Which brings us to the question, what is a just and unjust cause, or even more imperative, what is a just and unjust law? ... Luther speaks of just and unjust laws, more specifically the unjustness of segregation in Birmingham. ... Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. ... Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all.""... A law that is set up that says two groups of people must be segregated is an unjust law which makes it no law at all. ...

• Word Count: 1738
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

To me this social law is unjust. ... Another example of unjust laws that exist within our society today deal with minors under the age of 18. ... While everyone is told of how we should live and laws are in affect to protect us, minors have more laws that have to follow, thus making many of them unjust by King's definition and mine. ... These laws can be unjust by King's standard that says "a law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law." ... King was right in fighting to bridge the...

• Word Count: 1278
• Approx Pages: 5

"(20) Thoreau influenced those African Americans to speak their minds about the unjust laws, gaining the governments attention. ... "(320) Thoreau addresses the idea of defying the government when the law is unjust. ... Thoreau's acts of defiance against unjust laws he didn't believe in caused Martin Luther King and his fellow Negro community to do the same. ... Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws A just law is a man-made code that is out of Harmony with the moral law."(5) Like Martin Luther King, Howard Zinn also sided with Thoreau in b...

• Word Count: 1318
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography

Socrates believes that any person who would disobey these laws creates a deliberate attempt to weaken the laws, as well as the society that imposed them. ... In his essay "Civil Disobedience", Henry David Thoreau writes, "Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?" ... The purpose of civil disobedience, in other words, is to call attention to an unjust law, and crusade until it could be amended. ... Furthermore, people who participate in acts of civil disobedience who are ...

• Word Count: 1527
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He defines a just law as " a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of God" (Jacobus 187). A law that is mandated on the minority, but the majority is not required to follow, is considered unjust (Jacobus 187). The unjust laws, such as the segregation statutes, infringed on humans rights, and therefore slows the progress of society and African Americans. ... King saw the discriminatory and unjust treatment of African Americans. ... These unjust laws further enhance the malicious treatment of African Americans. ...

• Word Count: 1281
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Carried by the motto "that government is best which governs least,"[Thoreau] Henry David Thoreau, defines "Civil Disobedience" as "a pacific act of willful resistance, achieved by not obeying laws he considers to be unmoral and unjust [Thoreau].... In this cases, when power is unbalanced, and the society is unstable "civil disobedience" is one of the few strategies left for citizens that brings immediate attention to any unjust or unmoral law. ... To achieve such an arrangement of life, government, with its unjust, arbitrary, repressive measures, must be done away wi...

• Word Count: 1587
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Both authors also argue that everyone has an obligation to act based solely on his/her own will, without regard to societal rules and laws, even going so far as to act in opposition to those laws that are felt to be unjust. Emerson claims that "No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. ... Rosa Parks was arrested and jailed for violating race laws, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross and left to die. While Thoreau does offer the caveat that you should oppose only those laws that are deemed by you to be unjust, that judgement could not be consiste...

• Word Count: 1633
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"Any Negro who displayed a spark of manhood, a southern law enforcement officer could say "Nigger, watch your step or I"ll put you in jail"." ... (King p. 35) Black and White alike lived in a state of fear, a fear that caused silence to the unjust way Black Americans were treated. ... Direct action is a response to what Martin Luther King calls unjust laws, he explains the difference between just laws and unjust laws as well as gives a specific definition of the two. "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obe...

• Word Count: 1704
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"Any Negro who displayed a spark of manhood, a southern law enforcement officer could say "Nigger, watch your step or I"ll put you in jail"." ... (King p. 35) Black and White alike lived in a state of fear, a fear that caused silence to the unjust way Black Americans were treated. ... Direct action is a response to what Martin Luther King calls unjust laws, he explains the difference between just laws and unjust laws as well as gives a specific definition of the two. "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obe...

