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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING'S LEGACY and HIS

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL

Between 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed by the U.S. Congress, and 1967, African-Americans achieved many things related to social and political rights; some were made possible by Supreme Court decisions, boycotts and non-violent demonstrations, while other came about due to the increased number of black voters via the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The civil rights movement had also gained strength from the support of influential whites who believed that the cause of civil rights was just and fair. A good number of these white supporters also admired Dr. Martin Luther King, due to consistently advocating the doctrine of non-violence in the pursuit of his objectives for his people. Dr. King and his associates were deeply committed to this ideal of non-violence, one which can easily be seen in his letter from Birmingham Jail, "now considered a classic of world literature" and written as a response to "eight white clergymen who had denounced Dr. King's non-violent protests" which demanded an end to desegregation and called for injustice against African-Americans to cease immediately. As a result, Dr. King was put in jail where he composed his letter, "a modern manifesto of nonviolent resistance out of the teachings of Jesus and Gandhi" (Martin Luther King's Letter," Internet).

The main focus of Dr. King's letter from Birmingham Jail is on the question "What is the difference between just and unjust laws?" As King puts it, "How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God," while "an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law" ("Letter," Internet). What King is attempting to say is that a just law is based on good and proper human morals which are shared by the majority of citizens, in this case, those that live in the United

States, yet they are also based on the laws of God as maintained in the Holy Bible which almost always supersede moral laws designed by man. King then proceeds to compare just and unjust laws by referring to St. Thomas Aquinas who declared that an "unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law" or those created by God. "Any law that uplifts human personality is just," while "any law that degrades human personality is unjust" ("Letter," Internet).