The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, "It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen." Throughout American history there have been good, well intentioned people, that have not been perceived as good citizens because they broke the law for what they believed was a just cause. For example, Henry David Thoreau was one of these people. Thoreau, the Transcendentalist author of Civil Disobedience, published in 1849 influenced a number of people that shared his views on social justice. Two of which were Howard Zinn, a Historian of Social Movements who wrote "An Introduction To Thoreau's Works," in 2003 and Martin Luther King Jr., who published, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in 1963, which focussed on Birmingham, Alabama's unfair segregation laws. Both written works reflected the powerful ideas of Henry David Thoreau's, Civil Disobedience. Thoreau, King, and Zinn all addressed the political ideas of protecting the civil rights of an individual from the injustices of one's government and laws. The ideas of the three men include it is the right of the people to alter the government, that citizens should have a large say in the government and its laws, and citizens should follow their own morals and preserve their moral inclination.
Henry David Thoreau, Howard Zinn, and Martin Luther King all supported the idea of citizens having a strong voice in government. Thoreau clearly stated the majority in power are not always serving a just and fair government when he wrote, "After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically strongest."(317) Thoreau's idea was that without the citizens, the government is weak and persuaded fellow citizens to make sure their voice was heard to the government.