Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter speaks on just and unjust laws.?

Question

He advocates obeying some laws while dis-obeying others. Is this an ethical stand? Explain your answer.






We're having a little debate in my ethics class.. and I would just like to know others' views

Answer 1

Thomas Jefferson and the other writers of the Declaration (he didn't write it alone - there was an entire committee comprised of John Adams, Ben Franklin and others), advocated disobeying some laws (like not paying the English taxes). They said those laws were unjust.

The argument, like Dr. King's, is that unjust laws are not valid. It is an ethical stand, in my opinion, but it is still technically illegal.

Answer 2

It's his letter from a Birmingham Jail. He chose to come and support the movement there and was arrested for his efforts. I think this effort was over Jim Crow laws that dictated that bascially blacks could not vote. Dr. King and his folks came to town to help those black voters vote and were set upon and arrested. The local black ministers wanted Dr. King to justify his being arrested and being put in jail and he wisely answered that every man has the responsibility to break an unjust law. The moral of the story is quite simple. Morality supercedes legality. You really should read about what he wrote and what he said. He was absolutely brilliant. He came under threat of death to peacefully object to the treatments of blacks. The law was illegal. When those blacks that could come to vote got there, the polls would close so that they couldn't vote. Dr. King came, much as what is going on in Jena right now, and brought attention to the situation so that the people there would have to answer to the world for their behavior. Is this not a peaceful way to bring about change?
I think the march I'm talking about was to Selma but the sentiment and the rest of the facts are correct. The only way you stop small town politics is to bring attention to it. Otherwise it will just continue on. Prejudice is terrible as is the hate that goes along with it but to have laws that endorse it-those laws must be challenged. . .

Answer 3

you must stand for something or you will fall for anything. the "law" used to be that blacks had to sit in the back of the bus right? was this a law worth disobeying? ABSOLUTELY! that law itself was unethical and unjust. unjust laws are just that, unjust, so we as a people and as a community at times must go against the grain in order to change those unjust laws. if no one ever protested against unjust laws for the betterment of mankind then we would all still be in the back of a bus, wearing stars on our sleeves, and standing in line waiting to drink out of "white only" faucets and being afraid to read. you understand what I'm saying!