Justice vs. Injustice

Justice vs. Injustice

In The Trial and Death of Socrates, by Plato, Socrates argues that it is important to obey the laws of the people. However, Martin Luther King, Jr had completely opposite views on this argument in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. After reading both sides, I have decided that Martin Luther King Jr is right. I feel that people should break the laws at times, but only if these laws are immoral in some way and promote injustice.
Martin Luther King Jr was fighting for one of the biggest causes in American history; integration, freedom, and equality for Negroes. In his letter, he talks a lot about justice and injustice, along with moral and immoral laws to the clergymen. The important part of all of this was the fact that he was leading a nonviolent campaign. “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue” (King 2,3). Martin Luther King Jr did agree with Socrates in the fact that it was “necessary to create a tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood” (King 3), meaning that he felt it was a necessity to push the way he did, stir up some ruckus, and get the attention of those that mattered most to bring their attention to the issue at hand. Freedom had to be demanded by the oppressed, it was not voluntarily given by the oppressor.
“You must either persuade it or obey its orders, and endure in silence whatever it instructs you to endure, whether it blows or bonds, and if it leads you into war to be wounded or killed, you must obey” (Plato 51). In “Crito,” Socrates explains that it is important to always obey the higher authority, and you must endure all they instruct you to do in silence. However, Martin Luther King Jr had a voice that had to be heard. “‘We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists,...