...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...
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...African American Civil Rights DBQ African Americans struggled for equal rights for a long and difficult time. However, in the 1950’s the modern civil rights movement began. There were many ways in which African Americans have been denied equal rights, but the government, individuals, and groups helped deal with the inequalities faced by African Americans. African Americans have been denied equal rights because of segregation and education (doc.1, doc 2, O.I.) Even though the country ruled, “separate, but equal” black and white schools were very different (O.I, doc 1.) African American schools could be very far away from their residence, for instance Linda Brown, who lived in Topeka had to walk 39 blocks to school (O.I, doc 1.) Also, African Americans did not have very good facilities, and were short on supplies compared to nearby white schools (O.I.) This was not the only thing stopping African Americans from reaching equality, Jim Crow laws also played a big part(O.I, doc 4.) Jim Crow laws separated blacks and whites in restaurants, transportation, and schools (O.I.) In addition, African Americans could not drink out of the same water fountain, or use the same restroom as Whites (O.I) The African American facilities were inferior to the white facilities. (O.I.) Without having the same education and with the Jim Crow laws in place, African Americans had trouble becoming equal (O.I.) Since 1950 there have been many methods used to fight against the inequalities faced by African...
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...In the essay “Letter from Birmingham jail”, written by Martin Luther King Jr., was written to eight clergy men, doing a non-violent protest ,encourage those against segregation, trying to convince that he is right and change needed to occur. Throughout the letter Martin Luther King Jr. appeal to reason, emotion, and character. When he starts his letter he says, “MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN” (72). He starts his letter right away, appealing to character. With this being said, he sounds like he wants to do a nonviolent protest against them, but he wants his voice to be heard, but not violently. He used clever words to start off the letter. He doesn’t separate blacks from whites, showing that they both are the same, no discrimination, and no segregation. He wanted everyone to be treated equally. He was against the fact that everyone was racist in Birmingham. Another quote to support his character is when he said “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.” In this quote he is describing the role he plays in the religious community. With this being said, it shows that he is equal with the eight clergymen and can share of sort of relationship with them. His desire is to stop injustice, showing credibility with the white...
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...Kevin Eberle Professor Cox English Comp October 17, 2011 Occupy Wall Street Movement: There is a growing movement in the United States that started in New York City and is now spreading out to many other cities It is the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The first people that came to this movement were some punks, liberals, artists and socialists. They did not just come for a one day protest they came again and again. Then other people began to take notice and the movement has been doubling in size every three days since mid September. Now there are young people, middle age and retirees, the employed and the unemployed just to name a few. How this movement has differed from other protests in the past for example, those against the Vietnam War in the 1960’s, the protestors are not just unruly mobs of young people fighting for one cause. Instead it is people with several different yet similar grievances. Contrary to the idea of Occupy Wall Street just being comprised of young people we now see that the younger element has sometimes been the majority. In this movement we see a diversity of people, varying ages, life situations, and grievances. Some are first time protestors. There are a few common denominators of the protestors but the most outstanding seems to be about economic injustice and the corporate influence on our government. Because the middle class are tired of the corporate injustices they have now come to rally for justice. It is interesting how this movement...
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...Amanda Lomas English 99 January 24, 2013 Effective Persuasion In the letter, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written by Martin Luther King, Jr., was written while king was in jail for being a part of the Birmingham Campaign, which was a non-violent protest to end segregation in the U.S. In the letter, King explain that he is disappointed in the clergy for attacking the members of the African American non-violent civil rights movement and that direct action is the only thing left for them to do. He goes on to say that he hopes “the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away.” In this letter, King has a very effective argument by using several different persuasive appeals. One persuasive appeal that King uses is called ethos. Ethos refers to the credibility and trustworthiness of the writer or speaker and can often be supported through style of the message and tone. Throughout the whole letter, King has a very even tone. At the beginning of the letter, he calmly explains why he is in jail and is not angry or mad and goes on to explain the four steps to his direct action. Having a calm approach like King shows in this letter makes the reader more inclined to listen rather than having a threatening or aggressive tone. Although he calmly explains himself at the beginning of the letter, King also has the right amount of firmness towards the middle of letter to make the reader believe that what he is saying to true. Towards the end of the letter King apologizes for...
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...05/13/ 2013 If I had a dream…. There would not only be peace in the Middle East, but around the world as well. America would no longer have to battle terrorist cells and other such evils in or outside of America. It would be like every day on the news we would hear only about the positive, and not news we're hearing how rampant violence is in our communities, both here in America and around the world. There is so much going on for a better world all around us that the mainstream media never shares with us. What actions can we take as a nation to make this dream come true? We can create harmonious relationships with our family, friends, coworkers and community members. We all can learn how to forgive people who have harmed you in the past. Everyone can learn how to forgive yourself for harm you have inflicted on others. Also we can heal painful wounds within you, family, community and nation. We can work on always being honest. We all can help protect the earth and teach peace to children. We can teach non-violence by example. We all can be leaders in the struggle for human decency. We all can respect the dignity of each person. We can express your views on peace to government officials. We can change a potential enemy into a friend. Everyone can help someone and be more loving and fair. Everyone can commit themselves to nonviolence, support nonviolent solutions to global issues. Everyone can speak out for a nuclear-free world. What actions can...
