Senior Seminar
Mrs. Civitella

Civil disobedience- noun: a refusal to obey laws, pay taxes, etc: a non-violent means of protesting or of attempting to achieve political goals

PERSON:
Sam Adams, 1774
Henry David Thoreau, 1849
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852
Alice Paul, 1916-1917
Rosa Parks, 1955
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
Karen Silkwood, 1974
Cindy Sheehan, 2005-present
RESISTANCE TO:
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Tea Tax
Mexican Am. War, slavery
Fugitive Slave Law
Women’s suffrage
Segregation
Civil Rights Act
Nuclear energy laws
Against the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

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How does history view acts of civil disobedience?
Are all efforts beneficial?
Do we as a nation want to allow peaceful protest?
How effective are peaceful protests?
What makes a protest legitimate?
PETA, anti-abortion, Tea Party, Wall Street
Protests?
How effective is the media in peaceful protest?

May, 1970- The New York Times published evidence of the secret bombing campaign in Cambodia
February, 1971- The Pentagon Papers- New York Times were leaked the top secret report detailing the mistakes and mistruths of the Vietnam conflict dating all of the way back to Kennedy
NY Times v. U.S. 1971 the court finds in favor of the papers based on the first amendment
Mar, 1971- burglary of the F.B.I. office in Media, PA evidence of FBI techniques against COINTELPRO were published in newspapers

August 22, 1971- break in of federal building in
Camden, NJ leads to the arrest of anti-draft protestors
Charged with:
Conspiracy to remove & destroy files from a F.B.I. office, Army Intelligence Office, destruction of government property, interfering with Selective
Service
The group faced up to 47 years in federal prison

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Offered a plea bargin to plead guilty and be charged with one misdemeanor
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They decided to plead guilty and have each member testify
They called themselves “America’s conscience”
The media called them the Camden 28
The group included 4 Catholic priests, 1 Lutheran minister, 22 Catholic lay people, 1 unidentified

“Catholic left”: name given by the government and the media to this non-violent anti-war movement
The Catholic left had claimed responsibility for over 30 draft board raids and the destruction of a million Selective Service documents
Believed in civil disobedience to call attention to their belief that all killing, even in war, was morally indefensible

Activists, with the help of three young lawyers, asked the jury to nullify the laws against breaking and entering saying that the country had had “enough” of the “illegal & immoral” war in Vietnam
The second part of the defendant’s case was that they should be acquitted on the grounds that the raid would not have taken place without the selfadmitted help of FBI informer who was provocated and encouraged by being providing with the tools to carry out the raid

After 3 ½ months, the case went to the jury
Judge Fisher broke new legal ground in saying that they could acquit if they felt that the government’s participation had gone to
“intolerable lengths”
After 3 days of deliberation the jury of 7 women and 5 men found the Camden 28 not guilty on all counts

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What role did Bob Hardy play in the Camden
28?
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Why did he go to the F.B.I.?
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What is civic virtue?
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Do you believe that justice was served?
justice- to act or treat fairly

Questions presented to the jury by the defendants and their corroborating witnesses:
Who went too far? The Camden 28 or the government?
How effective was Mrs. Good’s testimony?