Preview

Comparing Civil Disobedience 'And Letter From Birmingham Jail'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
593 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparing Civil Disobedience 'And Letter From Birmingham Jail'
Civil Disobedience
McKenzie Peterson

“Civil Disobedience” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” both want to share their thoughts and what they want to see the United States to change. They express their thought in different ways but they both get their word out the same way. They both want to fight for what they believe is right and their hope is others will fight with them.

"Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?" Martin Luther King Jr.'s son asked his father this because as a young boy he realized that people were treated differently. Using his son as an example for his speech to people will really get the public's' hearts to break and feel horrible for what this young boy realized at the age of five. “The answer lies
…show more content…
This quote came from the “Civil Disobedience” text and once again they both use the point of people having to obey the unjust laws or do they stand up to them and get them changed. Then he blames the government and the men who agree to have these unjust laws taking place.

“For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest. “ This was stated in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” which was stating that it wasn't fair that he had to be arrested for not having the parking permit. “I have paid no poll tax for six years.I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated my as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. “ This was stated in “Civil Disobedience” stating that he went to jail too because of some foolish thing he has done. Both of these texts want to see the United States change in order to have the country run smoothly and will treat everyone with respect and have laws that are not

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Both passages “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “Resistance to Civil government” have the same general purpose which was the idea of Civil disobedience, not agreeing with the law because it violates one’s morality or inner conscience belief. In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King explains his reasoning for why he retaliated the law and the idea of protesting without violence. Henry David Theoreau recognizes the unjust ways of the government and the issues of slavery. The tone that Theoreau uses seems to be more aggravated and anger driven than that of King, who expresses the issues using a less harsh tone and not as many witty comments. In King’s passage, his tone is more deep and personal, speaking on a level representing the African American community and the hardships that they go through. In Theoreau’s passage, he uses a less personal approach and uses more factual based things and the use of grim irony explaining that what is being done is the opposite of what America was founded on, he goes on to say “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward” This is similar to King’s quote “The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all.”. King also explains his reasoning for his actions, for the revolutions and rebellion for the sake of the rights that all men are created equal and should be treated that way in America, because that is what is stated in the constitution and what the Christian faith…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin King and Henry Thoreau both write persuasive expositions that oppose majority ideals and justify their own causes. While this similarity is clear, the two essays, "Letters from Birmingham Jail" by King and "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau, do have their fair share of differences. Primarily in the causes themselves, as King persuades white, southern clergy men that segregation is an evil, unjust law that should be defeated through the agitation of direct protesting, and Thoreau, writing to a more broad, non addressed audience, and focusing more on the government itself, contends that at its present state, with the war with Mexico and the institution of slavery, that one should do as he does and refuse to pay government taxes that support such evil practices or "traditions." While both Thoreau and King prevail in establishing a firm impression for what they strongly believe in, they each succeed in their persuasive efforts through different means. Chiefly, in the way that King draws emotional appeal with the usage of a burning passion and devotion, and Thoreau, while still making it evident that he is devoted in what he believes in, draws more emotional appeal through being more distressed and concerned than naively hopeful and optimistic. However, similarities remain to be as numerous as differences as both Thoreau and King bring credibility or ethical appeal to their assays essentially with allusions to Christ and the Bible.…

    • 969 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    3 sections: Section 1 (paragraphs 1-14); Section 2 (para. 15-30); Section 3 (para. 31-47), so search for the best…

    • 886 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr.’s ¨Letter From a Birmingham Jail¨ is all about letting people know how the minorities of that time felt and putting the reader in their shoes. He wrote about how some of the laws in that time were hypocritical or only applied to one group of people. He explains how these laws aren’t fair and promote discrimination. Dr. King then goes on to explain the differences between just and unjust laws in several different ways.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Spring of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led about a thousand African-Americans through non-violent protests in the business district in Birmingham. Unfortunately, he and other top activists were thrown into jail by Birmingham police in retaliation and were treated under harsh conditions, as did all African-Americans. On the day of his arrest, the Birmingham, Alabama newspaper published The Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen called King’s activities “unwise and untimely,” calling for the community to renounce protest tactics that caused unrest in the community, to do so in court and “not in the streets.” King wrote back from jail arguing each point the clergymen wrote in their “public statement”. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, King writes point by point his reasons for coming to Birmingham and the actions he had committed and why he wishes to continue his fight for equality. King successfully employed the use of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos by arguing back on legal, historical, and political grounds.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr. also appeals to the readers' pathos throughout his letter as an attempt to convince them about the immoral nature of segregation. MLK uses examples of segregation in society and how it negatively affects the people who are subjected to injustice. His story about the girl who can't go to Funtown because it is closed to colored children closes with the line, "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?" invokes a great deal of sadness from the reader. (p265 ¶14) The reader can't help but pity the poor little…

