Fourteen years. The AfricanAmerican civil rights movement lasted fourteen years. After countless years of discrimination and inequality, African Americans finally gained many of their hard earned rights through acts of nonviolent resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. patterned his teachings and philosophy of civil disobedience on the great works of Mohandas Gandhi, the man who led India to independence through peaceful actions. Gandhi said, “Nonviolence is the greatest force man has been endowed with. Truth is the only goal he has. For God is none other than Truth. But Truth cannot be, never will be reached except through nonviolence.” In addition to achieving truth, peaceful resistance to laws ultimately impacts a free society positively. It takes brave acts of nonviolence to truly bring about real change. One might think that a
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Later in the 1960’s black people would hold sit ins in the “white only” parts of restaurants. Indeed, most of them were arrested but it made a statement that they wouldn’t stop until they got the justice they deserved. Some may say that even peaceful resistance can cause a disruption in society, having a negative impact. But ultimately these acts of civil disobedience have brought about a greater outcome. In Luther's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' it says "... freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." This quote is compelling because of the profundity shown through its simplicity. The subjugator will not openhandedly give freedom to those who are oppressed if they don't stipulate the need for it. This letter was written during one of the greatest examples of this statement, the Civil Rights movement. African-Americans were not indolent and hoping freedom was going to be freely given to them, but they demanded and fought their oppressors for their freedom. Acts of peaceful resistance today may muddy the waters of order, but these acts will bring about a greater cause of
Later in the 1960’s black people would hold sit ins in the “white only” parts of restaurants. Indeed, most of them were arrested but it made a statement that they wouldn’t stop until they got the justice they deserved. Some may say that even peaceful resistance can cause a disruption in society, having a negative impact. But ultimately these acts of civil disobedience have brought about a greater outcome. In Luther's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail' it says "... freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." This quote is compelling because of the profundity shown through its simplicity. The subjugator will not openhandedly give freedom to those who are oppressed if they don't stipulate the need for it. This letter was written during one of the greatest examples of this statement, the Civil Rights movement. African-Americans were not indolent and hoping freedom was going to be freely given to them, but they demanded and fought their oppressors for their freedom. Acts of peaceful resistance today may muddy the waters of order, but these acts will bring about a greater cause of