Civil Disobedience In The Labor Movement

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The labor movement resulted in an amplitude of successes, legally and otherwise. The labor movement was an organized fight which attempted to increase the rights of workers through the development of unions. In 1935 The Wagner Act was passed signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1935. This act, formally referred to as the National Labor Relations Act, granted workers the opportunity to meet and form labor unions. Through these unions groups were permitted to meet as well as bargain with employers for fair treatment, higher pay or any other concerns they saw fit. The act ensured the composition of a board to review the treatment practices of companies working with unions, this board was referred to as the National Labor Relations Board. Civil disobedience is a form of peaceful protest. In the civil rights movement, civil disobedience was majorly influenced by leaders such as Martin Luther King who preached against violence, many of whose ideas were inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Lunch counter sit ins were a tactic of civil disobedience for those in the civil rights movement. African Americans would enter a restaurant for lunch, if they were refused service and asked to leave they refused. These movements grew and forced business owners to make a decision, serve these people and make money or have their restaurants filled with people who they would not be making money off of, preventing them from serving white people they wished to serve. This movement grew and as it did it gained publicity, people began to wonder why these citizens were not being served and why they were met with such harassment for trying to eat. Another famous example was Rosa Parks, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person she civilly disobeyed. There was no law that a black person was required to give up their seat to a white person but it was a socially accepted norm. By refusing to give up her seat she took a stand against this unjust practice but was not truly harming anyone. The Birmingham Campaign included a peaceful march of African American Students into downtown Birmingham, Alabama a notoriously segregated location. This peaceful march was an example of civil disobedience simply composed to gain publicity towards the segregation. This peaceful practice was met with police dogs and young marchers being sprayed with fire

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