King

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther pansy junior writes that in that location are just laws and raw laws. He argues this first from a religious point of view and then from a logical one. First, office argues that laws that create segregation are immoral in that they do not impart Gods love to every man equally.Furthermore, they imprecate on separation, the ultimate punishment God inflicts on man, as a method of punishing other men, regardless of whether they have sinned. Since the letter is write to his fellow clergymen, the moral disceptation about unjust laws is appropriate in the context. However, it is his logical diatribe against unjust laws that most wrap uply and eloquently makes the argument against the state of the South in 1963.From a religious standpoint, King defines an unjust law as one that conflicts with Gods laws (King, 1963). From a logical, non-religious standpoint, he argues that an unjust law is one which the majority inflicts upon the mi nority and does not reserve itself to. The basic concept means that if the majority makes a law formula that they may kill anyone of color, plainly the people of color cannot kill them or one another, then the law is un comelyly applied and therefore unjust.King argues that umpteen of these laws look much less vexing on the surface as they appear to have been placed on all people by all people, solely he reminds us that appearances can be deceiving. King points out that segregation laws adopted by the Alabama legislature had more or less no input from African-Americans citizens of Alabama because the state had so thoroughly mistreat the voting businesss act that there were counties in Alabama where the majority of the universe of discourse was African-American and not a single African-American was registered to vote there (King, 1963).King also points out that what is legal is not always what is right. For example, he cites the Hungarian Freedom fighters in World War II. By the rule of law, the sermon of Jews by Nazi Germany was legal, but it was unjust (King, 1963). It was only right, he says, for those with safe moral standing to aid and lend comfort to the Jews, despite the situation that it was illegal.In the same way, it was only right in Birmingham, 1963, for protestors to give aid to the African-Americans who were be unduly oppressed by their state and local governments. African-Americans had been granted the right to vote by an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, yet unjust laws like the grandfathers clause and poll taxes and literacy tests were put in place to prevent the fair execution of the law of the land. In short, Kings argument was that the law was in conflict with itself and needed to be revised.Kings letter befittingly described the events leading to the situation and other steps which had been taken to act to diversify the unjust laws, but argues that eventually it becomes necessary to take grade action to essence the opposi tions hand. The protests in Birmingham were make to force the city to recognize the unjust laws and to begin good faith negotiations to change them.King points out that there had been several attempts at negotiation previously and that promises made to the African-American community went unfulfilled. He argued that laws, especially when they are not uniformly applied, can also be unjust. For example, prior to Brown v. the Board of Education, rail segregation was legal so long as schools were separate but equal. King points out that everyone was aware that they were separate and not equal, but only the separate portion of the law was being applied.Finally, King makes it clear that civil disobedience is a valid option when the law is unfair. He argues that one can only be told to wait for change so long before it becomes clear that wait really means never (King, 1963). King calls righteous people to action, arguing that when the will of the people is to conk unjust laws then it will become reality. REFERENCESKing, Jr., Martin Luther. Letter from a Birmingham Jail. http//www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=401963. July 9, 2007.