Just And Unjust Laws: Dr. Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King is considered to be one of the most influential civil rights leader in the United States of America during the 1900’s. He had began his career as an ordained minister who worked primarily in the south to increase the numbers of African Americans registered voters in the southern communities but had later on spent the remainder of his life working towards the civil movements for the African American community. His goal was to put an end to the discriminatory unjust laws which denied civil rights to the African community. According to Dr. King “A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God” and “A unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law” (). Laws are, indeed, man-made

King provided his definitions of just and unjust laws and I, too, can agree with his views and definition as my understanding and definitions are similar to Dr. King’s. According to me, a just should be one that is ethical, fair, unbiased, and one that honors each individual who resides within the law’s jurisdictions without any discrimination or racism; a law that is respected and honored by the nation as a whole and not in parts. Dr. King was an individual who raised his voice against the unjust laws which were out of harmony with the moral laws. Amongst these unjust laws, which were against the African community and were being obeyed and honored by citizens across the American nation, was the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow Laws had prevented the African community to sit at the same level or even within an appropriately close proximity to an individual of another race (“Jim Crow…”). Unjust laws, such as this one, clearly show the racism and discrimination against the African community as they was given a different standard and a different level of treatment than the rest of the non-African communities across the nation. This was an unjust law, in both the light of Dr. King’s and mine definition of a “just law”, because it was unethical, immoral, and did not honor or protect all individuals residing across the American nation. Unfortunately, even today in our modern society unjust laws are being made across

Each individual’s beliefs, ethics, and their background plays a role in their definitions of what a just and unjust law ought to be. According to Dr. King, a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral laws or the laws of God, meanwhile, an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. According to me, a just should be one that is ethical, fair, unbiased, and one that honors each individual who resides within the law’s jurisdictions without any discrimination or racism; a law that is respected and honored by the nation as a whole and not in parts. Within our American history, unjust laws such as the Jim Crow Laws existed which were discriminatory and racist towards the African community as the African were a different standard and a different level of treatment than the rest of the non-African communities across the nation. In our modern society and within our nation, unjust laws such as the right to bear arms and capital punishment exist. The second amendment, the right to bear arms being an unjust law as it’s failing to protect and secure the individuals across the nation. Capital punishment, on the other hand, is also an unjust law as it’s a law which authorizes the murder of another human legally; it’s inhumane. Across the globe, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, the male