Examples Of Civil Disobedience

Since the founding of the United States, the founding fathers feared a government that would become too authoritarian. To contrast this, they allowed the right to protest in the First Amendment. However, protesting usually does not do enough. Often, civil disobedience is necessary to provoke conversation about sometimes immoral societal norms. Many examples include Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Rosa Parks, and others. Each of them has been a controversial figure in their time, but each has brought the ethics of American law into question.

In the 1950s, most southern states were still segregated. Rosa Parks questioned this archaic code when she was asked to move from her seat to allow a white person to sit. Peacefully refusing, she was arrested,
After being drafted into the Vietnam War, Ali refused, citing that his philosophy of non-aggression prevented him to do so, making him a conscientious objector (Mullen). However, his boxing championship was unfairly taken away and he was sentenced to five years in prison (Mullen). Although he won the appeal with the US, he was reviled by white Americans, as he stated multiple times that he was "at war with the white man" (Mullen). He was influential in the decision to pull out of Vietnam, risking fewer American lives. Like many others who participated in civil disobedience, Muhammad Ali questioned the actions of the United States to an uncomfortable - but necessary -
In 2010, she leaked military and diplomatic documents, including a video of drone-operating soldiers killing innocent civilians, including two journalists, to WikiLeaks (Savage). She was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for several counts of espionage (Savage). However, Obama commuted her sentence within the last week of his Presidency (Savage). However, her commutation has not come without controversy. Almost immediately after the announcement of her commutation, she posted an article for the Guardian outlining Obama's legacy, arguing that he compromised too much (Manning). However, the newly inaugurated President Trump criticized her on Twitter, calling her an "ungrateful traitor" and arguing that Obama should not have commuted her (Twitter). Her legacy is left in much controversy; however, she released information that may give the US a "wake-up call" and be more proficient in seeking out real targets in the Middle East as well as being more transparent with the