Thoreau relates to King’s arrest because he supported refusing unjust laws and denounced slavery an act of cruelty. People began to question whether or not violence would spark a change within a very racist state and hopefully end segregation and Jim Crow laws. He was then arrested unjustly and many African Americans saw that many white people will treat the issue of segregation with violence. was protesting peacefully in the Confederate state of Alabama, which at the time was segregated and racism was an often occurrence daily. The main focus of both essays if the superiority white people feel over people of color which results in black people being slaves and viewed as uneducated people that need to be civilized. A common point made in both essays but mainly Thoreau’s is that just because a law was created by the government, does not mean it is fair and both essayists fight man versus society and want to break the ethnocentric idea that white people are superior over African Americans. Each writer has two different viewpoints as Thoreau is fighting slavery and King is fighting segregation and Jim Crow laws. King is the key leader of the Civil Rights Movement during the mid 20th century as he was arrested for protesting in Birmingham, Alabama as they told him not do, violating King’s constitutional right of freedom of speech.
Thoreau is a white man in the 1800s who is an abolitionist and refuses to pay taxes to the government as it is used for slavery. The United States government is mentioned in both writings as King and Thoreau are convicted of crimes. Both writers illustrate their visions of society and face hardships trying to accomplish their goals of justice due to the government, prejudice, and lack of individual rights. Thoreau is fighting for justice within the government as King fights for African Americans as they face racism on daily basis no matter where they live.
A common theme found in both essays is that if laws are unjust then people have the right to disobey them as they are against people’s values and what they believe in or stand for. Thoreau and King both talk about fighting even if it is against the law. In Civil Disobedience by Henry Thoreau and Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr., both men are discussing issues that affect their moral views and see what society is doing as extremely wrong.
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