In Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Martin Luther King Jr's, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, both the authors explore their opinions on disobeying government’s rules and standing up for one’s owns rights and going against injustice. Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," is written in the United States during the transcendentalism phase, around the 1837 and 1840's where most of the writers had a liberal viewpoint on topics such as women's rights and criticized the laws of government and industrialization. Most of Thoreau’s works, including “Civil Disobedience”, were inspired by the short amount of time he spent in jail. On the other hand, Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was written more than one hundred years later, in …show more content…
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right." (Jacobus, 306). He argues that it is up to each and every individual to stand up for their own rights and know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong. As said by Thoreau, by committing acts of civil disobedience or peaceful protests, citizens of the nations are able to have their voice to speak up against the wrongdoings of their own government. They bring attention to the more important issues at hand and allow opinions to be formed, and can thus spark change in society. It allows people to be more intellectual, rational, develop opinions on certain important and controversial topics, make them question about certain laws without just blindly following them, understand society as a whole, and altogether help the nation to progress and achieve greater heights of …show more content…
One most popular one is the Parkland shooting in Florida, issues about gun control, the most recent protests in Armenia where many protesters are forcing their ruling elite to step down from their power, and also many other controversial issues regarding the recent Trump era. Inspired by former historical events such as the Salt March, The Freedom March, etcetera, even in this day and age, people all around the world continue to struggle and fight for cases revolving around equality, liberation, racism, sexism etcetera and revolting against oppressive powers, in order to create a better society for all citizens to live
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. And "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau both portray the same idea but were told in but different ways. "Civil Disobedience" was written in the 1830's while "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was written about one hundred years later. Both letters illustrated civil disobedience in the same way by two different views. The two differ from each other due to the tone and occasion found.
Amity Lodevico ENG 1A Professor Clark 10 September, 2016 A strong country can only prevail when individuals have attained the ideals of justice and equality. However, throughout American history people have had to fight for their rights due to the injustices caused by the government. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. promotes the importance of justice and equality through responding to a letter from clergymen who wanted him to stop protesting against racial inequality. King’s letter builds upon his influences such as Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence,” through expressing discontentment with injustice and proclaiming away to combat it. The texts can also
Thoreau begins by stating that citizens have the right to rebel. He states, “All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse
Leading up to civil disobedience in Birmingham, as the last option, King states how he uses self-purification to assure every move he made was right. Like King, Thoreau’s definition of a just law is moral, and an unjust law affects one’s conscience. He believes, “If the injustice . . . is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Similarly to King, Thoreau believes if the government ever becomes corrupt, it is the people’s duty to correct the wrong.
Similar to Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr was an activist who wrote a famous letter titled, “A letter from Birmingham Jail”. The writings have similar aspects when it comes
1963 could be considered the peak of the civil rights movement- with protests in Birmingham, the March on Washington, and the surfacing of Martin Luther King Jr.'s ground-breaking pieces "I Have A Dream" and "Letter from Birmingham Jail," the demand for civil rights had become a genuine American crisis. Dr. King wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail" while he was in custody with the intention to share with fellow Americans his grievances and explain the absolute necessity for protests in Birmingham. Almost a century prior, in 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered his biting and passionate speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" on behalf of all the enslaved. Somewhat similar to Dr. King's letter, Douglass shares his own grievances regarding
Martin Luther King Jr once stated, “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” in his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963. He was invoking the principle of civil disobedience. He wasn't justifying breaking laws just because, but instead, meant that you break the law and accept your punishment, in hopes that people will come to see that the law is unethical. Civil disobedience plays an important role in how our society has been shaped up until this point.
Rachal LFBJ ABCBC In The Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr, the values of civil disobedience is presented through Logos and allusions. In the text it states, “In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But can this assertion be logically made?
Do you think it is fair to mistreat or not give the same rights to someone because of the color of their skin? In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Speech at the March on Washington” by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community during the 1960’s and about equality and the power of education. In order to achieve true freedom one must find a peaceful approach to find a solution. To being with, it is just to break an unjust law by protesting in a peaceful manner to conquer freedom. For example, in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on pages 325-326 in lines 233-242 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. states, “For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading
In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” and Henry David Thoreau essay “Civil Disobedience,” both share their opinions on social injustice and civil disobedience. They both believe that people can protest unfair and unjust laws imposed on them in a civil way. In addition, King and Thoreau are challenging the government with their essays, which they wrote after they got sent to jail. For protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama, King spent eleven days in jail; Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax. Both King and Thoreau’s essays present similar plans for a resolution.
In his letter from Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King mentioned the three pious Jewish youths, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, as an example of the civil disobedience for the in-just laws of Nebuchadnezzar. King states “there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake”. King believes that human history is full of numerous examples of breaking un-just laws as in case of the three young men’s story. They had been thrown in the blazed furnace because they did not obey the king’s order, and they didn’t worship the golden statue made by Nebuchadnezzar.
Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," is written in the United States during transcendentalism era which was around 1837 to the 1840's. But Martin Luther’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” was written over 100 years after “Civil Disobedience. They both focus on a different audience, Martin Luther wrote to the eight clergyman while Thoreau focuses
In Henry Thoreau's “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail'' they were both written for a purpose. In the writing of these, there were many similarities in the reason they were written, one is that they both share their opinions on social injustice and civil disobedience. The purpose of writing had some differences from each other.
It was not until the 1900s where Thoreau’s idea of civil disobedience and its normative applications of peaceful protest came alive, most notably by Gandhi and Martin Luther Kin. Today, we can see the widespread influence of Thoreau’s ideas on wide-ranging groups from the Black Lives Matter
In the “ Letter to Martin Luther King from a Group of Clergymen” Martin Luther King Jr. used rhetorical techniques such as logos and asking rhetorical questions to show his audience the value of civil disobedience. On page 7 Martin Luther King says “ Since we so diligently urge people to obey the supreme courts decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools it is rather strange and perodoxical to find us consciously breaking laws.” This is persuasive because it’s a fact, the truth. We break laws on a daily basis, minor ones, and know it but yet obeying the courts decision about segregation doesn’t phase us. This is giving a logic statement about obeying the courts decision.