"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" — Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 1963
King's distinction between just and unjust laws was intended primarily to answer critics who:
- Acheck_circle
Accused civil rights demonstrators of acting illegally and stirring up trouble
- B
Argued that segregation was already unconstitutional
- C
Demanded violent revolution against the federal government
- D
Claimed nonviolent protest was ineffective at attracting media attention
Explanation
The Letter responded to eight white Birmingham clergy who had urged Black activists to wait and use the courts; King defended civil disobedience by distinguishing morally binding just laws from unjust laws.