MLK ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963) addressed to Christian and Jewish clergy, Martin Luther King offers a defense of civil disobedience, both in this particular case and as a general policy. He has several goals: He wants to justify “non-violent direct action sitting.” For example, he wants to defend the moral right of black people to sit in places reserved for “Whites only" and refusing to leave until they are arrested. He offers an argument that against the principle (apparently defended by many members of the clergy) that “Outsiders do not have a right to participate in the political or moral life of a community.” King’s response: unjust laws are never purely local in their effects. For one thing, they indicate that the overarching system (e.g. federal law) has structural problems with it; these problems may well result in problems for many people. King’s essay also argues for a distinction between legality and morality. He notes that there are plenty of cases (e.g., Nazi Germany, Ancient Rome, Biblical stories, etc.) in which obeying a law could be immoral. He thinks that this can happen even in a democracy. That is, the mere fact that a majority has voted for a law does not mean that you are morally obliged to obey that law. BACKGROUND TO KING’S LETTER “History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture;