Kings Letter From Birmingham Jail Analysis

Segregation is the act of separating. In this essay, King is writing to the clergymen from jail that segregation is an unjust law. He went on to explain the difference between just and unjust laws. A just law is a “man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God.” Simply put, a just law is a law that is universally practiced.

In his argument, he says that any law that restores and lighten are just laws, and anything that corrupts or are treats people without respect are immoral. After giving his argument he concludes that segregation is something morally wrong. He is giving all this argument because he is trying to tell authority that he is a good normal citizen. He wants and will follow the just laws, and he also thinks laws are something essential for a world to function. Although he still has already proven his point, he starts to get into the philosophical principle of breaking the laws.

This is because Danforth feels that if he is lenient with his decisions, it looks as though he is weak and being unfair to the rest who did not get postponed. Since Danforth has authority over the rest of the court, John Proctor is later executed due to Danforth signature. Additionally, he uses the number of cases he has had in court and the amount he has put in jail as a number to hold over peoples heads. The number Danforth claims is a point of trying to scare those who may being lying and show that Danforth is merciless. He tells the open court, “And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?”(81).

In the commencement of the story Mr.Chiu is a devoted law abiding citizen. He recognizes that the duty of law enforcement is to not only enforce the law for others but it is also to abide by the laws they are there to enforce. Furthermore, He also believes that the police force are harming the citizens by not obeying the law. “He[Mr. Chiu] has trusted that those with authority will operate morally and will honor, even revere, the truth, values he upholds as well.”

On April 12, 1963, eight clergymen wrote an open letter, “A Call for Unity”. In this published letter, the clergymen expressed their strong disapproval of the civil rights demonstrations taking place in Birmingham, Alabama. That same day, civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for protesting without a permit. In his short eleven-day jail sentence, Dr. King directly responded to the clergymen with a letter of his own. In his letter, Dr. King informed his readers about the protests in Birmingham.

- Detail the distinction between just and unjust laws. Why is it important Dr. King make this distinction? - One has a legal and moral responsibility to obey “just” laws because they are a “ man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.” Any “just” law uplifts human personality. One has a moral responsibility to disobey “unjust” laws because they are “ a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

Summary/Assessment: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which is an organization operating in every Southern state with its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He came to Birmingham, Alabama because injustice lies there and helped protest about it in a nonviolent demonstration against racial discrimination. The eight clergymen of the South did not approve of these demonstrations happening which caused Dr. King to be confined in Birmingham Jail cell, writing a letter to them men explaining on why he was in Birmingham and what his reasons were for these protests. He begins to talk about and explain the four basic steps that needed to be followed for any nonviolent campaign. He also gives the audience a better understanding by giving a visual glimpse of what the black community had to endure.

The specific example that H.L.A. Hart uses frequently in defense of his legal positivist position is one of a poorly run monarchy that places their morality into laws. The thing about what they were is doing is that their sense of morality gave an unfair advantage to the monarchy and people of a higher socioeconomic class and degraded the lower class and peasants which would have made up a large part of the population. Inserting their morality into the situation only served to make things worse in a moral sense and also affected people in a very real way. This isn’t to say that natural law is all bad because it is not, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used natural law in a way that served to drastically increase morality in the America in the 1960’s by using it to defy the laws of the time to worked to integrate African-American individuals into society in a way that was non-violent. The problem with natural law though is that it can be very easily corrupted if put into the hands of the wrong people.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” If Martin Luther King Jr. and countless others had not protested during the Civil Right movement there would still be segregation and inequality. Without a doubt, there are times when it is justifiable to break a law in a democratic society. If rights are being denied, if the majority feel it is an unjust law, or even if the minorities (being that they are experts on the subject) feel it is wrong as well. Despite the social contract, it’s a citizen’s responsibility to go against the government at times.

Despite these similarities, they also have major differences in their nature; since they have contrasting levels of devotion to Puritanism and to the moral principles they live by. Reverend Hale and John Proctor are both similar because they discover the malicious intentions of the accusations, and tries to avert further damage dealt by these false accusations. When John first hears about the trials, he doubts the legitimacy of the court proceedings. He even considers going to Salem to persuade the Deputy Governor from convicting innocent people. Although, he does not consider the trials to be a significant event, he eventually learns about the gravity of the situation.

To Americans and many others around the world, the U.S. is the face of what should be a “free society,” not including every society’s minor flaws. Maybe it’s because I’m barely entering the brink of my social awareness as a U.S. citizen or maybe is it more due to recent threats to our freedom as Americans, but now more than in the past decade or so, the media has brought the image of huge protests, riots, and demonstrations into the spotlight. And unfortunately, more often than not, many of these events result in violence, aggression, and opposition. Nonetheless, people’s intentions and visions of victory surely do not aim to end in chaos and harm to our societies.

By analyzing statements of Dr. King’s word, his words shows very powerful message across the nations because his strong words motivated people to choose right path and fight for their rights. He states that the person, who breaks laws through non-violence, shows the greatest respect for the laws. By his statement, I believed that Dr. King. trying to shows an individual who follows the rule of civil disobedience will greatly shows the respect for laws; even though an individual will punish by the worse consequences. A person who has to willing to accept the result from the direct actions, self-purification. Negotiation, than she /he will be loyal to the rules

On the other hand, King describes unjust law as the opposite, demoralizing to humanity, against moral law, and create a false sense of superiority and inferiority. King uses the denial of the black community to vote as an example, as it denied the control for blacks and was created as a way to have whites as the main voice in society. King says that unjust laws should be broken openly, lovingly, and accepting of the penalties that one would face. Breaking an unjust law was a demand for change and standing up for morality. King explains that this kind of civil disobedience was never new.

After doing peaceful demonstration, King was arrested. While Martin Luther king Jr was in Birmingham jail, he came across the clergymen statement calling his peaceful demonstration “unwise and untimely”. So he wrote the letter to the Clergymen explaining the reason why he was in Birmingham. He states that the reason he was in Birmingham because the injustice was here. Like Apostle Paul left his village in spread of gospel in the far corner of Rome, he also will do the same thing to spread the gospel of freedom beyond his own town and that’s the reason he was in Birmingham.

Prompt One: King was a civil rights activist who advocated for the abolishing of segregation laws in America. He described these laws as "unjust" and ungodly, so he claimed that his actions to dissolve these were "just. " King wants people to know that the segregation laws limited the happiness and God-given rights of the people that's why he defended his community. Kings says, "Laws are just when they protect people's lives."