Thoreau and Martin Luther Jr. King both felt people have the moral responsibility to disobey unjust law.
Civil disobedience is when an individuals willfully disobey the law or the order of authority publicly in order to make a political statement. Such individuals are arrested and mostly are charged with crimes.
<h3>Further Explanation</h3>
Participants are charged with crimes such as trespass, failure to obey or failure to disperse. Mostly, civil disobedience doesn’t result to violence. The main intention of individual that willfully disobey the law is to pass a political statement, which is realized through media coverage on the particular issue. Sometimes people protest a law they feel is unjust and pass a message across to the authority through protesting and showing willingness not to obey the law.
In the United States, blocking traffic, staging a sit-in at government offices are the common types of civil disobedience. The prominent advocates of civil disobedience are Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther king and Mohandas Gandhi.
The philosophy of civil disobedience has been used by religious groups, labor movement, feminists, pacifists, suffragists, disabled supporters etc.
Animal right movement has also embarked on civil disobedience a couple of times, some of the activist protested by chaining themselves to barricades, staged peaceful sit in.
Although, in the first amendment, traditional protests are legal but activities that are disruptive such as blocking doorway or driveways are illegal. They are also form of civil disobedience.
LEARN MORE:
KEYWORDS:
- civil disobedience
- protest
- martin luther king
- henry david thoreau
- law