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...Violence is the only effective weapon available to the people who are oppressed. How far do you agree or disagree? I personally do not agree that violence is the only effective weapon available to the oppressed people. It is not the only way for people to get their view across or secure their rights and justice. However, throughout the history of mankind, violence has been widely used as a method to gain control over a person or a group of people or a nation. Unfortunately, the present day media is also filled with news of violence. What exactly is violence? Violence can be described as an act of intentional harm to some individual or group. Violence can be physical, mental or sometimes even emotional. It disturbs peace and harmony in the society and slows down the overall development. Securing ownership over land and resources, power hungry leadership, extremism, racism, sociocultural differences, ethnic and caste conflicts are causes of violence. For example, the violence between the Indians and the Pakistanis over the land of Kashmir is motivated by the desire of securing land and resources. The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is driven by religious differences and extremism. There are constant fights between different tribes in many parts of Africa. These African tribal conflicts are usually motivated by ethnic and caste differences. Centuries prolonged conflicts between the "blacks" and the "whites" were the results of racism. There are still residues...
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...TomMendez Hacktivism and Civil Disobedience Hacktivism, though preferred by hackers and hacktivists to be kept without a definition, is generally thought of as hacking for a political cause. Hackers, those who have deep knowledge and understanding of the Internet and computer systems and networks, thrive on the openness and freedom the internet provides. Steven Levy’s “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution” published nearly three decades ago outlines the hacker’s creeds: 1. Access to computers should be unlimited and total. 2. All information should be free. 3. Mistrust authority – promote decentralization. 4. Hackers should be judged by their hacking not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. 5. You create art and beauty on a computer. 6. Computers can change your life for the better. The operating system Linux, still widely used today, was created to conform to this ethical code. Linux pioneer Richard Stallman with the help of Linus Torvalds developed the GNU/Linux operating system. The software was made available under the General Public License, nicknamed “copyleft” (as opposed to copyright), meaning that the software was free to have and modify for anyone so long as users make the source freely available to others. This has created an open global community that “thrives on the free flow and sharing of information” (metac0m 1). Metac0m, the editor of The Hacktivist Magazine tells us “Hackers abhor censorship. Censorship...
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...Pro Civil Disobedience Civil disobedience is a righteous way for a person or a group to make their point to the world. Great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Dr. MLK) and Mohandas K. Gandhi (Gandhi) harnessed the idea and brought it to its prominence. Civil disobedience in its purest form is a particularly strong concept because it requires a self-purification process. This process enlightens civil resisters to the reality of longsuffering for a cause without any type of retaliation. Also, there are arguments against civil disobedience. One such argument is “wait” because change will come. Another is that civil disobedience precipitates violence. These arguments are extremely weak. Because of these weak arguments along with the strong concept of self-purification, I am a proponent of civil disobedience. Dr. MLK was a firm believer in the self-purification process. In Letter from Birmingham Jail, he speaks of undertaking a process of self-purification. “We began a series of workshops on nonviolence and we repeatedly asked ourselves: ‘Are you able to accept blows without retaliation?’ ‘Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail (King 158)?’” Dr. MLK knew that in order to appeal to the public, they must endure the punishment without retaliation. This is explained when he says, “Laying out our case before the conscience of the local and national community (King 158).” Dr. MLK had a grasp on the notion that if his people were to become violent, they...
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...Civil Rights Movement Since 1845, African Americans have struggled to find equal rights in America. Thus, African Americas have a long history of activism in America, from fighting for the right to vote to pushing for integration in public places. Activists like Stokley Carmichael organized the freedom rides, James Meredith fought to integrate blacks and whites at the University of Mississippi, and Rosa Parks instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Although these protests were often legal and non-violent, the protests made a powerful impact on civil rights in the United States. With the bravery and help of activist like Carmichael, Meredith, Parks and many others, the country slowly worked to acknowledge the basic rights and contributions of African-Americans within the United States. Through it all, African American civil rights leaders risked and sometimes lost their lives in the name of freedom to end segregation, discrimination and isolation to attain equality and civil rights. With civil rights activists leading the fight for racial equality, America slowly but surely became a better place. Through the protests, marches, sit-ins and news articles; African Americans showed there was more ways to attain freedom and equality as opposed to violence. Even before Rosa Parks, on Sunday July 16, 1854, Elizabeth Jennings Graham boarded a street car of the Third Avenue railroad company at the corner of Pearl and Chatham streets. The conductor of the train ordered her to...
