Civil Disobedience and Criminal Behavior In the “Letter To Birmingham” by: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr addresses the ongoing oppression of black people in the South during the 1960s, urging a change for society that everyone is equal under the law, and explaining the critical situation of Birmingham, Alabama. This letter is effective and powerful in its own way because it challenged the laws either just or unjust by state or federal governments which were being enforced and followed for centuries. But when Dr. King challenged those laws by using civil disobedience and voicing his disapproval it opened a door for societies to reconsider their purposes not by morals or virtues, but by simply asking this is it fair or even just? For a group of people …show more content…
Which brings me to my second question; “How can (we as) citizens distinguish between just and unjust laws?” “Is it by morals or values that play a role?” I believe that just laws are rules of morals, ethics, and virtues of an individual given when they are born (otherwise known as natural rights) no one can take those rights away. However, unjust laws are rules that strip individuals of their rights and leave them completely vulnerable to unfair, cruel, and inhumane treatment by the state or federal government. For example, in the southern states during the 1950s and 1960s the black people were denied their right to vote because the state barred them by using methods such as the grandfather clause, poll taxes, and literacy tests. As a result, it instilled fear inside of them to prevent themselves from voting or even registering to become voters which in some cases can be a call for questioning the status quo and how people perceive to view things in a matter of what is just and unjust in a