Civil Disobedience's Influence On Civil Rights Leaders
Michael Thomas
Dr. Khuta
English 122
18 February 2015
The Impact “Civil Disobedience” had on Civil Right Leaders
The American government never thought their people would ever go against the laws they thought were fair and civil. As far back to the mid 1800’s society has always showed signs of being civil and disobedient at the same time. Until Henry David Thoreau came into the mix with a dislike of having to pay taxes on something he did not believe in. Henry knew his rights as an American and under stood his first amendment and sought action. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience” during the Mexican War in 1846 a time when many people from the north thought the war was a stratagem to aid the spread of southern slavery.”Civil …show more content…
Disobedience is a view or an analysis of certain individual’s relationship with their respected governments that focus on why men and women obey laws even when they believe the laws to be wrong or unjust. As readers we have to ask ourselves what makes “Civil Disobedience” unique? Could Henry David Thoreau be using his own experience as civil but disobedient person? Henry D. Thoreau was arrested and thrown in a Concord jail for one night in 1846 for the non- payment of a poll tax. One could argue that Henry D. Thoreau was the first civil rights activist. Society could also argue that he opened other doors for other great civil right activist by using “Civil Disobedience” like a guide. Isn’t it our right to stand up and agree what’s right and wrong for us? “Civil Disobedience” provides a unique way to be respectful and tactful while still being civil and disobedient and is the structure and framework on the civil rights movement in the world. Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord Massachusetts. Henry was one of three children who graduated from Harvard University. He worked in the family business surveying teacher schools and on special occasions doing lectures. He was an author and a poet who had only published two books before he died. Lewis Leary writes “Henry David Thoreau was long remembered in his native town Of Concord in Massachusetts as a quirky man, and indeed he was but he was also a bold economist” (Leary). From the earlier parts in the story, Henry David Thoreau wrote a very detailed description on his views of what he thought about the American Government. Thoreau unique way on how he started “Civil Disobedience” captures the reader’s attention and allows the audience to feel like they were part of America in that time. Henry David Thoreau describes the American Government as being a government that doesn’t govern. Thoreau writes “I believe, that government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have” (Thoreau 257). The writer goes on to describe how the American government claims to be about tradition but does not live up to its own expectations capturing the audience that much more. Thoreau writes “ This American government, what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity?” (Thoreau 257). The writer goes on to share how he views the American government to be micro managers by stating “The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way” (Thoreau 257). Thoreau describes how are soldiers are not soldiers but how they are actually the governments puppets by writing “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies” (Thoreau 259). One of the things Henry David Thoreau does is and what’s probably the most unique way of his writing style is he doesn’t sugar coat on bashing the government and standing up for what he believes in. Henry Thoreau writes that society knows how to recognize the right of a revolution and describes it by “that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau 259). What stands out the most for readers and the audience when reading “Civil Disobedience” is the unique way Henry David Thoreau presented the story? Only the readers and his audience can assume that in 1846 nobody even knew what or how to be civil and disobedient at the same time. Civil disobedience is to shine light on the injustice system usually with means of imposing and embracing the people that make the unjust law. At the time Henery David Thoreau did something that is considered dumb and dangerous. Andrew Calabrese writes “That is why acts of civil disobedience are often correctly understood as acts of courage (Calabrese 326). Henry David Thoreau also captures his audience in a unique way by asking the audience questions on their beliefs. Henry David Thoreau ask questions like” Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator?” (Thoreau 258). This unique way captures the audience and make them interact with the essay in way between the text and the reader can be the only ones to react to this situation at hand. Henry David Thoreau also captures his audience by explaining how he felt after his one night in the county jail. Henry writes” When I came out of prison, for someone interfered, and paid that tax, I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene the town, and state, and country greater than any that mere time could affect” (Thoreau 269). Society refers to prison and jail as a life changing experience positive or negative. It is good that prison did not change Henry David Thoreau. The Title “Civil Disobedience” Captures the audience in a lot of different ways, but also makes the audience think about what roles Henry David Thoreau played in other civil rights activist across the world.