• Word Count: 1711
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"Any Negro who displayed a spark of manhood, a southern law enforcement officer could say "Nigger, watch your step or I"ll put you in jail"." ... (King p. 35) Black and White alike lived in a state of fear, a fear that caused silence to the unjust way Black Americans were treated. ... Direct action is a response to what Martin Luther King calls unjust laws, he explains the difference between just laws and unjust laws as well as gives a specific definition of the two. "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obe...

• Word Count: 1704
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The commitment to his inner law led him to breaking the laws of the land. ... All of these men broke the unjust laws, but they did so "openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty" (King 1854). ... King knew that love and justice were lacking in laws of man. ... Harry Emerson Fosdick meant when he said "inner law is written on the heart, man-made laws assure justice, but a higher law produces love". ... Inner law or natural law would deem numerous aspects and actions of the above quotation to be unjust. ...

• Word Count: 1390
• Approx Pages: 6

Finally, King addresses the fact that he was urging people to break "unjust" laws. King says "One has not only the legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws.... Augustine "an unjust law is no law at all" he consciously uses this quote so to reference a source that would be of respect to the Clergymen but also to help support the fact that he believes that the manner in which he is breaking the laws is to better the community. King is considered to be a nuisance due to the fact that he was breaking ...

• Word Count: 1506
• Approx Pages: 6

King stated that any law that degrades human personality is unjust and that any law that uplifts human personality is just (Jacobus, 159). ... So, does this mean that the First Amendment is unjust to Dr. ... I believe if looked at it this way, he would believe that it is unjust. ... The first amendment states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grieva...

• Word Count: 1416
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Civil Disobedience is the refusal to obey the laws which are seen as unjust in an effort to bring about a chnage in governmental policy. ... It was against the law, so she was arrested. ... In 1957 and 1960, two federal laws called the Civil Rights Act were passed. They reaffirmed equality of the races and made many racist state laws known as Jim Crow Laws. ... Civil Disobedience Civil Disobedience like stated before is the refusal to obey a law or follow a policy believed to be unjust. ...

• Word Count: 1562
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

In December 1956, the United States of America Supreme Court proclaimed that Alabama's segregation laws were unconstitutional. ... King preached that there were just laws and unjust laws and they had the right to go against the unjust laws. ... While in jail, King wrote his acclaimed essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail", urging the white population of America to put a stop to segregation, asking them to see how truly unjust the punishment of African-Americans was and that African-Americans were people who only wanted to gain their full civil rights one hundred years after they became citiz...

• Word Count: 2369
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

During the late 19th century, local governments passed segregation laws that were known as the Jim Crow laws. ... Severe and unjust laws were created to instil segregation especially within the South. These laws limited the civil liberties of the people that were affected by them mainly African-Americans, these laws also enlisted them to be inferior (Hall,2005). ... This movement practiced the laws of civil disobedience which showed how people were willing to risk any form of danger and even go to jail to overcome this chaotic period of time. ... The formal end of segregation in the USA was se...

• Word Count: 1999
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

" Questioning the sacred law of the land, was a powerful move on his part, because it caused all Americans to think about what the words in the Constitution meant. ... Augustine that ;an unjust law is no law at all.'" ...

• Word Count: 1251
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The way she was living her life, she became used to obeying the "blacks only" and "whites only" rules of the segregation laws. Although she obeyed them, she found them quite humiliating and very unjust. ... "In the past, it was a law in the American south that African-American riders had to sit at the back of the bus. ... They all organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted until the bus segregation laws were changed." ... However, there was more work that needed to be done because this law was limited. ...

• Word Count: 1727
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Rosa Parks, through protest and a single act of bravery has become the mother of the civil rights movement, changing the segregation laws forever. ... In Rosa Parks act of defiance, she proved that it is possible for a person to make a stand against unjust laws and make a difference. ...

• Word Count: 1562
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Although discrimination in employment based on sex is prohibited by law nothing was done when it occurred. ... If after a thorough examination of the facts of the effects of an unjust or immoral law, a community failed in negotiation with the majority, King advocated mass direct action to engage public opinion, especially the opinion of the majority. ...

• Word Count: 1946
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate