Letter from Birmingham Jail Response Paper

Martin Luther king (1929-1968) was both a Baptist minister and civil rights activist that had a very important impact on race relationships in the United States in the 50’s and 60’s. Thanks to his activism he helped to end the legal segregation of African-American citizens in most of the areas of the country. He also created the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King received a lot of honors, including the Noble Peace Prize in 1964. The letter that the book talks about the response to one letter that Martin Luther King received in the Birmingham Jail. In that letter the Eight Alabama Clergymen talk about how Martin Luther King was an outsider that was causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. According to them the racism problem in America had to be solved in the courts and not in the streets. They didn’t agree with his demonstration that created that much tension in the society. To all this Kings responded that sometimes people shouldn’t follow laws that are not fair and not following them to make fair changes was good. He said: ``one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws’’. He also added that nobody living in America should be considered an outsider.
When he writes about his controversial demonstration he argues that any of his partners used violence to protest the injustices and that sometimes tension is necessary because it would force a big part of the society to face that issue. Some nonviolent tension is always necessary for progress. Without it, true civil rights could never be achieved. One example that can be compared to that situation of that is gay marriage in Spain.