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Civil Disobedience and Letter From a Birmingham Jail

            Unjust laws and unjust governmental systems are a common theme in Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Martin Luther King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail. In Civil Disobedience Thoreau clarifies that following an unjust law is a violation of ones conscience. Also, if a person is faced with an unjust law they should not only disobey it but also strive to somehow change it. In King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail he outlines the reasons for the need of the demonstrations in Birmingham. King notes that civil disobedience is necessary for the case of the city of Birmingham. .
             The most obvious influence on King from Thoreau's writing is King's unwillingness to stand back and watch injustice. Action must be taken and the person must be willing to face the full consequences. King believes, "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."(1233) While Thoreau states, " if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law."(1222) This is a direct correlation between these two works. .
             King evolves Thoreau's idea on not waiting until a person maintains a large majority to change a law. Instead of acting immediately King gathers a large quantity of people to put his point across to the city leaders of Birmingham. An onslaught of activism by a large number of people causes the city to stop ignoring the issue of injustice and address it. Thoreau did not believe heavily in using the governmental system to change the laws. However, King knew that this was the only way to make true permanent progress. So King forced the system to see the plight and take actions to correct it. .
             Thoreau's essay was written while two wars raged in America; the Mexican American war and the war of slavery. African Americans were struggling to make their largest leap of freedom in America. Thoreau served a very brief jail sentence for refusing to pay his taxes, which he believed was an injustice.


Essays Related to Civil Disobedience and Letter From a Birmingham Jail

1. Civil Disobedience

... to the question, what is a just and unjust cause, or even more imperative, what is a just and unjust law? In Martin Luther's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", he talks about how the African-American people were being treated unfairly by an unjust law. Luther also feels that because of this unjust law he has the right to act upon it with civil disobedience. Luther is not the only person ... who feels that sometimes there must be a call for civil disobedience. One of the ... most influential figures in American thought and literature ... ...

  • Word Count: 1738
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Letter From Birmingham Jail

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" Written documents reflect what has happened. Actions that may have happened in history, give historical documents a reason to be. Although actions may not have occurred to cause documents to be written, they may have been just to prevent them from happening. Throughout American history, it is clear that many individuals have fought for justice in a society that has often ... of human rights, the very popular Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose main philosophy on civil disobedience revolved around nonviolence, wrote a "Letter From Birmingham Jail" to eight clergymen...

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3. Letter from Birmingham Jail

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" Written documents reflect what has happened. Actions that may have happened in history, give historical documents a reason to be. Although actions may not have occurred to cause documents to be written, they may have been just to prevent them from happening. Throughout American history, it is clear that many individuals have fought for justice in a society that has often ... of human rights, the very popular Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose main philosophy on civil disobedience revolved around nonviolence, wrote a "Letter From Birmingham Jail" to eight clergymen...

  • Word Count: 831
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Comparison between Civil Disobedience and A Letter From Birm

... suit some years later, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a compelling essay titled, " Letter From Birmingham Jail," covering his feelings towards unjust laws and what we should do concerning them. Using both emotional and logical appeals, both men deliver arguments that bring men to their feet. However, Civil Disobedience had more staying power then Letter From Birmingham Jail. In fact, King admitted that he was inspired by Thoreau's work. Furthermore, both essays addressed ... also add points to his score for logical appeals. Meanwhile, MLK was also alluding to the Bible, and to Socrates t...

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5. Civil Disobedience

... make a difference. The very popular Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose main philosophy on civil disobedience revolved around nonviolence, wrote a "Letter From Birmingham Jail" to eight clergymen informing them of the situation in Birmingham, Alabama, in April of 1963. Henry David Thoreau, a 19th century individualist, wrote an essay called "Civil Disobedience" in which he explained his reasons for not paying taxes to a government that was ... was directing his thoughts to the eight white clergymen. He started a paragraph referring to the impact of segregation as "stinging darts." The foll...

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  • Grade Level: High School

6. Civil Obedience vs. Civil Disobedience

... a difference. The very popular Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose main philosophy on civil disobedience revolved around nonviolence, wrote a "Letter From Birmingham Jail" to eight clergymen informing them of the situation in Birmingham, Alabama, in April of 1963. Henry David Thoreau, a 19th century individualist, wrote an essay called "Civil Disobedience" in which he explained his reasons for not paying taxes to a government that was ... directing his thoughts to the eight white clergymen. He started a paragraph referring to the impact of segregation as "stinging darts." The following s...

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  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Annotation - Letter from Birmingham Jail

... political or economic ills. It is often immediate and confrontational. Direct action can include such activities as strikes, workplace occupations, sit-ins, revolutionary/guerrilla warfare, demonstrations, etc. Direct actions are sometimes a form of civil disobedience and can include illegal activities. Sit-In The sit-in campaigns of 1960 and the ensuing creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating ... Committee (SNCC) demonstrated the potential strength of grass-roots militancy and enabled a new generation of young people to gain confidence in their own ... refers to are Southern wh...

  • Word Count: 6336
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8. Letter From Birmingham Jail and Civil Disobedience

... a lecture, wasn't widely published until 1863, after his death and during the height of the civil war. It wasn't Thoreau's Civil Disobedience or the abolitionists influenced by it that ended slavery. It was a civil war that killed at least 618,000 Americans. On the contrary, civil rights movement, justified in King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, secured the repeal of segregation laws and unfair voting restrictions. It secured them through nonviolent protest ... : lunch counter sit-ins, marches, and boycotts "precisely the civil disobedience advocated by Thoreau, and later King. More rece...

  • Word Count: 630
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9. Influences of Civil Disobedience

... people. Thoreau, the Transcendentalist author of Civil Disobedience, published in 1849 influenced a number of people that shared his views on social justice. Two of which were Howard Zinn, a Historian of Social Movements who wrote "An Introduction To Thoreau's Works," in 2003 and Martin Luther King Jr., who published, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in 1963, which focussed on Birmingham, Alabama's unfair segregation laws. Both written ... works reflected the powerful ideas of Henry David Thoreau's, Civil Disobedience. Thoreau, King, and Zinn all addressed the political ideas of protecti...

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