Martin Luther King Unjust Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his work in desegregation and the end of of the most well known racial equality activists ever, and he lived during a period of time that had many unjust laws that created many problems for African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. agreed with St. Augustine that a law that is unjust is actually not a law after all. Martin Luther King Jr.’s belief in this idea was seen in his letter from a Birmingham Jail when he says, “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Martin Luther King Jr. mentioned multiple times in his letter that these unjust laws were extremely degrading, and denied African Americans basic human …show more content…
When the Mytileneans revolted, Cleon decided to make an example of them to showcase Athens’ power and authority. He believed this would remind the Greek world of the power that Athens has, and that they can do whatever they please, just or unjust. Cleon’s suggestion was that any man that was of age to join the military should be killed, while all the rest of the men and women to be enslaved. Fortunately for Athens, another Athenian by the name of Diodotus exclaimed that this was not a good decision. He believed that “you would have to be simple-minded to believe that people can be deterred, by force of law or by anything else that is frightening, from doing what human nature is earnestly bent on doing” (Thucydides, p.73). Diodotus believes that no matter what the penalty is, if a single person or group of people is set on doing something, they will do it. He is suggesting to Cleon and Athens that the Mytileneans would risk possible death from disobeying unjust laws. This agrees to Martin Luther King Jr.’s idea that it is morally acceptable for someone to disobey unjust laws when these laws are detrimental to someone’s given