The Benefits of Civil Disobedience Essay Example

Civil disobedience has always been the best way to change a law that seems unjust. There have been many times where people from around the world have come together, to change an unjust law that he or she believes should be changed. Gandi, MLK, and Thoreau all had big ideas on how to change the world, little by little, and step by step, to see a better world, to see a world that they would rather live in. Equality, the right to vote, unjust laws, all ideas that one person each had to change the way the world worked.

“Without civil disobedience, women still couldn’t vote. With the combined efforts of the National Women’s Movement and the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and powerful women leaders organizing pickets and protests, the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 enabling women to vote.” This is a quote from 11 really good reasons to protest as protesters say, non violent protests always work and as they protest, more and more protesters either get hurt or go to jail for their cause, and that action causes people to want to join in and take the places of their fellow protesters because the people that watch, see how important that particular movement is to that group of people. As most of the protests do, after time and persistence,  most non-violent protests turn out getting what he or she thinks is just or right.

“Countries in which there were nonviolent campaigns were about 10 times likelier to transition to democracies within a five-year period compared to countries in which there were violent campaigns — whether the campaigns succeeded or failed.” if the protesters are peaceful then the bystanders watching will always see the government beating innocent people trying to get their rights, then the bystanders would see that the protestors would be willing to lay down their lives for one big reason that could change everyone's lives for the better will join in because they believe that they could help. When someone sees someone else being beat for no reason, people think that he or she feels the need to help in something that the original group believes in and feel compelled enough to help someone that has a reason to march.

Martin Luther King had big dreams for this country and for the people in it. MLK dreamed of equality, for every man and woman that believes that he or she has the right to vote. MLK’s dream was big, he had one big dream. The only way that MLK knew he could protest and win, is if his group was non-violent, then the bystanders and other African Americans can see that the government is beating non-violent protesters as they march for his and her rights.  Boycotting has been another way protesters could get what he or she believes is right. Rosa parks used peaceful protests because she believed that the bus should be equal. Busses before the protest were segregated, white in the front, black in the back, Rosa park believed, like MLK, everyone should have equal rights. Rosa parks boycotted busses so that African americans would be able to sit in the front of the busses they respectfully and rightfully ride. Rosas plan was simple enough. Don’t give up his or her seat on the busses they are riding. As MLK’s protests have shown before. Bystanders will just see other whites being rude or beating another person while he or she was just sitting in their seats without provoking any kind of violence towards the white man that wants to sit in the front of the bus. 

Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey civil laws, protestors use this to cause a change in most government policies. The use of non-violence runs throughout history but using non-violence for protests is actually new compared to protests before civil disobedience acts where most people thought that violence was key to winning battles that should have never been fought.  Woman suffrage in Britain used a variety of non-violent tactics like boycotts. Noncooperation, limited property destruction, civil disobedience, mass marches, and demonstrations. Methods like these have all been used and have been proven time and time again to be most effective while protesting.

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community of its injustice, in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” (MLK) when the African Americans were protesting oppression, it was an act of civil disobedience. When the woman suffrage movement happened, thousands of women marched in the streets, they had to go through hunger strikes and accepted that they would be getting arrested for the right to vote.