Martin Luther King And Civil Disobedience

In paragraphs 12-14 of “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Dr. King begins addressing the clergymen’s belief that the peaceful demonstrations conducted by him and his associates were untimely. King starts answering questions frequently heard by opposing or moderate forces, as well as essentially denouncing the resistance to desegregation. King then introduced the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed; concluding that the oppressor is not inclined to act on things that do not directly affect them. Therefore, providing a platform of his argument as to why blacks could no longer wait to be given their basic human rights. Action needed to take place because fair treatment was no longer a hope to be given, it had to be taken.

In Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham jail”, King talks about his imprisonment for his involvement in a nonviolent protest and defends his rights and moral grounds for organizing nonviolent protest activities. In this essay, I will look at his views on nonviolent protest and how they differ from todays violent protests.

Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in Birmingham jail not because he committed a crime but because he took part in a non-violent demonstration. King received an invite to a nonviolent demonstration by a local church and was later jailed for his actions (King 1). While in jail, King reflected on the injustice in not only Birmingham, but the world as well. King addressed injustice as a universal wrong which can only be undone by people themselves and not by action forced by the government. He quickly announced that keeping the peace and obeying the law are not the same, the people ahead do not simply relinquish their role because of the selfishness of the human nature. Those who are oppressed will seek to leave injustice behind. Martin Luther

Feeling the blast of a hose, watching dogs bite people, and routinely receiving insults all happen during the civil rights movement of 1960s. The film Glory Road shows the story of Texas Western University’s journey to the NCAA Championship with a lineup of five African Americans during the civil rights controversy of the 1960s. The championship lineup includes Harry Flournoy, a colored player from Gary Indiana who helps lead the team to a national title. During this controversy colored people choose between the ideas of Malcolm X and self defense and pride in yourself or Martin Luther King Jr and. civil disobedience to earn civil rights While Martin Luther King in “Letter to Birmingham City Jail” provides a good idea of using civil disobedience to earn civil rights, Malcolm X in “On African Self-Hatred” reflects the actions Harry Flournoy from Glory Road throughout the whole film.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King highlighted the effectiveness of peaceful resistance. When Parks refused to leave a bus seat upon demand of a white man, she was arrested for civil disobedience. Such a simple action triggered a 381-day boycott of public buses and furthered the growing movement. King later described this movement in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” where he explained the bombings that drew him to Birmingham, and how he would peacefully pursue a solution through large-scale civil disobedience. Both Parks and King peacefully revealed injustice to the public, and the violent responses from their opponents allowed the media to highlight the impacts of segregation, mainly poverty, physical threats, and verbal prejudice. Again, civil disobedience broadened social inequality, while also reducing the violence, poverty, and discrimination that African Americans experienced, increasing their involvement in modern government and the overall equality of the

In April 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was imprisoned for his participation in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. He was placed in jail for eleven days during which he composed the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which was in response to an open letter that declared his efforts for racial justice as being “unwise and untimely.” In this letter, he defended the tactic of nonviolent resistance to racism. The letter also stressed that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws as well as to take immediate action preferably than to wait endlessly for the courts to bring about justice. King’s understanding of justice is best summed up when he states that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In other words,

While in jail, King wrote the famous Letter From Birmingham Jail. In this letter he addressed the criticisms people had about the Civil Rights movement and what was taking place. He sheds light on the “nonviolent action” that created tension, but that needed to be done in order for change to happen. He stated that nonviolent action would create necessary tension that would make the oppressors notice. King explains that tension isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it doesn’t have to be violent; instead he believed that there was a kind of “nonviolent tension” necessary for the growth of the nation. There was already tension but it was not talked about or brought up. King explained that the way to bring this tension to the surface was through the

In order to achieve the Good Life, sometimes we have to fight for what we believe in. In those instances, we may be forced to commit actions that may not be looked upon lightly such as committing civil disobedience. In Sophocles 's “Antigone” and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, both, King and Antigone, were supporters and activist of civil disobedience. However, both, Antigone and Martin Luther King had different methods of conducting civil disobedience and viewed civil disobedience differently. Furthermore, Antigone and Martin Luther King were both steadfast in what they believed in and used civil disobedience to fight for their cause. Despite this similarity of theirs, they each had a different approach to carrying out civil disobedience. Antigone crossed the King of Thebes for the honor of her family and it was against the moral law, while King’s justification for his actions was to achieve racial equality for those that were oppressed at that time. On the other hand, Antigone was also brash and stubborn in the way she explained her reasoning for her civil disobedience, while on the other hand, Martin Luther King was very humble and subtle with his approach.

