To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just.
Read the excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”Of course, 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 uses this allusion to
Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation.
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
Read the excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern.How does King rebut his critics’ claim?
I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
Read the excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. How does King support this claim?
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