One of the most loved and famous civil rights activist in America was Martin Luther King, Jr. Even though Thoreau and Kings Movements slightly differed from each other one can only assume that King must have studied Thoreau in one point of his life. You can tell that Martin Luther King Jr didn’t just follow the content from Thoreau but in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King followed the style that Thoreau wrote in “Civil Disobedience”. The same way that Thoreau asked questions to his audience king asked questions to his by writing “Why direct action? Why sit –INS, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiations a better path?” (Martin Luther King 226). Martin Luther King also follows Thoreau style when he writes “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God” (Martin Luther King 228). Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau was similar not just because they stood up for what they belief in but their writing styles were the same. They both expressed their ideas by giving a detailed description of their current situation they was in. In their essay/ letter they both quoted other civil activist in their work. Like Martin Luther King Jr another man adopted Henry David Thoreau format in “Civil Disobedience” That man was named Ghandi. Ghandi …show more content…
First read the essay “Civil Disobedience” while he was confined in jail. Ghandi was all about nonviolent movement and protest. Gandhi once said “that in a non-violent conflict there is no rancor left behind and in the end, the enemies are converted into friends” (M. K. Ghandi). Thoreau proclaimed that a state or government that throws a person in jail or imprisons them is unjustly, but throw and a just man prison or jail is his true place. Grande and King lived that by spending a lot of their time in jail proving Thoreau’s theory. Just like Thoreau and King Ghandi used the word in unjust in a lot of his speeches and writings. A quote from Ghandi “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrests for its breach is more so. Now the law of non-violence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment” (Ghandi). “Civil Disobedience” was the framework and the structure of civil rights movement across the world in the tweinth century and the years and centuries to come. Great civil right activist like Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, the Quakers, and all the other civil rights activist that believed in the nonviolence approach to civil disobedience. Society can see what kind of effects that “Civil Disobedience had in the civil rights movement if one had followed the works of Martin Luther king Jr, Ghandi, Booker T. Washington, and Malcolm X. Only one can assume that henry David Thoreau one night in jail and his essay of “ Civil Disobedience could take a movement so far in a government that seemed so wrong with laws that it makes up for its people. It’s clearly that other civil right parties like the KKK, Black Panther, and Al Queida parties did not have the same results that practiced civil disobedience in a nonviolence way. For society to take part in the events society must fully understand their first amendment of the U.S Constitutions bill of rights protects us or the individual’s right to speak freely about their views of the government, to meet as a group, to make a complaint against the government, and ask the government to make other people in society to treat a person right. Many people in society think or unclear that their First amendment only means that people can vote freely, participate in someone else campaign, and talk or write to their own state legislatures or members of their congress and that’s not the case at all. Mary F. Hayden writes “These are good examples of participating in the political process. However there are other ways to participate in politics and exercise one’s rights, as well. Two of them are civil protest and civil disobedience” (Hayden). Most people and mostly all self-advocates call these examples direct action. Direct action is not for everyone mainly because the action makes it uncomfortable for a lot of people. Mary also writes” Others believe that direct action is not the polite thing to do. That is all right. They have right to their opinion. Just like people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities have the right to stand up and fight for their rights in the way that they see fit” (Hayden). Saying that “Civil Disobedience” had an impact on the civil rights movements across the world is an understatement “Civil Disobedience” played probably the most important role an essay could ever play in a civil rights movement or any other movement for that matter. D.R. Weber wrote “ The philosophy and tactics of civil disobedience have been used by Quakers and other religious groups, the British labor movement, Suffragists, Feminists, adherents of prohibition, pacifists, and other war resisters” (Weber). Proving that this one essay and this one person Henry David Thoreau had more influence on civil rights then and other essay had one any other movement. What makes “Civil Disobedience” unique in its own right is how he captures his audience or the readers mind. Helen Jaskoski wrote “That Thoreau’s text is an explicit refutation of William Paley’s essay on “The Duty of Submission to Civil government” Is emphasized not only by the original title but by the author citation of Paley in the text” (Jaskoski). Thoreau also does something rarely not seen in that type of literature Jaskosi writes “This new view of his town people contrast with narrator’s attitude in the first part of essay, in which Thoreau sets the conscientious person apart from the mass of men who share the inanimacy of the state they compliantly serve” (Jaskoski). After Thoreau’s one night in jail he does something with his readers that is also unique in its own right he offers a mellower view of his neighbors and along with that a more optimistic view of the possibilities of his government changing. John Aldrich Christie believed that Henry David Thoreau knew the moral impacts of the difference from an adult conscience from anything else. John Aldrich Christie writes “Punishment implied a guilt which enforcement did not; resistance to force place the kind of initiative and responsibility upon the enforcer which Thoreau intended to dramatize” (Christie). Jennifer Mattson talks about paying very special attention on the legacy of “Civil Disobedience” by writing this “Meltzer’s narrative thread occasionally gets lost amongst lengthy primary source extracts but the best of such quotations aptly represent his heady philosophy and homespun wit” (Mattson). In conclusion this analysis of “Civil Disobedience” it only takes one person at any given time to stand up and make a difference.
