Civil disobedience and Non-violence Flashcards
How are King Jr. and bus segregation policy related?
Rosa Parks civil disobedience act on the bus and started the movement.
King Jr. helped organise a boycott of the bus network which was very effective and forced bus companies to remove segregation.
King’s thoughts on civil disobedience?
Regarded civil disobedience as being justified. Part of a moral duty to disobey immoral laws.
What is legitimate law?
Legitimate law is law based on moral law (which is similar to Locke’s natural law)
Was segregationist law moral law? Why not?
No, it is unjust because it was not based on the Constitution which is mostly moral law.
Therefore it is not immoral to disobey unjust & immoral laws and is dutiful to do so.
Moral: How did non-violence restore dignity?
Racism undermines the dignity of Black people therefore non-violent resistance was a moral way of restoring dignity.
Moral: Was King a strict pacifist?
No, King thought that violence in personal self-defence was justified and therefore moral.
Moral: Why is political violence futile?
For King political violence is futile because justice cannot be achieved through violence
Moral: King’s argument for non-violence.
King states that both passivity and violence undermine dignity, therefore using non-violent methods was a ‘dignified social action’
The experience of racism can lead to fear/difference or resentment/anger.
so non-violence empowers black people as it powerful, assertive, and morally justified action.
What were King’s strategic arguments for non-violence?
America would remain a multi-racial country and Black people would remain a minority so direct violence between groups would be very bloody.
Using, strategically, non-violence means there is more likely to be a peaceful integrated society rather than a society healing from acts of violence in the name of change.
