Martin Luther King Jr. is a symbol
of peace, justice and nonviolence, but he is
often misquoted, misunderstood and invoked
for nefarious purposes that have nothing to
do with his legacy. While many like to speak
of King’s “dream” and his commitment to
peace, part of remembering him means
understanding his belief that society has a
responsibility to disobey unjust laws. And
right now in America, we have become the
land of unjust laws and policies — from
voter suppression to bans on teaching race
and racism.
In his “Letter
from Birmingham Jail,” King
said we have a duty to disobey unjust
laws. “I would be the first to advocate
obeying just laws. One has not only a
legal but a moral responsibility to obey
just laws,” he wrote. “Conversely, one has
a moral responsibility to disobey unjust
laws. I would agree with St. Augustine
that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’”
King was unwavering in advocating
for civil disobedience to break systems of
oppression — disobeying unjust laws in the
open, and with love.
What is an unjust law? According to
King, it’s one that degrades rather than
uplifts humanity. Jim Crow segregation
statutes were a prime example of unjust laws
because “segregation distorts the soul and
damages the personality,” as King noted. “It
gives the segregator a false sense of
superiority and the segregated a false sense
of inferiority.”
A law is also unjust if a numerical
majority or a power majority imposes it on a
minority yet the majority does not have to
follow the law. King used specific examples
to make his point.
Internationally, he pointed to
Germany, writing: “We should never forget
that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany
was ‘legal.’ ... It was ‘illegal’ to aid and
comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.”
And, of course, sitting in a
Birmingham jail cell, he spoke of how
Alabama’s segregation laws that prevented
Black citizens from voting were put in place
by an undemocratically elected state
Legislature (a power majority). He pointed
to the fact that not a single Black person
was registered to vote even in some
majority-Black counties.
While he
did not advocate lawbreaking, or as he
said “evading or defying the law” like the
“rabid segregationist,” King was
unwavering in advocating for civil
disobedience to break systems of
oppression — disobeying unjust laws in the
open, and with love. After all, he
believed that those who passively
accepted
evil without
protesting it are perpetuating it and
cooperating with it.
“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,” King insisted.
This is a side of him that has been
glossed over or even conveniently left out
of the conversation. Meanwhile, there are
people today who support unjust laws yet
invoke King’s name when it is convenient.
Supporting policies that directly oppose
King’s dream for America, they cherry-pick
his words without context to justify unjust
laws.
Nothing about King’s actions or
rhetoric — no matter how some may try to
twist them — indicates that he would be
satisfied with where America is on civil
rights today.
Sens.
Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin,
D-W.Va., claim to support voting rights
and to celebrate King’s
vision and honor his legacy of
freedom, justice and equality, yet they refuse to change the Senate
filibuster rule that
would allow for crucial voting rights
legislation to pass and preserve
multiracial democracy. Sinema and Manchin
exemplify the white moderate King
described, that “great stumbling block”
against Black freedom “who is more devoted
to ‘order’ than to justice” and believes
now is not a convenient time for freedom.
In a 1963
interview, King
cited the filibuster as
stalling the Civil Rights Act of 1964: “I
think the tragedy is that we have a
Congress with a Senate that has a minority
of misguided senators who will use the
filibuster to keep the majority of people
from even voting.”
That same year at the March on
Washington, King said: “I have a dream that
my four little children will one day live in
a nation where they will not be judged by
the color of their skin but by the content
of their character.”
GOP
lawmakers who justified, supported or
enabled the Jan. 6 insurrection and
appealed to white nationalists — such as Sen. Josh Hawley of
Missouri, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of
California and Sen. Ron Johnson of
Wisconsin — have quoted and twisted King’s
“I Have a Dream” speech to attack critical
race theory and deny the existence of
systemic racism.
Florida Gov.
Ron
DeSantis, a
Republican, name-dropped King last month
in announcing an anti-critical race theory
bill called the Stop Woke Act. The
legislation would allow private parties,
such as students, parents, employees and
businesses, to sue schools and workplaces
that teach critical race theory. “You
think about what MLK stood for,” DeSantis
said. “He said he didn’t want people
judged on the color of their skin but on
the content of their character.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp called
King “a transformational leader” and “a
true American hero” who recognized “great
injustice in this world” and took “the
necessary steps to right that wrong.” Yet
Kemp sat under a painting of a slave plantation as he
signed a voter suppression law making it a
crime to give food and water to
people waiting in line to vote.
In Texas
— where the Legislature removed King from the
state curriculum and ended the requirement
to teach that the Ku Klux Klan was morally
wrong — Sen. Ted Cruz praised
King’s fight against racial inequality and
injustice. This is
the same person who has thrown his
unwavering support behind Donald Trump, a
president who denigrated Black women, whose
administration operated migrant detention
centers that one member of Congress
compared to concentration camps and who
advocated for measures that contribute to
voter suppression.
Now is the time to remember that
King, though nonviolent, was not a pushover.
People in the U.S. are witnessing how the
future of the country’s multiracial
democracy is at stake because of unjust laws
that aim to further ostracize marginalized
voices. And we shouldn’t just stand aside
and watch it happen. We can use the power of
our vote and our voices to hold elected
officials accountable. Nothing about King’s
actions or rhetoric — no matter how some may
try to twist them — indicates that he would
be satisfied with where America is on civil
rights today.
This commentary is also posted on NBC.com