Letter To Birmingham Jail Analysis

Howard Zinn, American historian, playwright, and social activist, once said, “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.” He was talking about civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey certain laws or government demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy, characterized by the employment of such nonviolent techniques as boycotting, picketing, and nonpayment of taxes according to dictionary.com. Two authors write about civil disobedience in their pieces. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a civil rights activist and minister, according to biography.com, wrote Letter to Birmingham Jail. He writes this letter to fellow clergymen while he is in jail about why he is sent to the jail. Henry David Thoreau, who was a philosopher, journalist, and poet, wrote his essay, Civil Disobedience. Thoreau writes this while in jail because he refuses to pay taxes and accepts that he will go to jail for it. At times, civil disobedience is indeed appropriate and justified, given the right circumstances based on morality. Thoreau writes in his essay Civil Disobedience that “The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally
liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” He is saying that the government only has control because people let it have control. Without the people, the government would be powerless. King writes in his letter, Letter to Birmingham Palace, “I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother.” This goes back to Thoreau’s theory that government only has control when people let it have control. King is saying that people were succumbing to desegregation because the law says it is so. Things like this happen today in society as well such as with the Dakota Pipeline Protest. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a pipeline that is more than 70% completed. It is a 3.7 billion dollar project that would transport more than 370 thousand barrels of oil per day across four states and link to other pipes. Native Americans and many others are against the continuation of the project because it is seen as an environmental and cultural threat to the native’s homeland. NBC News says, “They say an oil spill would permanently contaminate the reservation's water supply and that construction of the pipeline would destroy sacred sites where many of their ancestors are buried.” Time Magazine says, “Protesters have set up teepee and tent camps on land owned by Energy Transfer Partners to slow the progress of construction and have threatened to block the highway.” They are showing civil disobedience for a good cause with morality. When people go against the government, which only has power because people give it power, the government tries to shove society’s face into the dirt, but with civil disobedience, sometimes this does not work. King says in his letter, Letter to Birmingham Palace, “But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action.” Civil disobedience is a form of nonviolent protesting. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most thought of people when it comes to civil disobedience. He writes this calm and collected letter while in jail to his clergymen on how tired he is of the treatment that his race is receiving, but not even once in his letter does he show any sign of violence in his words. He remains calm and collected throughout his letter. As does Thoreau in his essay. Thoreau does admit his annoyance to his relative that pays his taxes for him, but that is the extent of his slight aggravation. He says, “When I came out of prison for some one interfered, and paid that tax-I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene the town, and State, and country greater than any that mere time could effect.” Thoreau speaks not of anger, but of understanding throughout his whole essay. What is morality?
Morality, according to Merriam-Webster, is, “beliefs about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior.” When showing civil disobedience, one may use morality to justify why whatever is done, happens. King uses morality to justify his being thrown in jail by telling his clergymen that it is because he was protesting the unfair treatment of African Americans not just in Birmingham, but all over the nation. Thoreau uses morality in his civil disobedience by saying it was done out of his morals of believing that the poll tax for war was wrong. Both of these authors were okay with the fact that the outcome might not be what they wanted, but they were not doing anything
illegal. Voltaire, a French enlightenment writer once said, “It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.” This is true in the case of civil disobedience. A person may be right by moral standards but not lawful standards, and it is indeed dangerous. It always has been and always will be. Thoreau wrote his essay Civil Disobedience in 1849. King wrote his letter Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963. There are peaceful protests involving civil disobedience that are happening today including the Dakota Pipeline Protest. Civil Disobedience is a peaceful way to protest what a person believes is wrong based on morality, and it is justified and appropriate no matter the circumstance.