Henry David Thoreau did just that when he made the sacrifice to stand up for what he believed was the wrong doing of the American government in 1846. Easily henry could have paid the taxes and skipped the one night in jail, but he choose not to. If Henry David Thoreau would have paid the taxes there would be no essay titled “Civil Disobedience”. Without “Civil Disobedience” it would have been harder for Martin Luther King and Gandhi to succeed in their own civil right endeavors and everybody else that used “Civil Disobedience” as a format or structure. It’s great that we as society have teachers and people that come after us that we can use their work and elaborate on their work to continue on making this government a better place to live with no second
guessing.
Works Cited
Calabrese, Andrew. "Virtual Nonviolence? Civil disobedience and political violence in the informationa age." Emerald (2004): 326.
Christie, John Aldrich. "Thoreau on Civil Resistance." A Journal of the American Renaissance 207 (1969): 5-12. 19th century Literature. 25 Feb 2015. <www.gogalegroup.com.ezproxy.saintleoedu>.
Ghandi. www.goodreads.com. 2002.
Ghandi, Mohandas K. www.crf-usa.org. 2015.
Hayden, Mary F. "www.ici.umn.edu." 2004. Institute on community Integration. 2004.
Jaskoski, Helen. "Literature Resource Center." n.d. www.gogalegroup.com.ezproxy.saintleo.edu. 25 Febuary 2015.
Leary, Lewis. "Henry David Thoreau: Overview." (1994).
Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Merickel, Missy James & Alan P. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013. 224-236.
Mattson, Jennifer. "Henry David Thoreau." Booklist (2007): 88.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience." Merickel, Missy James & Alan P. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013. 257-273.
Weber, D.R. Info Please. 2012.
Dr. Khuta
English 122
18 February 2015
The Impact “Civil Disobedience” had on Civil Right Leaders
The American government never thought their people would ever go against the laws they thought were fair and civil. As far back to the mid 1800’s society has always showed signs of being civil and disobedient at the same time. Until Henry David Thoreau came into the mix with a dislike of having to pay taxes on something he did not believe in. Henry knew his rights as an American and under stood his first amendment and sought action. Henry David Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience” during the Mexican War in 1846 a time when many people from the north thought the war was a stratagem to aid the spread of southern slavery.”Civil …show more content…
Disobedience is a view or an analysis of certain individual’s relationship with their respected governments that focus on why men and women obey laws even when they believe the laws to be wrong or unjust. As readers we have to ask ourselves what makes “Civil Disobedience” unique? Could Henry David Thoreau be using his own experience as civil but disobedient person? Henry D. Thoreau was arrested and thrown in a Concord jail for one night in 1846 for the non- payment of a poll tax. One could argue that Henry D. Thoreau was the first civil rights activist. Society could also argue that he opened other doors for other great civil right activist by using “Civil Disobedience” like a guide. Isn’t it our right to stand up and agree what’s right and wrong for us? “Civil Disobedience” provides a unique way to be respectful and tactful while still being civil and disobedient and is the structure and framework on the civil rights movement in the world. Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord Massachusetts. Henry was one of three children who graduated from Harvard University. He worked in the family business surveying teacher schools and on special occasions doing lectures. He was an author and a poet who had only published two books before he died. Lewis Leary writes “Henry David Thoreau was long remembered in his native town Of Concord in Massachusetts as a quirky man, and indeed he was but he was also a bold economist” (Leary). From the earlier parts in the story, Henry David Thoreau wrote a very detailed description on his views of what he thought about the American Government. Thoreau unique way on how he started “Civil Disobedience” captures the reader’s attention and allows the audience to feel like they were part of America in that time. Henry David Thoreau describes the American Government as being a government that doesn’t govern. Thoreau writes “I believe, that government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have” (Thoreau 257). The writer goes on to describe how the American government claims to be about tradition but does not live up to its own expectations capturing the audience that much more. Thoreau writes “ This American government, what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity?” (Thoreau 257). The writer goes on to share how he views the American government to be micro managers by stating “The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way” (Thoreau 257). Thoreau describes how are soldiers are not soldiers but how they are actually the governments puppets by writing “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies” (Thoreau 259). One of the things Henry David Thoreau does is and what’s probably the most unique way of his writing