Question

Read the excerpts from Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and answer the question.

[4] I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.

[5] I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

[6] We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that, if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.

In 3–5 complete sentences, thoroughly explain Dr. King's central idea in this section and what specific details develop it. Provide at least two specific examples from the text to support your analysis of the central idea and how it's developed.

Answer 1

Dr. King's central idea is the moral duty to oppose unjust laws. He develops this with his own arrest example and historical references, distinguishing legal action and moral righteousness.

Step-by-step explanation:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s central idea in the excerpts from "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is that there is a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. The specific details that develop this idea include King's own arrest for parading without a permit, which he argues was a misuse of legal power to maintain segregation (paragraph 4). He further elaborates that willingly accepting the penalty for breaking such laws can demonstrate the highest respect for law (paragraph 5), and uses historical references to underpin his argument, such as the legal activities of the Nazis and the illegal efforts of the Hungarian freedom fighters (paragraph 6). These examples illustrate the distinction between what is legal and what is moral, clearly supporting King's assertion that laws that contravene ethical principles, like segregation laws, must be challenged.