Peaceful Protest Essay

513 Words2 Pages

Peaceful protests are not only positive as means of effecting change, but they are absolutely integral to the functioning of a free society. Peaceful protests are a way to express concerns, which is necessary in order to fix whatever is inefficient in government. Without expression of concerns, there is no way for the governing body to know what is not working for the people of the country, so they cannot fix what they are unaware of. The key word is "peaceful" -- there is nothing wrong with a protest as long as it remains peaceful. Once violence comes about, the protest has negative effects. However, as long as there is no violence involved in a protest, the protest cannot have any largely negative effects. Protesting begins as a means of

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham, for having a protest without a proper permit. On the exact day King was arrested, eight clergymen from Alabama wrote a letter called “A Call for Unity.” The letter called for termination of civil activities and demonstrations and designated King an “outsider” and saying that outsiders were the problems in Birmingham and not the blacks that are from there. On April 16 King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which was his responds to his fellow clergymen. He wrote the letter as a means to convince the clergymen and the white moderate that the nonviolent demonstrations that had got him arrested, were a necessity and to enlighten them on why the segregation laws in the southern states needed to be changed. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King uses logos, pathos, and ethos to persuade the clergymen and convince them in assisting him in putting an end to segregation laws of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr.

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responds to an article by eight clergymen, in which he explains the racial injustice in Birmingham, and reasons why King's organization is protesting for Civil Rights. He introduces himself and his actions at the beginning of his letter. He states that the purpose of his direct action protest is to open the door for negotiation on the Civil Rights. He tries to convince his audience by providing evidence in order to gain his audience to be involved in his movement and support him. He also highlights police actions against nonviolent Negros and crimes against humanity in Birmingham city jail.

    Read More

  • Civil Disobedience In Antigone By Martin Luther King

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    Non-violent direct action and respectful disagreement are a form of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King, Jr. defines “civil disobedience” as a way to show others what to do when a law is unjust and unreasonable. King is most famous for his role in leading the African American Civil Rights Movement and using non-violent civil disobedience to promote his beliefs. King also firmly believed that civil disobedience was the way to defeat racial segregation against African Americans. While leading a protest march on the streets, King was arrested and sent to jail. In response to his imprisonment and an article he read while there, King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail, explaining that an injustice affects everyone and listed his own criteria for

    Read More

  • Thomas Jefferson Vs Martin Luther King Jr

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    Martin Luther King Junior's letter from a Birmingham Jail was an expression of his encouragement for protest against tradition and established laws and a justification for his actions. King, a leader of a civil-rights group that supported protest against traditional views, encouraged protesting against tradition and established laws that are unjust. In his letter from Birmingham Jail King states: "It was illegal to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti-religious laws." This excerpt shows that King encourages protest because in some situations he deems it necessary, be it in Hitler's Germany, a Communist country, or any situation in which injustices are occurring. In the last sentence of the excerpt King openly admits that he would protest against established laws or traditions. King was against the traditional views and unjust laws, which discriminated against him and his fellow people.

    Read More

  • A Look at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'Letter From Birmingham City Jail'

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote an argumentative persuasive essay, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963. King had written this letter to address and respond to the criticism made by the white clergymen. The letter was an approach to end racism and hatred in a non-violent manner. The non-violent movement was organized by King and his pro-black organization called “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference”.

    Read More

  • The Discussion Of Non-Resistance In Martin Luther King Jr.

    1758 Words  | 4 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. is considered to be one of the most prominent human rights’ defenders of the XX century and the speaker for non-violent social change. He believed that building power is the most important task facing movements for human progress because the human progress comes through the tireless efforts of people, who should use powerful and true weapon – non-violence – in order to achieve positive effects. King managed to achieve brilliant success in the battle for the liberty of blacks and not pour the way to freedom by rivers of blood.

    Read More

  • Non-Violent Non-Cooperation Peaceful Protests: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    First and for most, King devoted himself to the idea of “non-violent non-cooperation,” peaceful protest and no violence toward law enforcement or any one. The most influential act that one single civil rights activist preformed was the famous march on Washington for jobs. The march took place on August 28, 1963. It claimed the title of the largest civil rights convention/rally in history. It attracted upwards of 200,000 people, and needed nearly 300,000 police to control the passionate crowed. It was here that King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Among other things, the speech promoted peace and love between all races and religions, as well as economic rights for minorities, African Americans in particular. The positivity and the extreme desire for equal treatment is an appeal to logos for most of the population. This initial act serves as the first major advancement of civil rights simply due to the sheer size of participants it attracted, as well as the mass amounts of media attention it received. With these peaceful interactions taking place, Kings ideologies become more and more universally accepted by the general public. It was estimated that nearly 80 percent of the attendees were of African American decent. This is was crucial because this was the first time the Black community had been united since the end of the civil war. This unionization of the Black community continued to snow ball as King took his campaign for peace to the south.

