Civil Disobedience and Black Lives Matter

Dear friends,

It is my understanding that despite the present state of our country in terms of a contagious illness, our brothers are sisters are still being oppressed. In an America built upon the struggle of African Americans, it is no surprise that the unjustness of our nation has not faltered in the face of unprecedented times. The murder of our brother George Floyd under the knee of not just a white officer, but the knee of white supremacy has struck a chord among the public. People have taken to the streets out of civil disobedience to protest this injustice, yet they are met with brutality from policemen and criticism from many white moderates. I stand with these protestors in solidarity, and I will make my case in patient and reasonable terms as to why.

As I wrote many years ago in my "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," I believe that there are just and unjust laws present in America, and we have a duty to overcome them. By my terms, "an unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself" (King), and it is clear that the police brutality that the law allows to exist is plain and simply unjust. George Floyd is not the only black man to be killed by police brutality, there are an infinite amount of others: Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery, Daunte Wright...

In my day, "the police exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators" and handled themselves "rather 'nonviolently' in public" to save face and "preserve the evil system of segregation" (King). However, the violence endured by protestors by the hands of police is a public revelation of their unjustness. Not only do they prove their violent urges towards black people in wildly unwarranted situations like with George, but they reinforce it in their rubber bullets and tear gas aimed at nonviolent protestors.

These unjust laws must be fought against, and I applaud the civil disobedience that many protestors are exhibiting. This nonviolent direct action is necessary in creating a tension, one that these protestors are creating as I write this, in order to"bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive" (King). Protestors, continue your nonviolent action and show the government, the racists, the white moderates that the tension existing for the past 200 years in the country will be brought to a boil and will not stay simmering. Break these unjust laws "openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty" for anyone "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" (King).

I pray that the darkness of racial injustice is overcome in this day.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,

Martin Luther King, Jr.

*Author consulted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" for this post