Dr. Martin Luther King: Nonviolent Direct Action

King believed that nonviolent direct action was the best, purest means to achieve justice. This takes place when a group peacefully draws public attention to a social issue. At the core of Dr. King’s fight for civil rights was love for his enemy, so he patiently suffered abuse at the hands of his oppressors without lashing back with any form of violent action. He proved that nonviolent, direct action is the most favorable course to social and political change. While this is most easily applied to politics, it is also applicable in many other aspects of social life. For example, it can be effective in interpersonal relationships, religious reformation, the feminist movement, cultural relativism movements, and environmental campaigns. Dr. King …show more content…
I believe that a law is unjust when it infringes upon the freedom and human rights of individuals, or when it is created by the powerful in order to exploit and abuse the weak. One current U.S. law that I consider unjust is the defamation law. While this law differs among states, in general it allows people to sue individuals who have damaged their reputations, whether by spoken word, published writing, or internet posts. This law infringes upon the first amendment right to freedom of speech and gives the rich and powerful a perfect opportunity to exploit weaker people. Other state specific laws that I consider unjust are those prohibiting abortion. As King says, “A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that… had no part in enacting or devising the law.” I believe that this quote applies to the case of abortion because it is primarily older, male politicians who have the power to make abortion illegal. Because they are laws that place restrictions on the bodies of women and only women, and women are extremely underrepresented in the creation of them, these laws are by definition …show more content…
I believe that King was correct in calling tension a beneficial force. He was referring to the type of tension that is necessary to inspire significant change: this type of tension creates friction with the status quo by bringing the reality of injustice into the light. It means confronting not only the oppressor, but also the “innocent” bystander who has done nothing for the oppressed but encourage them to have patience. In the case of the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the alternatives to causing tension were passive acceptance and apathy. Dr. King believed that human beings are morally obligated to take action against unjust laws and to challenge the status quo when it is immoral. Throughout history, there have been many examples of times when this type of tension was necessary and effective in promoting social change in this country; if people did not constantly fight against laws that conflicted with universal moral code, Americans could not honestly call themselves