Peaceful resistance to laws positively impact a free society. As civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., famously declared, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” While civil disobedience is often frowned upon, especially when it is displayed in a violent form, the key to King’s philosophy was peaceful counteraction against inequality, which was often times solely based in protest and cannot be considered direct breaking of the law. While civil disobedience challenges the law of a free society, the impact of such movements have been key to the alteration of laws that have infringed upon citizen freedoms. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., based his principles of nonviolence on six principles that underlined the need for love

Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. both attempt to argue for the rights to disobey authority if there is social injustice. Thoreau analyzes the duty and responsibility of citizens to protest and take action against corrupt laws of the government. Likewise, King conveys to his audience that the laws of the government against blacks are intolerable and that civil disobedience should be used as an instrument of freedom. They both effectively illustrate their philosophy that civil disobedience is a necessity, and the similarities and differences of these two essays are portrayed through their occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, tone, appeals, and rhetorical strategies.

Peaceful resistance to laws positively impact a free society in numerous instances in abundance. One of the greatest inspirations for peaceful resistance and civil disobedience is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The civil rights activist, who held viewpoints contrary to those of Malcom X, another civil rights movement leader, created the mindset that colored people should be judged on upon the basis of their character rather than of outer aspects. Despite the constant oppositions, verbal and physical, this man believed that no response could have greater outcomes than that of violent outbursts. An unjust law compelled Rosa Parks to act and she refused to act in compliance with the law. Parks’ action was the first step in a massive, carefully planned and executed nonviolent campaign for justice — one which also involved the powerful economic tool of a boycott. And ultimately, the law was changed. America is not a perfectly just society, yet not all of our unjust laws invite or compel a response of civil disobedience. One

Martin Luther King Jr.. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested while participating in an anti-segregation march. While jailed, he responded to "A Call for Unity" by several white churches and their leaders. They criticized King Jr. for numerous reasons including interfering with the city of Birmingham as an "outsider," that it was inappropriate for him to stage public protest and that protestors should have tried negotiating and waiting until the country gradually moved towards civil rights because they were breaking laws in the process. He responded to them with several well-organized thoughts such as how injustice anywhere threatened justice everywhere, that the white justice system allowed no other way to be heard than to protest, and that oppressors were not just going to hand over rights especially when there were laws, just and unjust, that said otherwise. Through all of these hardships and cruel letters, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. persevered and continued on in his journey of peaceful protest until the day he died. This shows that even when attacked, peaceful protests can still work and that one did, giving rights to all Blacks. This may have never happened had people not protested the way that they

Protests and civil disobedience increase every year. Gandhi is also famous for having influenced many civil disobedience movements in the 20th century.

In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, civil disobedience is defined as “a public nonviolence and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies”. Martin Luther King sought to end the unjust law of segregation in a nonviolent campaign. He outlines the four basic steps: “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action” behind the beauty of a nonviolent campaign. King also described the differences between just and unjust laws. King says that we have a “moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”. While King was incarcerated in Birmingham he sent this letter to the Clergyman that believes King’s

In 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights movement, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was leading demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. When a court order was issued forbidding demonstrations, King, who advocated obedience to the law, decided for the first time to break an unjust law. On April 12, King was arrested for this violation and held for twenty-four hours without any way to communicate to the outside world not even with a lawyer which he had a right to. When he was finally allowed contact, he received a copy of the Birmingham Post Herald of April 13, on it held the statement from eight local clergymen criticizing the demonstrations and calling them “unwise and untimely” (para 1). Even though