2. What is Civil disobedience? Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence.
3. Henry Thoreau Writer Supporter of civil disobedience “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” “Don’t let governments over rule
4. Pioneers of Civil Disobedience Ghandi Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. during the campaigns he led during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Thoreau was a great writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he taught nothing he was not prepared to practise in himself. He was one of the greatest and most moral men America has produced. At the time of the abolition of slavery movement, he wrote his famous essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”. He went to gaol for the sake of his principles and suffering humanity. His essay has, therefore, been sanctified by suffering. Moreover, it is written for all time. Its incisive logic is unanswerable.[6]
5. Martin Luther, King Jr. March on Washington D.C. Montgomery Bus Boycott Restaurant Sit- ins Speeches- “I have a dream” I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 10, 1964
6. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Views on Thoreau During my student days I read Henry David Thoreau’s essay On Civil Disobedience for the first time. Here, in this courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail rather than support a war that would spread slavery’s territory into Mexico, I made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved that I reread the work several times.
7. Rosa Parks Bus Boycott “I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.”
9. Is Civil Disobedience Justified? According to Peter Suber “Civil disobedience cannot be justified in a democracy. Unjust laws made by a democratic legislature can be changed by a democratic legislature. The existence of lawful channels of change makes civil disobedience unnecessary. In many other cases it is justified such as Ghandi’s Satyagraha and Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington
10. Class Activity Discuss with your table one of the people we have discussed and decide if civil disobedience was justified?
