Civil Disobedience By Martin Luther King - 1077 Words

In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, civil disobedience is defined as â€Å"a public nonviolence and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies†. Martin Luther King sought to end the unjust law of segregation in a nonviolent campaign. He outlines the four basic steps: â€Å"collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action† behind the beauty of a nonviolent campaign. King also described the differences between just and unjust laws. King says that we have a â€Å"moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws†. While King was incarcerated in Birmingham he sent this letter to the Clergyman that believes King’s†¦show more content†¦This is absolutely absurd. How it is that one city has more brutality towards the African American culture than any city in the whole state. The next step on the King’s theory is to n egotiate. In the letter from Birmingham jail, king wanted to negotiate with the clergyman about the equal rights for the African Americans. Kings wanted to negotiate with the government about the desegregation of African Americans, because they were still getting the house bombed and they were segregated from school and other public places. After the civil the segregation was prohibited from the United States. King wanted to negotiate with the government. But he was held to broken promises. In Antigone, Antigone skipped this step and didn’t negotiate with the Creon about his brother’s burial, â€Å"I’ll bury my brother-your brother too† (line 49). She stated this to her Ismene that if she is not going to help then she is going to do the deed alone. Antigone took the next step self-purification, and made the decision of burying her brother. If she would have tried to negotiate with the Creon, maybe it would be different outcome. The third step in Kings no n-violent civil disobedience is self-purification, which means getting rid of all the pollution out of your body. In â€Å"letter from Birmingham jail† king wanted every African American to take their anger out of their minds and be part of nonviolent campaign. In Antigone,