Topic > A Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King

This “correct behavior,” which originates in the Latin etymology of morality, King describes as the decree of a just society and the law of God. Based on his quote : “But now I must state that it is equally wrong, or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends” (King 439), the activist suggests that the human aspect of morality is more vulnerable. The creation of law comes from what man interprets through God as proper or improper. These interpretations, King alludes, are subject to error and constitute the reason for the existence of unjust law. Likewise, King finds an opportune moment in his unjust imprisonment and the civil rights movement to define morality. Furthermore, King's explanation of unjust law and its relationship to morality broadens his definition of the word. Constructing a counterargument, King considers the skeptics' position as they express "much anxiety about our willingness to break laws" (430). However, King describes this anxiety as futile since a government's creation of unjust laws allows them to be broken as proof of mankind's moral alignment. Likewise, the vulnerability of morality manifests itself as unjust law, the result of a fallible interpretation of morality and when the law “is just in appearance and unjust in its application” (King 431). Men and women, spectators of the world, must challenge these laws to eliminate morality as