Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. Claudette Colvin once said, “It is my constitutional right.” Referring to the constitutional rights she has as an individual to life, liberty, and happiness. She who was the starting root of the Civil Rights Movement. Her actions caused for blacks to begin to gain courage to earn their rights. Civil Disobedience is when a person or group protest a law that they find morally wrong. The person is usually peaceful and will accept whatever consequence arise due to breaking the law. (Suber). People use civil disobedience to draw attention to the laws they find morally wrong and to get laws changed (Starr). To understand Claudette Colvins’ role in civil disobedience, one must first have knowledge of …show more content…
She attended Washington High School where she was an AB honor roll student throughout her high school years. Her childhood was not the best with segregation happening in which in an interview she mentioned how rough things were during the Jim Crow laws (Lawson). Claudette Colvin’s act of civil disobedience caused impact to the point where the Civil Rights Movement began. She was only a junior in high school and was on her way home when she was suddenly arrested for not wanting to give up her seat for a white woman on a public bus. She mentions that she would not give up her seat because simply, history had her glued to her seat, for that reason she refused to obey the segregation law (Lawson). The laws she lived throughout her childhood and a bit of her teenage years were tremendous in which society itself was segregated in Montgomery, Alabama. Schools, buses, stores, and even marriage with a different race was considered a crime and morally wrong (Lawson). Claudette’s action had tremendously drew attention from the black leader in the community. After her arrest in March, 1955, where she was charged with several charges in which one of them were violating and not obeying the segregation laws which the city had (Hoose). Ms. Colvin’s action caused for black leaders to sue the city of Montgomery, Alabama through a federal court. Eventually black leaders encouraged for other blacks to begin a …show more content…
Her refusal was recognized by many black activists during segregation, those who were Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and many others. Even though Claudette was the beginner whom refused to obey segregation laws, she was not the face whom the public wanted to be the face of the Civil Rights Movement because of her resulting to be pregnant a few months afterwards (Lawson). Nine months after Claudette’s civil disobedience, Rosa Parks as well disobeyed segregation laws coincidentally, refused to give up a seat on a public bus. This resulted for the Civil Rights Movement to begin as well as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks was not only the face of the movement but a great inspiration for Claudette Colvin who was not exactly the appearance of the movement but had proudly set the very first victory for the U.S. civil rights movement which was prospected as major at this point in time
Once segregation in school was ruled to be unconstitutional, Melba’s life changed forever; and when she was fourteen
The civil rights movement was a mass popular movement to secure for African Americans equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. (http://www.scholastic.com). She created Civil Rights Movement by refusing to get off of a streetcar, when told to get off (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/nyregion/thecity/the-schoolteacher-on-the-streetcar.html?_r=0).
Emmett Till brutally murdered for wolf whistling at a white women. In the early morning hours of August 28, 1995, fourteen year old Emmett Till. Visiting from Chicago, was rousted from his bed in his uncle's Mississippi shack. By two white men in search of vengeance. His crime was for flirting with a white women.
The American Civil Rights movement was started to give all Americans, regardless of their race or gender, a chance to vote and live equally. Many men and woman, black and white, fought for this civil rights reform, putting their lives at risk. Lucretia Mott was a brave white women who gave her all to the women’s and colored cause for civil rights. Lucretia Mott had strong opinions on civil rights. Mott was a strong women’s rights activist and abolitionist.
It's easy to get angry and/or violent protests confused with civil disobedience. Many overlook the effectiveness of civil disobedience and see it as just another way to protest the government but civil disobedience has a long history. A few examples of civil disobedience include Rosa Parks’ famous refusal to move from the back of the bus in 1955; the interracial marriage between Richard and Mildred Loving in 1958; and most recently, the protest against the Dakota Access pipeline construction. In each instance, people stood up for what they thought was just and right.
Peaceful resistance to laws positively affect a free society. Throughout history, there have been multiple cases of both violent and peaceful protests. However, the peaceful protests are the ones that tend to stick with a society and are the ones that change the society for the better. In April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter about just and unjust laws while he was in Birmingham jail for peacefully protesting. King came to Birmingham because "injustice is here".
Civil disobedience can mean many things to many people. To some people it could mean a non-violent means of protesting or attempting to achieve political goals; however, in the eyes of people like Martin Luther King Jr it could be different. He stated that “one has the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”. Martin Luther King Jr prove this by doing many non-violent protest during his time, to fight against segregation. The meaning of civil disobedience is a bit different in Henry Thoreau’s eyes.
Civil disobedience is the act of disobeying governmental commands in a peaceful, non-violent, form of protest. Throughout history, peaceful protest have had a positive impact on free society. Peaceful protest have had the biggest impact during the Civil Rights Movement. During this time, many people have led non-violent protest for their rights, including well known African-American Activist, Martin Luther King Jr.. He was most famously known for his speech, I Have a Dream.
“Like most Southern American Cities at that time, Montgomery, Alabama, was thoroughly racially segregated in the mid- 1950’s.”. In the 1950’s, people’s rights, especially African American’s, were very limited, such as Segregation. Segregation is the separation of blacks and whites in public places. It was mostly the Southern states that were segregated. She made history, but race was one more aspect that made it happen.
Our elderly teaches us to be obedient, but disobedience is a virtue proving one's ability to stand against a wrong. Oscar Wilde argues that disobedience is a valuable human trait that can create social progress. Disobedience is necessary to make changes within ourselves or amongst our community. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. served as leader in his community and argued that civil disobedience was one way to change the laws and feelings being set against colored people. King believed in order to get his point across was by taking action, but he did not want violent protests and the use of physical force.
The author of the Rosa Parks page emphasizes that, “By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus in 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States” (Rosa Parks). Simply put, Rosa inspired the rest of the African American communities around the United States to protest through boycotts whenever they had the chance to do so. Determined to get the bus segregation law overturned, Parks and her fellow NAACP
Rosa Parks Rosa Parks was a woman with great confidence in what she believed in. She was a Civil Rights Activist who refused to give up her seat on the Alabama bus which started the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. It helped start a nationwide effort to end segregation of public facilities. Later she received the NAACP’s highest award. As she grew older she received over 10 awards for her great accomplishments When Rosa parks had chronic tonsils all through her childhood.
Civil disobedience is nonviolent resistance to a government’s law in seek of change. Civil disobedience is an effective way to bring about change because it is a harmless way of fighting an unjust law or idea, it can educate people about the cause, and it has been successful many times in history. First and foremost, civil disobedience is
When Rosa Parks got an arrest, it had started a resolution. When Rosa didn't get up from her seat for a white man, the driver called the police and arrested her. So at her court date, the African Americans had started a boycott. The Africans have to seat in the back of the bus in the colored section. Because Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man; she started a revolution and the fight for equal rights for black people.
That therefore she sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. “ I was determined I let it be known that I did not want to be treated in this manner. ”(scholastic.com) As a child Rosa was always not treated equally.