The Boston Tea Party was one of the most famous acts of civil disobedience in American history. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 United States House of Representatives elections in order to protest female disenfranchisement.[33]
It was arguably during the abolitionist movement that civil disobedience first defined itself. Henry Thoreau refused to pay federal taxes in protest of both slavery and the Mexican War; this action directly inspired the "Civil Disobedience" essay. Numerous more militant actions, such as the Christiana incident led by William Parker were taken in defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act. In spite of the violence of the actions, juries often refused to convict the defendants.[34]
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, James Bevel, Rosa Parks, and other activists in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s used civil disobedience techniques. Among the most notable civil disobedience events in the U.S. occurred when Rosa Parks refused to move on the bus when a white man tried to take her seat. Although 15-year-old Claudette Colvin had done the same thing nine months earlier, Parks' action led directly to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A more common act of civil disobedience (in opposition to Jim Crow laws) during the Civil Rights Movement would be a "colored" person (i.e. an African American) sitting at a "white only" lunch counter. In addition, other Civil Rights Movement of the era include the Sit-in movements of 1958 and '60, the 1961 Freedom Rides, the 1963 Birmingham campaign, the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement and the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement. These forms of civil disobedience were effective in promoting the eventual passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Open Housing Act of 1968.
Anti-Vietnam War activism brought one of the largest waves of civil disobedience in US history. Approximately 34,000 young men burned their draft cards or turned them in to the government. Dozens of protesters, such as Daniel Berrigan and the Catonsville Nine, broke into draft boards, seized draft records, and destroyed them to dramatize their protest against the war. Other major manifestations were the Chicago 1968 protests, and the 1970 student strike. Disobedience spread to the armed forces. with some facing court marshall for openly refusing to fight. Tens of thousands deserted from the military, going to Canada or to Western Europe. By 1972, army disobedience was widespread, with 50 out of 142 GIs in one company refusing to go out on patrol.[34][35]
In the wake of the Vietnam and civil rights struggles, civil disobedience became a major part of other social movements of the era, such as the American Indian Movement, with the Alcatraz Island and Wounded Knee Occupation; and the gay liberation (LGBT) movement which was launched with the Stonewall riots.[36] [37]
Since the 1970s, pro-life or anti-abortion groups have practiced civil disobedience against the U.S. government over the issue of legalized abortion. The broader American public has a long history of subverting unconstitutional governance, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the War on Drugs. However, the extent to which simple violation of sumptuary laws represents true civil disobedience aimed at legal and/or social reform varies widely.
American interest in theoretical discussions of civil disobedience was also sparked by the Nuremberg trials, the security and loyalty controversies of the 1950s, and the pre-arms control years of nuclear power.[38] The 2000s (decade) have seen some libertarian civil disobedience by Free State Project participants and others.
In 2010, Arizonans were planning to protest Arizona SB 1070 by not carrying their identification papers.[39] Also that year, five protestors pleaded guilty to trespassing after they sat in the chairs of the Greensboro, North Carolina city council during a recess, banged the gavel, and denounced a subculture of police corruption.[40]
In August and September 2011, 1253 demonstrators organized by environmentalist Bill McKibben and the group Tar Sands Action were arrested for sitting on the sidewalk in front of the White House over the course of two weeks. The group, including environmentalists like Phil Radford, celebrities like Daryl Hannah, indigenous and religious leaders, students, and landowners faced arrest to express opposition to the proposed Keystone Pipeline extension (Keystone XL) permit which would bring Oil Sands from Alberta, Canada to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. The White House was chosen as a site of action because of President Barack Obama's role in the decision.
