The Importance Of Civil Disobedience In The United States

The 1960s in the United States can only be described as a turbulent time, marked by the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the revolution in criminal process rights. The Vietnam War was not going smoothly and the American public, viewing the whole thing on the evening news, was growing increasingly disenchanted with the war effort. The Civil Rights Movement across the Southern states sought to resolve the prevailing problems remaining from Reconstruction, which drew violent backlash from the white majority. At the same time, the Supreme Court was defining and expanding the rights of suspects and defendants, ensuring that they were protected by the Constitution. Richard Milhous Nixon saw the 1968 election as his opportunity to finally win the Republican presidential nomination …show more content…
Those individuals then do not understand where civil disobedience is permissible and where it is simply breaking the law. The upswing in civil disobedience was of course attributed to the Civil Rights Movement which would culminate in decisions by the Warren Court in Brown v. Board of Education and Green v. County School Board of New Kent County. Brown would overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and declare racial segregation inherently unequal in the context of public education. Green enforced Brown, while establishing that a district court can determine the effectiveness of the plan. While Nixon viewed the Brown decision as the ‘correct’ one, he told Southern delegates that “Federal courts had pre-empted the authority of school boards in implementing desegregation decrees.” Spoken like a true politician three months before Election Day, Nixon continued, describing the appointment of Supreme Court justices who will interpret the law rather than attempt to