Aside from man fighting for freedom or beliefs, the question is whether one person can make a difference using words instead of wars. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and "Resistance to Civil Government" by Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau, it has been proved that words can work in society but in the right manner. Injustice is a very important thing to King and Thoreau when it comes to the people and themselves. Though the stories are both similar, they have their differences in how they changed the world. They changed the world by sharing their beliefs to people to stand up for what they believe into the government. The similarities between civil and political change and the accepentance of the consequences that were bestowed against both opinions will be mentioned. Also, the differences of the end to segregation and promoting to stop slavery between the stories will be seen. .
Change for the people is what makes the world keep going. King saw inequality for the African Americans and wanted a change for his people. Thoreau saw intolerance and wanted a change in the American government. Both of these intelligent men wrote their ideas about what they saw and felt could be done about injustice. King said, "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 is saying that judging innocent people is injustice. Thoreau said, "Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?. Must the citizen ever for a moment, or the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then. I think we should be men first, and subject afterward." Thoreau is questioning democracy and why the government makes the rules. They are both saying not to give into the government if you don't agree with the rule. That is the similar civil and political change they made.