In his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," King addresses this subject directly. After explaining the tenets of civil disobedience, and asserting the principle that obedience to unjust laws was the duty of moral people, King answers this counter-argument in two ways. First, he argues that it is in fact the segregationists who are violating the law, and that the atmosphere that tolerates abuse and discrimination toward African-Americans is more like anarchy that any situation created by civil rights protesters. If this is true, then violation of segregation laws is in fact lawful in the eyes of God and, in a perfect world, man:
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust. and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
In other words, King and the Birmingham protesters were promoting just laws by violating unjust laws. In this way, he recast the segregationists as anarchists and civil rights workers as the truly law-abiding citizens. Pointing out that the actions of Hitler and the Communists were "legal" in their respective societies, he argues that advocates for religious freedom, Socrates, the early Christians, and even the Patriots who participated in the Boston Tea Party were practitioners of civil disobedience.
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