner to gain rights for Indians over British rule, he established the Indian Independence Movement through non-violent civil disobedience. Non-violent civil disobedience means to refuse obeying certain governmental laws by not using violence. He arranged all of his protests and boycotts in this principle. Gandhi was represented as a voice of the Indian nation. He overcame many obstacles, such as discrimination by using passive resistance.