American Experience: Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience is "a public, non-violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies" (Rawls, A Theory of Justice. 1999, p. 320)
African American Civil Rights
Pre-Jim Crow resistance to Segregated Transit
- ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’: Who Was Plessy?
Written by Henry Louis Gates - Homer Plessy, US civil rights pioneer, receives pardon 130 years on
Plessy’s act of civil disobedience led to court decision that legalized ‘separate but equal’ doctrine and ushered in Jim Crow era
Homer Plessy, At Center Of 1896 'Separate But Equal' Case, Poised For Pardon (2:38)
Claudette Colvin & Rosa Parks
Claudette Colvin (2:29)
Greensboro Sit-In & its impact
Freedom Riders
- The Freedom Riders, Then and Now (Now=2009)
Fighting racial segregation in the South, these activists were beaten and arrested. Where are they now, nearly fifty years later?
Selma to Montgomery Marches (1965)
Bloody Sunday: A flashback of the landmark Selma to Montgomery marches (6:03)
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