    • 668 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The late Dr. Martin L. King life span development and personality began long before his birth. His father Martin Luther Sr. parents were poor sharecroppers’. Born in 1899 the 19th day of December in Stockbridge, Georgia. King witness actual cruelty of racism in the south. He was victimized and beaten by a white man in his early teenage years, also observe a white crowd hang a black man. Nevertheless his family continues to believe in nonviolenceduring a time when racial prejudice and racial injustice existence. When his mother was dying, King curse and hated white people, but his mother disagreed. “Hattred makes nottin but more hatred… don’t do it.” Jackson. C (nd).…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King wrote the letter on the 16th of April in 1963. He was responding to his fellow clergymen after they called him unwise and untimely. King was arrested for his civil disobedience in the protests and marches that he led. Martin Luther King's audience in the letter were the clergymen who are men of religion. Therefore King alludes to religious figures in order to appeal to the clergymen. He speaks in a respectful tone so they believe that he is a civil man and does not mean to offend them. In response to the clergymen's first claim that King is a an extremist, he uses allusions that appeal to the clergymen as well as anaphora and a rhetorical question. He refutes the claim that he is a lawbreaker by allding to religious figures and human rights. The clergymen also claim that King's actions are untimely. Martin Luther King responds to this with charged words and anaphora that are meant to refute their claim.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Individuals of good conscience should actively oppose unjust government policies through nonviolent resistance, such as refusal to pay taxes. If an individual felt that a law was unjust, he/she should then break it. According to Henry David Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience, the United States government back in the time of slavery, and the era of the Mexican War, was corrupt, weak, and abused its powers. Thoreau had strong feelings toward the abolition of slavery, and he also felt that the Mexican War was an unjust conflict. He believed that individuals should stand up and take action against the group that promotes their own selfish interests at the expense of morality, ethics, and individual rights; otherwise known as the government.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. are two American men who were key leaders during very controversial periods in U.S. history, and they were instrumental in movements that forever changed American society. Although their generations, cultures, backgrounds, and motives were quite different, their cause was relatively the same. It was a cause that stood against injustice, oppression, and sought the freedom of all men. Their beliefs and struggles were evident in their writings. Two of the most famous writings in particular are "Declaration of Independence" and "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Both writings are very effective and successful in reaching out to their intended audience. However, "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is more effective in communicating its purpose to its audience. This was done in a time when black men and women were systematically and violently denied a platform from which they could publicly voice their issues to the nation.…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout history there is no shortage of injustice. Humans often subjugate one in other without reason other than to raise themselves up. The South in 1963 was no exception. Dr. King’s letter is the prime example of being the bigger person. His maturity, patience, and suave is…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Martin Luther King Jr.'s essay “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he makes the claim that; “It is a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give who their unjust posture, but…groups tend to be more immoral than individuals,” (paragraph 12). This means that those who come from privileged groups tend not to give up their privileges. Which is completely true, hence is why I qualify with his statement.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Almost sixty years ago from today, while incarcerated in Birmingham City Jail, the famous Martin Luther King Jr. composed a letter intended for a group of clergymen in the area. The lengthy letter, widely known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, was written in response to a brief, but rather bold criticism of King and his fellow civil rights activists. Although the uninformed clergymen had good intentions of “keeping the peace,” King sought to shed light on the superficial critique of the civil rights movement. His letter is filled with deeply justified refutations of the clergymen’s claims, yet one profound instance of his strong argument concisely targets the issue at hand. MLKJ perceptively states “it is an historical fact that privileged…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When an individual believes a law to be unjust, the act of nonviolent disobedience of that law is a means of overturning it. The First Amendment assures our right to do so. The accident of fate that placed our birth into this nation of privilege makes it our moral obligation. The physical and intellectual energy of countless dissenters before us has ensured our bubble of advantage. Strategic, peaceful…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Civil Disobedience

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Movements around the globe have stemmed from peaceful beginnings, and in the United States alone, many prominent peaceful movements have brought about some of the most prominent reforms put forth by the government. Being that no real results can be expected from mere picketing and passive proclamations from a megaphone, these demonstrations often break the law in some way, explaining where the label of disobedience comes from. Civil disobedience is an increasing practice worldwide, and it is proven to be exceptionally effective when put to the test against oppressive regimes, unjust laws, and stoic governments. It has been practiced by some of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States such…

    • 1706 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays