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It is disturbing to know that fighting for our natural born rights could wind us up in jail. Martin Luther King Jr. experienced this very thing when he nonviolently protested against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Letter from Birmingham Jail was written while he was in jail and is a superbly intelligent, logical, and articulate argumentation about his actions and the injustice with which they were precipitated.
King uses the theme of law to support his points and emphasize the importance of the letter. King devotes a few paragraphs to first distinguish the difference between just and unjust laws. He says, any law that uplifts human personality is just, and that any law that degrades human personality is unjust (517). Clearly then segregation in any degree is unjust because King says, it distorts the soul and damages the personality (517).
He uses these statements to appeal morally to the clergymen. The Reverend King also gives many explanations about the timing of their protest. He argues that time is not the answer to problems but a neutral variable that when used effectively, yields solutions (520). With the Supreme Court ruling against segregation in public schools, the urgency to further desegregation was at hand. Another point that King addresses is the need to break laws. He is the first to admit that there is a legal and moral responsibility to obey laws, just laws.
King says, one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty (518). He adds that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law (518). Through these statements, King is conceding that he knows a law was broken, the reason he was arrested, and that he does not oppose that aspect of it. He respects the law, just laws, and he wants to let the clergymen know that he values laws as long as they are used in a moral way. The last point that King addresses is the behavior of the policemen at the protest. This argument works very well because a policeman s duty is to serve and protect the community.
He says, it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends but it is just as wrong to use moral means to preserve immoral ends (525). With their nonviolent actions towards the protestors, they preserved the immoral end of segregation and racial injustice. King and the protestors were arrested for parading without a permit, a valid charge, but one that denied the citizens the right of peaceful assembly and protest. The Reverend King begins his letter with the reality that he is in jail, re-emphasizing his respect for the law.
Throughout his letter, King uses laws, just and unjust, to validate his rational and moral arguments against segregation. King closes his letter with the ideas of peace and brotherhood: two ideas that when ingrained in the heart can never be abolished by any law.
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Research essay sample on Point That King Addresses Point That King Law
