Examples Of Disobedience

From a historical standpoint, progress and reform is achieved solely through the valuable human trait of disobedience. The ability for a human to repeal and rebel the social norms of the time period is how Oscar Wilde, an Irish author, would characterize as, “Man’s original Virtue.”
The earliest example of American disobedience can be seen in the prelude to the establishment of our nation: The American Revolution. The revolution was not instigated at one definite moment so much as it was a gradual process of rebellion that snowballed into the birth of the United States. Thanks to the French and Indian war, the British decided to end Salutary Neglect and begin a series of tax and tariff acts that would soon stir up the colonies. From the Stamp Acts to the Coercive Acts – or the Intolerable Acts as American patriots would call them – the prominent slogan of, “Taxation
Although slavery was abolished in 1865 (13th Amendment), equality was not the reality for many African-Americans in the United States for almost a century. Judicial court cases such as the Plessey vs. Ferguson case instilled the idea of “separate but equal” and justified segregation. It took years before individuals or organizations such as the NAACP, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X brought enough attention to the prejudice and injustices created through segregation. While many like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. took a peaceful and nonviolent approach to equality through the Montgomery Bus Strike and well-known speeches like the, “I have a dream” speech (respectively), others took a more demanding and “hands-on” approach such as Malcolm X. Regardless, thanks to the amalgamation of all the parties, the U.S was able to outlaw discrimination successfully. Whether it is violent or peaceful, acts of disobedience have the potential to create progress in the right