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...Axia College Material Appendix C Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements Identify leaders of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and their contributions to their respective causes. How did these social pioneers forge the way for this important ratification? What legislation was relevant during these critical times? Part I Complete the following matrix by identifying 7 to 10 leaders or legislative events from both the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The first leader is provided as a model. |Leader and Associated |Date(s) |Organization and/or Cause |Contribution | |Legislation, if any | | | | |A. Philip Randolph |1941 |Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which |His threat to march on Washington to protest | | | |fought Discrimination |discriminatory treatment caused former | | | | |President Franklin D. Roosevelt to react with | | | | |new policies on job discrimination. | |Booker T. |1856 |Tuskegee Institute |Became the head of the Tuskegee Institute...
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...Criminal Justice Process Alma L. Daniels AIU Criminal Justice Process How does the United States deal with problems related to civil order control? All one needs to do is to take a look at Kent State, Ruby Ridge, and Waco just to name a few to see how the United States deals with civil disorder. The United States Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2 the original name for this project is called “Operation Garden Plot.” This was to be used to deal with civil order. Here is one situation where they would use this “Planned acts of violence or civil disobedience which through arising from the cause as (1) above, are seized upon by a dedicated group of dissidents who plan and incite purposeful acts designed to disrupt social order.” (©2005, Yurica Report) So in order for the United States to maintain civil order control they can use this plan. They also can call out the following people FBI, U.S. Marshals’, DEA, ATF and the Arm Forces along with the National Guardsmen to deal with any civil uprising. Since May 4, 1970 at Kent State until now in 2011 the United States has change the way they handle things related to civil order control. Civil order control means more than just violent crimes it can also mean disasters, national emergencies and it also deals with crowed events like protest like they are having on Wall Street now. They can still call out the National Guards and Arm Forces along with ATF, DEA FBI, and U.S Marshals’ to help handle things. They also have medical...
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...“I Have a Dream” By: Gary Wright On August 28 1963, 100 years after Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address, standing on the stairs of the emancipation president’s memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the most important speech for civil rights in our nation’s history. Dr. King chose our nation’s capital as a fitting backdrop for his speech. Dr. King explains his choice of settings during the speech when he says,"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'" Dr. King’s speech came at a time when the civil rights controversy was coming to boiling point. However King’s nonviolent doctrine remained as strong as ever. Dr. King, who received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Boston University, was strongly influenced by the teachings of Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi. King’s non-violent rhetoric, however, did not appease many...
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...Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most famous Indians ever to have walked the planet. His campaigns of passive resistance and civil disobedience proved to be a great success; through his work, the less privileged people of the world have gained a higher quality of life. After successfully studying law at University College, London, Gandhi returned to India. He tried in vain to set up a law firm in Bombay in 1891, but soon found work as a legal advisor in Durban, South Africa. It must have been quite a culture shock for the young man on arriving in that country. Apartheid was thriving, so anybody who was not white was treated as inferior, second class citizens. Gandhi decided to do something about this problem though, and began his method of passive resistance and non-cooperation, drawing on the likes of Tolstoy and Jesus as his inspirations. It was by no means an easy ride. He regularly endured terms of imprisonment, and was harshly beaten several times. Twenty years of this type of campaigning paid off, when in 1914 the South African government made several concessions to the Indian people living there. After the First World War, Gandhi decided to concentrate on improving life in his native India. His ideology was well received and he soon had a healthy following that regularly practised passive resistance. The British government didn’t like the campaigning and deemed it to be revolutionary. Consequently, British troops massacred many innocent Indians at a demonstration...
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...his marches. So after reading “The Letter from the Birmingham Jail”, I felt compelled to delve a little more into this controversial figure. I knew that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a champion to the civil rights movement. What caught me by surprise was that this was a role thrust unto him. Dr. King came from a family of preachers but struggled with the idea himself. He knew he wanted to help his people but felt that being a lawyer or a doctor would best serve them. But under the guidance of several teachers, he realized that he was denying his true calling – the ministry. So at seventeen he became a minister. And it was as assistant pastor in his father church he honed his preaching skills and became know an excellent orator. Dr. King was also political involved having founded the Southern Christina Leadership Conference whose first purpose was to register black voters. So because of his political affiliations and speaking skills he was the one tapped when the civil right movement needed an effective leader. Dr. King had come to Birmingham to answer a call to arms for a recent bombing of one of his aides. Birmingham had long been an epitome of racial divide; Dr. King went there to shed light on the city. Upon reaching the city Dr. King was jail for civil disobedience. And while incarcerated a newspaper ad was taken out by some fellow clergymen who felt his presence in their state was unwarranted. He felt compelled to answer it. He let them the oppressed won’t stay oppressed...
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