Lessons From King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail
This is a short essay I wrote for an English class back in 2016. This was the first assignment I actually enjoyed writing. The assignment was to identify three arguments King made in his letter to local clergy who had criticized him for 1. being an outsider, 2. breaking the law, and 3. being too extreme in his methods. King’s second argument is still the strongest to me, that man has a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws. We should all live by such a mantra.
Comment and let me know what you think.
The Miami Riots (1980); the L.A. Riots (1992); the Oscar Grant Riots (Oakland, CA, 2010); looting and rioting in Ferguson, MO (2014), and Baltimore, MD (2015): all of these bring to mind scenes of violent protests, something that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have decried emphatically. Dr. King’s message was one of peace and equality. He fought passionately for African Americans to follow his method of love and peaceful protest. In his letter from Birmingham Jail, King responds to a group of white southern clergymen who have criticized his peaceful actions as untimely, unlawful, and extreme. Dr. King defends himself with three very compelling points.
King’s first argument addresses the clergymen’s concern that he has no business protesting in Birmingham because he lives in Atlanta, GA. King states very simply that he is in Birmingham because injustice is in Birmingham. King (1963) argues that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”(para. 4) This argument is a strong one. How often does a court ruling in one state set a precedent that affects similar cases in other states? One recent example of this can be seen in the gay rights movement. Their plight even has similarities to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. They fight for justice and equality just as King and others did. How can a law that allows rights to one demographic but denies them to another be just?
King’s second argument addresses claims that his actions are unlawful. He argues this with a lengthy explanation of the difference of just laws and unjust laws. Just laws are laws that align themselves with morality; whereas unjust laws are out of line with morality and have no place in society. All segregation laws are immoral because they are degrading to the group they segregate. They are out of line with the core of the United States. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (Jefferson et al., 1776, para. 2) The key phrase, all men are created equal, is exactly what King and his associates were fighting for. They were not willing to obey any law that contradicts this supreme law of the land, nor should they have been required to.
King’s third argument addresses his being considered extreme for his actions. How can peaceful protests be considered extreme? King asserts that calling a protester extreme because his protests precipitate violence is akin to blaming a rape victim for precipitating rape simply for being a female, or blaming the food service industry for obesity. This line of thinking is clearly out of line. These clergymen blamed King and others because they were being unnecessarily assaulted by police officers. Ultimately King comes to terms with this accusation, recognizing that if Jesus and the apostle Paul were considered extremists for their cause then he can accept being considered an extremist for his.
King’s message of peace and equality still lives on today. His courageous actions and his foresight to recognize the need to remain peaceful, even when faced with the violent actions of the oppressors, led to a great undoing of injustice in the South and across this nation. Blacks still face some instances of injustice from time to time, as evidenced in the events that led to the aforementioned riots in Miami, L.A., Oakland, Ferguson, and Baltimore. Perhaps some of those protesters and future protesters should take a moment to rethink their strategies and realign themselves with the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.