Compare And Contrast Thoreau And Martin Luther King

Fighting For Your Rights Without Fighting

At what point is it necessary to take matters into your own hands? Some say it is when

those in power, such as the government, abuse that power, and do not do what is best for their

citizens. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau each took peaceful action when their

government acted in an unjust manner. King defended these actions in his letter titled, “Letter

to Birmingham Jail” and years before Thoreau made his point in a speech that later became an

essay titled, “Civil Disobedience”. In both of these writings, the authors effectively illustrates

their belief that civil disobedience is necessary when social injustice is present and that doing

so, is the responsibility of men.

While, Thoreau spoke to

politicians, who because of their involvement in the government, would be uninclined to agree

with his refusal to pay a tax. Despite this, both men addressed their fellow American citizens

as an implied audience. One can understand that Thoreau is speaking to citizens because he

often points out the injustices the government commits against it’s people. One example is

when Thoreau writes, “Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its

faults, and do better than it would have them?" (Shea, 2008). Both authors want to persuade their

readers to agree with their belief that one should do what they feel is morally correct, and not

follow the majority. They can both agree that one way of doing this is using civil disobedience.

Their overall goal in both writings was to expose the government's social injustices and inspire

people to take action using civil disobedience.

Neither Thoreau nor King felt that their government was doing the best that it could

for it’s citizens. Thoreau did not think that slavery was moral and certainly did not believe

I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own

fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.” (Shea, 2008). King was against the expectation that

someone in power holds over a minority, but will not fulfill themselves. “An unjust law is a code

that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make

binding on itself. This is difference made legal.” (King) In his letter and Thoreau’s speech, they

emphasized these injustices which the government had committed against its citizens. King and

Thoreau had a similar definition of injustice, they felt that the government abused its power and

treated citizens unequally by holding them to different standards. Thoreau thought slavery was

immoral and King disagreed with segregation laws. But each man saw a similar injustice and in

order to fight this corruption in the most peaceful and rational way, they used civil disobedience.

In order to fight the government's social injustices citizens needed to publicly take a

stand against the corruption. King and Thoreau created these pieces with the hope of motivating

citizens to do so. Both authors made it clear that men have a moral responsibility to do what