style is he doesn’t sugar coat on bashing the government and standing up for what he believes in. Henry Thoreau writes that society knows how to recognize the right of a revolution and describes it by “that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau 259). What stands out the most for readers and the audience when reading “Civil Disobedience” is the unique way Henry David Thoreau presented the story? Only the readers and his audience can assume that in 1846 nobody even knew what or how to be civil and disobedient at the same time. Civil disobedience is to shine light on the injustice system usually with means of imposing and embracing the people that make the unjust law. At the time Henery David Thoreau did something that is considered dumb and dangerous. Andrew Calabrese writes “That is why acts of civil disobedience are often correctly understood as acts of courage (Calabrese 326). Henry David Thoreau also captures his audience in a unique way by asking the audience questions on their beliefs. Henry David Thoreau ask questions like” Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator?” (Thoreau 258). This unique way captures the audience and make them interact with the essay in way between the text and the reader can be the only ones to react to this situation at hand. Henry David Thoreau also captures his audience by explaining how he felt after his one night in the county jail. Henry writes” When I came out of prison, for someone interfered, and paid that tax, I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene the town, and state, and country greater than any that mere time could affect” (Thoreau 269). Society refers to prison and jail as a life changing experience positive or negative. It is good that prison did not change Henry David Thoreau. The Title “Civil Disobedience” Captures the audience in a lot of different ways, but also makes the audience think about what roles Henry David Thoreau played in other civil rights activist across the world.
One of the most loved and famous civil rights activist in America was Martin Luther King, Jr. Even though Thoreau and Kings Movements slightly differed from each other one can only assume that King must have studied Thoreau in one point of his life. You can tell that Martin Luther King Jr didn’t just follow the content from Thoreau but in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King followed the style that Thoreau wrote in “Civil Disobedience”. The same way that Thoreau asked questions to his audience king asked questions to his by writing “Why direct action? Why sit –INS, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiations a better path?” (Martin Luther King 226). Martin Luther King also follows Thoreau style when he writes “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God” (Martin Luther King 228). Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau was similar not just because they stood up for what they belief in but their writing styles were the same. They both expressed their ideas by giving a detailed description of their current situation they was in. In their essay/ letter they both quoted other civil activist in their work. Like Martin Luther King Jr another man adopted Henry David Thoreau format in “Civil Disobedience” That man was named Ghandi. Ghandi …show more content…
First read the essay “Civil Disobedience” while he was confined in jail. Ghandi was all about nonviolent movement and protest. Gandhi once said “that in a non-violent conflict there is no rancor left behind and in the end, the enemies are converted into friends” (M. K. Ghandi). Thoreau proclaimed that a state or government that throws a person in jail or imprisons them is unjustly, but throw and a just man prison or jail is his true place. Grande and King lived that by spending a lot of their time in jail proving Thoreau’s theory. Just like Thoreau and King Ghandi used the word in unjust in a lot of his speeches and writings. A quote from Ghandi “An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrests for its breach is more so. Now the law of non-violence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment” (Ghandi). “Civil Disobedience” was the framework and the structure of civil rights movement across the world in the tweinth century and the years and centuries to come. Great civil right activist like Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, the Quakers, and all the other civil rights activist that believed in the nonviolence approach to civil disobedience. Society can see what kind of effects that “Civil Disobedience had in the civil rights movement if one had followed the works of Martin Luther king Jr, Ghandi, Booker T. Washington, and Malcolm X. Only one can assume that henry David Thoreau one night in jail and his essay of “ Civil Disobedience could take a movement so far in a government that seemed so wrong with laws that it makes up for its people. It’s clearly that other civil right parties like the KKK, Black Panther, and Al Queida parties did not have the same results that practiced civil disobedience in a nonviolence way. For society to take part in the events society must fully understand their first amendment of the U.S Constitutions bill of rights protects us or the individual’s right to speak freely about their views of the government, to