Martin Luther King Jr

A detailed Summary of Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to jail on April 16, 1963. During this short time in prison he wrote a lengthy letter in response to a public letter from a group of eight clergymen who opposed the non-violent demonstrations that King had lead. The letter, more commonly known as the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" basically consisted of King's arguments, answers, and reasons to the many issues going on in the 60's. In this essay I'm going to fairly summarize one of King's main arguments, present a possible counter-argument, and then finish off with a discussion of both the arguments.

In "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King Jr. brings up the issue of laws. He claims "that there are two types of laws: just and unjust" (King 320) and that one has a moral responsibility to both obey just laws and disobey unjust laws. He agrees with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." (King 320) He uses many definitions of the two types of laws to show that just laws are moral and unjust laws are immoral. Some of the main definitions of the two laws he uses are "a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God" (King 320) and that an "u

Both of these arguments are very well backed with examples and evidence. So the matter at hand is whether there is two different types of laws or if there is only one type of laws. The ones who believe that there exist two types of laws, just and unjust, are most likely more individualistic than the ones who believe that all laws are equally just. There are a few flaws with each argument. In the argument that a there are two types of laws, one flaw is that it depends on which side of the law one is standing to decide whether the law is just or unjust. If a law doesn't bother someone then that someone is going to categorize that law as being just, but on the other hand, if a law does bother someone then that someone is going to categorize that law as being unjust. One flaw in the argument that all laws are equally just is that there might be a few unjust laws which sneak their way into the system without anybody noticing, thus when one categorizes all laws as being just and fair to all there might be few laws in the system which are unjust and unfair to all. So it really comes down to where you stand in society. If you are one to be more individualistic, then of course y

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Approximate Word count = 799
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People

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Martin Luther King Jr

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