Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” In this quote, he explained that authority gains power or “strength” as a result of people being silent. Without people speaking up, the authority will continue with no opposition. Throughout history, America has not been a stranger to tyrannical leaders or governments who abuse power. To directly oppose these governments and take away their authority, prominent leaders have used civil disobedience, or the refusal to comply to unjust powers, and spoke out against the injustices. Among these leaders were Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence that declared America free and laid down basic rights for all citizens, including the right to rebellion; Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail, which justified the right to protest when he himself was thrown into prison for protesting, and Henry David …show more content…
King’s statement further exemplifies how civil disobedience or protesting is is the right thing to do in the face of oppression, by separating the idea of civil disobedience from anarchy. He explains how someone can still recognize the law, but in order to abolish injustice, may have to break it. Bringing up the “penalty of prision”, King also illustrates how people, when disobeying the government, must accept consequences, despite it being within their right to protest, and must make sacrifices in order to gain justice. If one does not speak up though, unwilling to commit, than the injustices will continue. Martin Luther King Jr., in Letter From a Birmingham Jail, proved that he was carrying out the American right to challenge unjustness, and was not just breaking the law, explaining that accepting consequences is all part of civil disobedience needed to keep a community