Paper Topic:

Thoreau and MLK conscience as a guide to obeying just laws and defying unjust ones. How close is mkls position to thoreaus civil disobedience?

p - MLK and Thoreau Martin Luther King , Jr . and Henry David Thoreau were two very different individuals that lived in two very different times , but each one of them contributed to history in substantial ways . In addition to their work in adding to progressive thought , each man left behind a document that expressed revolutionary ideas that should be followed by all people . For King , his literary moment in the sun happened amongst the worst of circumstances . He sat down in the city jail in Birmingham , Alabama to pen a brave work that

would become known as Letters from Birmingham Jail . For Thoreau , his piece was known as Civil Disobedience . The two works came about in response to different events , but both represented an idea that can still be studied today . Both took a significant , individual view on whether or not it was alright to use one 's conscience to disobey unjust laws . Both men stand by their position that following the law is only the right thing to do if the law is the right thing

In Letters from Birmingham Jail , Martin Luther King , Jr . is writing specifically to the leaders of the city of Birmingham . Those men had locked him up for leading a rally for Civil Rights , but King was not going to be silenced while sitting in jail . In fact , his voice rang loud and clear in his letter . King was not happy with the situation in the Deep South and particularly , in Birmingham . When the leaders of Birmingham heard that King was coming to town , they chastised King and the other outsiders ' for invading their space . In his letter from the jail , King writes , I am in Birmingham because injustice is here . I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states . I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham (King 1963 . To King , action had to be taken , even if that was illegal action . For him , it was much more important for a man to let his conscience guide his decisions about the law . After all , it was man 's responsibility to decide what law is just and what law is not just . In describing his reasoning for breaking some laws , while obeying other laws , King does not waver . He clearly indicates that a man must let his conscience lead the way when he writes , One may well ask "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others " The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws : there are just laws and there are unjust laws . I would agree with St . Augustine that , `An unjust law is no law at all (King 1963 . King 's position on the issue is one that may have been lambasted by the leaders of that time , but it holds up in history 's eyes . To him , laws were only to be followed if they had been written in a way that was right...

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