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Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King

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For millenniums, the laws of nature went ungoverned and unrefined, but humans have evolved to be complex and managed to create a set of codes to live by. Originally, there was nothing to base law on other than the current moral code, and possibly religion. In the letter, now titled, ¨Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the author discusses the two types of laws man can create: just and unjust laws. King asserts that the difference between just and unjust laws are that one is typically there to unite and the other is there to oppress; these arguments are agreeable because they are supported by history. To begin with, a just law is simply a fair law. In his letter, King defines a just law in his own words. According …show more content…

First of all, King explains the main purpose of both unjust and just laws. ¨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...a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal,¨(11). An individual who is intrigued by history may frequently look back to it only to discover that one fact has remained constant throughout it. It is the fact that history repeats itself. It there is a pounding current issue, chances are that it has already occurred and been solved. It is only a matter of one knowing their history and realizing the ¨symptoms¨ of a greater issue. This means that the issue of ‘difference made legal’ has probably already occurred; thus King's claim can be considered a conclusion drawn from history. An example of this repetition in history would be the law during WWII in Nazi Germany. In order to emphasize this event, King says, ¨We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal,’¨(12). The overt discrimination and segregation present during the Third Reich exemplifies ‘difference made legal.’ This similarity is what connects that to the 1960s Jim Crow Laws. Although legal, what Hitler did was obviously morally wrong, yet the foundation for those policies were essentially identical to those in the south. They were in the same situation only one was resolved sooner that another. Ultimately, it is King’s use of evidence outside his letter that leads one to agree with

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(Paragraph 4). This drew the clergymen’s attention to King’s beliefs and possibly made them realize the flaws in the system. King also states, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law…” (Paragraph 5).

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Dr King explains that just laws making an individual to believe that it is right to do, but it is affecting those individual who are believing it. Just laws shows the face of laws but it does not apply in the society. Dr king contribute by creating awareness among people and putting a clear picture to the real applications and making it visible to black community. He clearfield the difference between laws implications in the society, how African Americans are treated badly, eventhough they are protected by laws. In real theory, they are called as an outsider, and he shows the clear distinction between exclusion and inclusion though an individual is living in the United

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In the letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr addresses his audience by defining what qualifies an action or law to be just and unjust. He describes a just law as a “code that squares away with the moral law or the law of God” (King). Then he describes the unjust law as being “a code that is out of the harmony with the moral law” (King). Kings definitions compare well with the dictionary definitions because both agree that just laws are based on a moral code. He uses the strategy of examples and counter examples in order to define both of the words and give his audience a clear understanding of their meaning.

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In the article “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr. responds to clergymen who described his civil rights activities as “unwise and untimely”. Dr. King argues that while just laws should be obeyed, unjust laws aren’t binding because they go against decent morality and they degrade human lives. He explains the three-hundred-year struggles by African Americans to gain their basic rights and responds to criticism of being an extremist for trying to force change on this matter. Ultimately his reasoning is that those attempting to find a resolution to the injustice and unequal laws of the land should not be punished if they are doing so nonviolently, even if they break some just laws. I argue in favor of this idea that unjust laws

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Chen 1 Bradley Chen Welsh APLAC/Fifth Period 24 January 2016 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Questions King introduces his letter with a tone of impatience, irony, and sarcasm. King has a tone of irony towards the questions of the clergy. In the first paragraph, King says “If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day.” With this paragraph, one can detect the underlying sarcasm throughout the letter.

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Both authors try to persuade their audience to oppose specific laws that are unjust. In doing so, King and Thoreau define what they believe is just and unjust. By King’s definition, a just law is moral or the law of god. An unjust law is out of harmony with the moral law, or degrades human personality (265). In regards to King essay, he believes, “Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws (265).

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King, Jr. also talks about how there are laws that do justice to all and laws that are unjustified by degrading a minority and their constitutional rights. I agree with King when he restates Augustine’s statement, “an unjust law is no law at all” (3). I say this because when a law takes away your constitutional rights within a group of certain people it’s not a law it someone trying to show their authority over another. What showed this was when African Americans where being arrested for showing nonviolent action of protesting and being brutally beaten and hosed for their civil right to protest. King also got called an extremist for this action taken.

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Letter from Birmingham Jail Martin Luther King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963 while being confined in Birmingham City Jail. The letter was addressed to Kings Fellow Clergymen who had written an open letter. Letter from Birmingham criticizes King and Southern Leadership conference while protesting in Birmingham. Dr. King told the clergymen he was upset and wanted to address the concerns and criticisms they had.

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How Does King distinguish between a just and an unjust law? In Birmingham city colored people suffered with unlawful treatments so King and his eighty- five affiliated organizations strongly oppose the humiliation of colored people in their country. The court treats colored people unlawfully and put them in jail for no

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Looking at this letter from King’s time period, one may seem to not understand where King was coming from because the issue was still fresh, but today his letter has lots of

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King makes the point that a law is just if it follows the Law of God and Unjust if it doesn’t. King goes on further to explain a just law is a law that a “power majority group” wants a minority group to follow and is willing to follow the same law itself. On the other end of the spectrum an unjust law would be if the Majority group isn’t willing to follow the same law they are requiring a minority group to follow. With all of Kings bashing of laws in the letter King takes a step back to clarify that he doesn’t want everyone to go out and break the law, he says this would lead to anarchy. He also says “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty.”

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philosophizes that if we, as human beings, forgo our instincts at the service of something higher, justice will prevail. In “A Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” he asserts that there are certain permanent truths which will never evaporate. These truths will always stand firm as fundamental principles which justify what is morally right and wrong, just and unjust. King deliberates that “the yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself” (“Letter,” p. 771). Furthermore, Martin Luther King, Jr. declares that there are universal and borderless Gospels of Freedom and Justice, which resound in the natural constitution of every human person, and are uplifted, fulfilled, and dignified by the divine wisdom of

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As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. states, "it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws;" this statement corresponds with Dr. King Jr.  agreeing with St. Augustine’s statement that "an unjust law is no law at all." In 1954 during the

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King distinguishes between just and unjust laws by explaining the difference between them; he explains the moral affect each one has, the unfair way the majority used unjust laws, and the reason breaking unjust laws is okay. Now then, King uses morality to help explain the difference between just and unjust laws. King says “A just law is a man-made law that squares with the moral law or the law of God.” (356) He goes on to say “Unjust…….

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King addresses the characteristics of unjust laws in 3 points. First point being that just laws are always harmonious with natural morale law. Second point being that a just law is one that uplifts human personality as opposed to degrading human personality. Lastly, a just law can only be created in the most democratic manner possible and if it is not, the minority automatically has the right to disobey the law because they had no say in the creation of the law. As for the first point, a natural morale law must be measured by our natural human sense.

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