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Does One Have Moral Responsibility To Disobey Unjust Laws?

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. explains to the clergymen who criticized him that he is there because he was invited and he also teaches them about just an unjust laws. Dr. King says “One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws.” To me a just law is a law that is made to be followed by all people no matter the color of your skin. He says “One has moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Dr. King says “Actually time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively.” This means that that could try to build a good relationship with the whites over time or try to get negotiations done right away. They learned from earlier experiences that the promises that were made were often broken within weeks of being made. So, Dr. King came up with doing non-violent protests because they would leave the whites with no choice but to react to what was going on. He believed that if the whites saw that blacks weren’t going to …show more content…

When the little girl is told she can’t go the park because of her color. The fact that little kids were experiencing this kind of hate was shocking. Once a child is taught something or experiences something like that it will stick with them for the rest of their lives and could take a very long time to get out of their heads. Also when the little boy was asking why white people treat people colored people so mean. That’s when I realized that segregation could’ve had an effect that would’ve lasted for many more years if it wasn’t for Dr. King. St. Augustine’s says “segregation distorts the soul and gives the segregator a false sense of superiority.” This is true because those little kids seeing that whites were allowed to do anything they wanted and colored kids couldn’t do the things they wanted. Showed them at an early age that they weren’t worth nothing and whites were the superior

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He states that “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.” (379). in this quote Martin Luther King shows he has no plans to use violence in his civil rights movement. Instead he has a respectful view to handle the situation that is at hand. “it is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the negro community with no alternative.”

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Nonviolence was a successful method of the Negro Revolution that occurred in 1963. King stressed the importance of peacefulness and performing all planned protests in a nonviolent

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By alluding to King—a civil rights leader and a strong believer in nonviolence—Chavez shows that nonviolence can be amazingly effective. King led a nonviolent campaign during the civil rights movement geared toward ending segregation and securing equal rights for African Americans. King successfully utilized

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He describes some of the unjust laws that African Americans had faced and goes on to tell about why these unjust laws on minorities should be broken and challenged. For example, he tells about the unjust law of being put be hide bars for parading and being denied the right to vote. He tells how unjust laws can be degrading to human personality and that all segregation acts are unjust laws. King states that it is his moral responsibility to stand up against the unjust laws that rule African American’s lives. He agreed with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

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He then refers to his earlier statement about the apathy of the clergymen regarding the reason for the demonstrations, alluding to their anxiety over the protesters willingness to break the law. However, he brings up a dichotomy: the laxness and rigidity in which different laws are enforced. Namely, he sarcastically refers to the apprehensive enforcement of the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation. Well, why are only some laws enforced? King answers this question by stating that there are two kinds of laws: just and unjust.

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Dr. King states, “There are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that ‘An unjust law is no law at all. ’”(p.11). An unjust law is unfair to all people regardless of race. He alluded to Christian ideologies, because he wanted to show his central audience, which were the clergymen that, previously Christians agreed with his perspective on unjust laws , and how African Americans shouldn’t be deprived from their rights.

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In Topeka Kansas, 1954, Brown V. Board of Education was a historic United States Supreme Court case in which the court initiated state laws stating separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. Before Brown V. Board of education, segregation between black and whites was the norm, especially in the education system. They were racially separated by schools. Segregation shed light onto the “Separate but equal” doctrine, the doctrine that pretty much gave a free pass for segregation by adding “but equal” to it to make it seem more humane and that black’s weren’t “fully” unequal to whites. We can confidently say that we are far behind the ideology of using segregation to keep specific races at certain borders between each other.

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Down in the South segregation was a common element. Things such as the Jim Crow laws were created. African Americans weren’t treated humanely. Being treated differently just because of color is not something anyone should have to go through. Segregation was wrong due to the racism it showed, the way it separated people, and allowed people to not think of each other as equals.

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The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson said that all black and white people will be separate but equal, but in reality, this was not the case ("Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)"). Whites were of course given the most elaborate and fancy equipment when in public; from schools to water fountains to bathrooms, whites were living in complete luxury compared to the increasingly struggling blacks of the time. A major flaw with the idea of segregation, was the issue of schooling. Whites were given the better schools with better teachers, while blacks had schools that were very poor and not the best teachers. Because of this, African-Americans were again being penalized just because of their race, truly showing how unequal their lives really were.

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On the other hand, King describes unjust law as the opposite, demoralizing to humanity, against moral law, and create a false sense of superiority and inferiority. King uses the denial of the black community to vote as an example, as it denied the control for blacks and was created as a way to have whites as the main voice in society. King says that unjust laws should be broken openly, lovingly, and accepting of the penalties that one would face. Breaking an unjust law was a demand for change and standing up for morality. King explains that this kind of civil disobedience was never new.

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In the eyes of Martin Luther King Jr., Justice within a society is achieved through the implementation of just laws. Furthermore, “just laws are regulations that have been created by man that follow the laws of God for man” (“Clergymen’s Letter”). Any law that does not correspond with the ideals of God and morality are considered to be unjust or a form of injustice. King identifies that injustice is clearly evident within the justice system. This injustice can truly be seen through the misconduct imposed toward the African American community.

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Decades ago, children of various races could not go to school together in many locations of the United States. School districts could segregate students, legally, into different schools according to the color of their skin. The law said these separate schools had to be equal. Many schools for children that possessed color were of lesser quality than the schools for white students. To have separate schools for the black and white children became a basic rule in southern society.

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George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington, who was his second wife. Washington had five brothers who all helped work on the plantation his mother and father owned. Washington was only eleven when his father died. After his father’s death, he took on the responsibility of the plantation. Even though Washington was very bright, not much is known on his education.

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- Detail the distinction between just and unjust laws. Why is it important Dr. King make this distinction? - One has a legal and moral responsibility to obey “just” laws because they are a “ man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.” Any “just” law uplifts human personality. One has a moral responsibility to disobey “unjust” laws because they are “ a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

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When addressing the difference between just and unjust laws for the clergymen Martin Luther King Jr. stated, A just law is man-made code that squares with the mora law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law.

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