meet as a group, to make a complaint against the government, and ask the government to make other people in society to treat a person right. Many people in society think or unclear that their First amendment only means that people can vote freely, participate in someone else campaign, and talk or write to their own state legislatures or members of their congress and that’s not the case at all. Mary F. Hayden writes “These are good examples of participating in the political process. However there are other ways to participate in politics and exercise one’s rights, as well. Two of them are civil protest and civil disobedience” (Hayden). Most people and mostly all self-advocates call these examples direct action. Direct action is not for everyone mainly because the action makes it uncomfortable for a lot of people. Mary also writes” Others believe that direct action is not the polite thing to do. That is all right. They have right to their opinion. Just like people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities have the right to stand up and fight for their rights in the way that they see fit” (Hayden). Saying that “Civil Disobedience” had an impact on the civil rights movements across the world is an understatement “Civil Disobedience” played probably the most important role an essay could ever play in a civil rights movement or any other movement for that matter. D.R. Weber wrote “ The philosophy and tactics of civil disobedience have been used by Quakers and other religious groups, the British labor movement, Suffragists, Feminists, adherents of prohibition, pacifists, and other war resisters” (Weber). Proving that this one essay and this one person Henry David Thoreau had more influence on civil rights then and other essay had one any other movement. What makes “Civil Disobedience” unique in its own right is how he captures his audience or the readers mind. Helen Jaskoski wrote “That Thoreau’s text is an explicit refutation of William Paley’s essay on “The Duty of Submission to Civil government” Is emphasized not only by the original title but by the author citation of Paley in the text” (Jaskoski). Thoreau also does something rarely not seen in that type of literature Jaskosi writes “This new view of his town people contrast with narrator’s attitude in the first part of essay, in which Thoreau sets the conscientious person apart from the mass of men who share the inanimacy of the state they compliantly serve” (Jaskoski). After Thoreau’s one night in jail he does something with his readers that is also unique in its own right he offers a mellower view of his neighbors and along with that a more optimistic view of the possibilities of his government changing. John Aldrich Christie believed that Henry David Thoreau knew the moral impacts of the difference from an adult conscience from anything else. John Aldrich Christie writes “Punishment implied a guilt which enforcement did not; resistance to force place the kind of initiative and responsibility upon the enforcer which Thoreau intended to dramatize” (Christie). Jennifer Mattson talks about paying very special attention on the legacy of “Civil Disobedience” by writing this “Meltzer’s narrative thread occasionally gets lost amongst lengthy primary source extracts but the best of such quotations aptly represent his heady philosophy and homespun wit” (Mattson). In conclusion this analysis of “Civil Disobedience” it only takes one person at any given time to stand up and make a difference.
Henry David Thoreau did just that when he made the sacrifice to stand up for what he believed was the wrong doing of the American government in 1846. Easily henry could have paid the taxes and skipped the one night in jail, but he choose not to. If Henry David Thoreau would have paid the taxes there would be no essay titled “Civil Disobedience”. Without “Civil Disobedience” it would have been harder for Martin Luther King and Gandhi to succeed in their own civil right endeavors and everybody else that used “Civil Disobedience” as a format or structure. It’s great that we as society have teachers and people that come after us that we can use their work and elaborate on their work to continue on making this government a better place to live with no second
guessing.
Works Cited
Calabrese, Andrew. "Virtual Nonviolence? Civil disobedience and political violence in the informationa age." Emerald (2004): 326.
Christie, John Aldrich. "Thoreau on Civil Resistance." A Journal of the American Renaissance 207 (1969): 5-12. 19th century Literature. 25 Feb 2015. <www.gogalegroup.com.ezproxy.saintleoedu>.
Ghandi. www.goodreads.com. 2002.
Ghandi, Mohandas K. www.crf-usa.org. 2015.
Hayden, Mary F. "www.ici.umn.edu." 2004. Institute on community Integration. 2004.
Jaskoski, Helen. "Literature Resource Center." n.d. www.gogalegroup.com.ezproxy.saintleo.edu. 25 Febuary 2015.
Leary, Lewis. "Henry David Thoreau: Overview." (1994).
Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Merickel, Missy James & Alan P. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013. 224-236.
Mattson, Jennifer. "Henry David Thoreau." Booklist (2007): 88.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience." Merickel, Missy James & Alan P. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013. 257-273.
Weber, D.R. Info Please. 2012.