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Civil Disobedience Dbq

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“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” (Henry David Thoreau, 1849, “Civil Disobedience”)
According to “Documents of Freedom,” Civil disobedience is when “Men such as Martin Luther King, Jr. violated unjust laws but willingly accepted the punishment that came with violating the law… often confused with simply violating laws that you do not like…Civil disobedience demands to accept the punishment otherwise, there would be no principled distinction between civil disobedience and mere lawlessness” (“The Documents of Freedom”). Peaceful resistance does positively impact a free society. Take Gandhi for example, he non-violently protested the registration law, through non-violent marches and labor strikes, all harmless, and in support of those who were treated unequally by the registration law, “The Boer government then agreed to end the most objectionable parts of the …show more content…
is one example of civil disobedience in action. He peacefully protested for equal rights for all people and led marches and delivered many speeches on his beliefs and because of that, persuaded many in the free society, to choose to side with him and fight for Civil Rights. One of King’s most famous marches was “March on Washington,” at this march, he also delivered his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” King is one of the most famous examples of nonviolent civil disobedience and went to jail numerous times, willingly so, in accordance with civil disobedience. Those who believed in his message joined his movement. This is a significant example of how peaceful resistance, does affect the free society in a positive way. Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired many others to join the Civil Rights movement, and today we are have come such a long way from then and it would not have been possible if it were not for the peaceful resistance that many acted

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