Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility Free Essay Example, 1000 words

During this era, whites were superior in every sense and other people had to deprive their wants or needs for them. This arrest sparked controversy and hence King and other comrades formed the Montgomery improvement association (MIA) to protest this arrest. This group headed by King organized a boycott of the Montgomery buses where the lack populace stayed off the buses (King, paper1:300). The boycott extended to thirteen full months when the Supreme Court failed to address their concerns. King was vehement in his public talks that they would fight with determination to attain justice. King and his comrades wanted fairness in the bus system and for a long time fight efforts. Their needs were not met. However, the boycott elicited external support and other individuals moved by his ideals sought him to help him out in his civil rights. The non-violent direct action finally bore fruits when in 1956, the federal district court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional and laws re quiring segregated seating were struck down. What was more compelling to other people of Montgomery to help the civil rights movement was not the boycott largely but the tactic used by King to combine mass non-violent protests with true Christian morals which became a strong model to challenge the standing of the southern population against racial equality. We will write a custom essay sample on Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now His tactics were similar to Gandhi who used similar methods of non-violent civil disobedience to instill change in native India (King, papers, 359-357). His success in propelling the drive for equal rights consequently made him a target of conservative segregationist who firmly believed that the white race was ultimate superior and hence social change to them was not an option. It was due to this, that he got arrested twenty times within ten years and had his family threatened with two unsuccessful bombings of his home. This however did not deter him or his spirit as he urged his followers on that even if he died someone else would take his place. From a young age we are taught to be obedient to the rules set by authority and wait till the same authority wills to modify the rules. We are streamlined to follow these rules because doing otherwise will remit punishment. In Dr. King’s letter from Birmingham, he cries to his fellow men the colore d race that they have been ordered to wait all their life, this waiting in the language of authority can be translated to never. He voices that their wait for justice has been long foregone and that sometimes â€Å"justice too long delayed is simply justice denied. † (King, Call, 171-199) In this letter, his plea to his people is that sometimes it reaches a certain point that individuals will have to disobey so that good prevails.