    Read More

  • John Lewis

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we think of the word “Protest,” we may think of the events that have happened recently. Egypt, Turkey, Libya and other countries where citizens have come out to the streets protesting their government. Not all protesting approaches are like this. Many, throughout history, have been based around peaceful actions. This approach was used during one of the great line of protests in American history. The Civil Rights movement. Many leaders used peace to promote their cause and promoted the passing of laws such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The many leaders of this movement, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and others influenced others to join the strive for equality. One of these people that they influenced was John Lewis.

    Read More

  • Letter From Birmingham Jail

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    When MLK was taken in to custody, he was charged with “parading without a permit”(King), which really means he was doing wrong because it was a parade against segregation. He was holding a peaceful protest on behalf of the people who did not have a voice for themselves, and he was going to stop at nothing to be heard. MLK, while in jail, was receiving criticizing letters from all over about his protest, he never responded to them until he came across one. Eight Alabama clergymen entitled, “A Call For Unity”, which explained that he should be fighting in courts only and not on the street, wrote the letter. When King writes back that taking direct action is the only way to achieve the true civil rights even if it goes against what is morally right.

    Read More

  • King's Refutation Toward the Clergymen

    1493 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. is known to be a civil rights activist, humanitarian, a father, and a clergyman. He is well known for fighting for the equal rights of colored people and ending discrimination. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is an important part of history that showed King’s opinion of a letter that he happened to read in the newspaper written by a group of clergyman. In this letter, the group of clergyman report that colored people, also known as black people, are being violent towards Birmingham City. Also, the clergymen believed the time that will allow segregation to be diminished was not happening anytime soon because it is not convenient. King refuted the clergymen’s argument in a variety of ways using tactics of argumentation and persuasion like appeal to emotion through real life examples, appeal to logic, and even articulating certain phrases through metaphors and word choice. Many of these different tactics of argumentation and persuasion made his letter very effective and is now seen as a great piece that is looked upon highly today.

    Read More

  • What Is The Rhetorical Situation In Letter From Birmingham Jail

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was written while he was “confined in the Birmingham city jail.” His letter was a direct response to the eight Alabama clergymen who insisted that King’s use of nonviolent direct action was unlawful. The clergymen questioned his method of protests even though they had similar goals as King. In his letter, King illustrates the hardships and injustices that African Americans in the United States were enduring during the mid-twentieth century; doing so allows King to justify the nonviolent actions of his fellow protestors. King uses the classical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos, along with his rhetorical situation, to support his claims about the racial discrimination and segregation in the United States.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Civil Disobedience In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that sometimes laws were unjust. In these cases, King would first attempt negotiating with those who were proponents for the unjust issues or laws. If the negotiations were found to be unsuccessful, King would arrange non violent direct action. Antigone on the other hand, didn’t attempt negotiations, she believed that in certain cases, civil disobedience was necessary, and would do whatever was necessary to do her part of doing what she felt was just.

    Read More

  • Peaceful Protest Synthesis Essay

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    people might say that peaceful protests negatively impacts society because it wastes time, and it never works. For example, on January 21,2017, there was a women's march on washington in repsonse to donald trump's win. They exercised their first amendment rights and statements to let him know women have rights. Donald Trump was recognized for his comments about women. The women rights movement caused people to have a different perspective about them. But, i don't believe that peaceful protests negatively effect society because According to data compiled by Erica Chenoweth at the University of Denver and Jeremy Pressman at the University of Connecticut, at least 3.3 million people participated in over 500 Women's marches across the US. That is a huge turnout for solidarity for women. The effect of the marches probably will be there will be more women's

    Read More

  • Antigone: Martin Luther King's Nonviolent Campaign

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. defines “civil disobedience” as a way to show others what to do when a law is unjust and unreasonable. As King stated in the letter from Birmingham, “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” When Negros were being treated unfairly, Martin Luther King, Jr. stepped in to show people how to peacefully protest and not be violent. The dictionary definition of civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest (Webster Dictionary). That is what Martin Luther King, Jr. did when nothing was changing in the town after the law for public school to be non-segregated. In Antigone, Creon created an edict that states that nobody could bury Polynices’s body because he was a traitor to Thebes and his family. Under Martin Luther King’s definition of an unjust and a just law, Creon’s edict is unjust and degrades Polynices’ right to be buried because of lack of information and favoritism of one brother.

    Read More

  • Nonviolent Protests: An argumentative essay

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.”

    Read More

More about Peaceful Protest Essay

Open Document