Non-Violent Civil Disobedience

Paper Summary:

Compares Thoreau's notion of civil disobedience with the civil rights movement of the 1960s to gain equal rights for African Americans. Leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his thinking. Moral reasons for disobeying unjust laws. Peaceful demonstrations and those of activists. Bus boycott & NAACP litigation approach. Sit-ins, Freedom Rides and voter registration efforts of SNCC.

From the Paper:

"In his original formulation of the idea of civil disobedience Henry David Thoreau argued that when "gross inconsistency is tolerated" by the citizens of a democracy then "under the name of order and civil government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness" (Thoreau). In Thoreau's case he refused to pay taxes on the grounds that the government supported both an imperialist war against Mexico and the ownership of slaves. He held that a taxpayer in a democracy that engages in imperialist aggression and the expansion of slavery becomes, by way of his participation, an imperialist and a slave owner himself--no matter what private opinions he holds and no matter how he voted. To accept the order that allows these things was, in effect, not merely to accede to their existence but to become one with those who behaved in this..."

More papers on Non-Violent Civil Disobedience:

• Argumentative Essay # 66727 : "Civil Disobedience: Breaking a Law to Take a Stand"
• Analytical Essay # 126790 : "Martin Luther King and Civil Disobedience"
• Argumentative Essay # 58368 : "The Weapons of Civil Disobedience"

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