“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”, this is a quote from the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Equal. This is the key word in this quote; this is the foundation of the United States of America. In the 1960’s many of the white folks, especially in the Southern states seem to have forgotten what the term “equal” meant. They treated the African Americans like animals. They saw them as meaningless organisms, not even human beings and that their only purpose in this world was to serve the white men. Thankfully, someone had enough courage to stand up for the African Americans and take the physical, verbal, and emotional abuse to fight for their freedom once more, and his name was Martin Luther King, Jr. King writes a letter titled, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"; in this he helps both his audience, the white clergymen, and the rest of the segregated United States understand how these unjust laws are restricting African Americans from their constitutional and God-given rights. He also empathizes the feelings of exhaustion, anger, and hatred that the African Americans feel towards the federal government, and more specifically, the white clergymen who are taking these rights away from them.

As King stated, "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" (3). Also, in the same sense he gives a definition of just and unjust laws. He says, "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law" (3). Agreeing with King's earlier statement, we all have that moral conscience that knows right from wrong and when to stand up for what is right, so from an individual or group standpoint it is "okay" to disobey unjust laws. However, you