Comparisons On The Advocacies Of Henry Thoreau vs Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thoreau refused to pay the poll ax because the money was being used to finance a war he was against. This war was over Texas, which was to enter the Union as a slave state. He wrote Civil Disobedience while in the Walden jail. Thoreau wrote how disappointed he was with the government by forcing him to pay a poll tax that supported a war and slavery. King would later go to jail acting on his beliefs. Martin Luther King and Henry David Thoreau used civil disobedience to change people’s ideas and beliefs to stop the injustice brought against them and their nation.

In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail ", Martin Luther King expressed his belief in the power and moral responsibility of the individual to break unjust laws of society. He insists that " One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” (King,4). He also mentions " Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, and to early Christians who were willing to die rather than follow Roman laws they found unjust " (King) . We must acknowledge that people can not obey unjust laws of government Lewis's Civil disobedience is an essential action for the citizens of an organized society and brings about a change for the generations to

In Martin Luther King’s essay “Letter to Birmingham Jail”, he discusses racial injustice and peaceful protest. He talks on how brutal negroes were treated in jail and by policemen. King was jailed for parading around without a permit. In Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” Thoreau spoke on the unjust government, nonviolent revolt, and against slavery. Thoreau went to jail for not paying his poll taxes because he refuses to align himself with the state. These essays show some similarities and differences that I want to bring to light. Two similarities that I found are that they both advocated for civil disobedience and they were willing to break the law if necessary. A difference that I discovered, was that in the two essays Thoreau and King focus on different issues for some matters.

Henry David Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience, which is about him trying to persuade citizens that their obligation is to contravene and correct the unfair laws of the government. Thoreau begins Civil Disobedience with the view point “That government is best which governs least”

11.) Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is similar to Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” because both pieces address the definition of a just

     Any one can say that a law is unfair and unjust. However, who is really willing to accept the consequences for going against an unjust law? Is breaking this law really worth the punishment? The government is the one to decide whether a law is reasonable, but what if a member of the public believes that a law is not? Should he rebel against this law? Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. answered yes to this question and believed that one should speak out against an injustice. They both believed that government had many flaws. Even though they shared many beliefs in many of the same subjects concerning Civil Disobedience, they had many different

While both Martin Luther King Jr. and David Thoreau recognized that society needed modification, they acquired contrasting perspectives about the dilemma. King writes out of concern for the African-American race and believes that even though law states, something is wrong, it could be right. Thoreau believes writes out of frustration and that "Government is best which governs not at all." (Thoreau 407). King and Thoreau agree that everyone has the ability to take charge, on the other hand, their actions are distinct in many ways.

In his famous essay, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,’’ Martin Luther King, Jr. cites conscience as a guide to obeying just laws and defying unjust laws. In the same way, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” that people should do what their conscience tells them and not obey unjust laws. The positions of the two writers are very close; they use a common theme of conscience, and they use a similar rhetorical appeal of ethos.

Martin Luther King Jr., was a civil rights activist who spoke freely about civil disobedience in the Letter from Birmingham Jail while he was locked up for civilly disobeying the law. He was writing to eight white clergymen that also felt that many of the laws were unjust, however they showed agreement with Socrates by stating that he should not disobey the laws. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “one has a moral responsibility to disobey just laws because if we did not disobey them then unjust acts would continue to occur, causing our country to be harmed”. He also stated that “an unjust law is no law at all”. Martin Luther King Jr. did believe that laws were setup and enforced to assist and support the residents of the state however, if a law was unfair or unconstitutional, then the law would

“Civil Disobedience” is an essay written by Henry David Thoreau in 1848. Thoreau protested many issues at the time such as slavery, the Mexican war, and taxes; he stood for peaceful protests or civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the act of publicly, peacefully, and conscientiously breaching any corrupt and or unequal law(s) in order to bring about a change in said law or policy. Almost one hundred years later, on April 16th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr wrote the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail;” a response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. King, in the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” conveys to his readers that the laws set against the African American are unjust and

Have you ever felt a rule you had to follow was unjust? Have you ever felt your moral instinct tell you not to follow it? Prominent figures in American history, Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, felt this way and decided to not follow the rules imposed on them by indulging in “civil disobedience”. Civil disobedience is the act of peacefully disobeying laws or customs with the purpose of combating moral injustice. This form of protest has proven to be quite effective in making change in history. In “Civil Disobedience” and the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, both Thoreau and King Jr. write their justification for their actions as well as their feelings regarding the particular disputed

Martin Luther King jr. justified rebellion and civil disobedience in one statement. The statements King makes can be thought of as being contradictory. He rationalized this by answering this question,““How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not

Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist, political dissenter, and radical figure in the nineteenth-century. Of his many famous works, Civil Disobedience, a treatise on government, is one of the most controversial and impactful, even to this day. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau contends that unregulated states that protrude into the lives of citizens are always unjust. He lays down many principles, but his three best are: a government will always support the views of its majority, even if they are illegal, illegitimate, or immoral; abuse “superior physical strength” to enforce laws, even if they are unjust; and oppose the right of revolution.

Thoreau talks about the politics, power and civil disobedience in his works. He gave a lot of emphasis to the concept of the individual. He presented his idea for a utopian world in which government gave people a choice to live independently of the government itself. I think that Thoreau's intention was to point out that those people who dare to go against what seems to be unjust (whether it meant going against the majority) and stand firm for what they believe in, are the people who transform society as a whole. He believed that when many thought alike, the power was stronger within that minority. King's ideals were similar to those of Thoreau, though he was more cautious. Thoreau was blunt and was not concerned about how others perceived his works. He was clear and to the point.