Civil Disobedience “Unjust laws exist : shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once, Men, generally, unders such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. it makes it worse,”said Henry David Thoreau.Henry David Thoreau came up with the term “Civil Disobedience” in 1848 in his essay about his refusal as an abolitionist to pay the poll tax. Thoreau argued that citizens should break the law if it interferes with their moral beliefs.Thoreau is saying that you should protest by breaking the law but that you should shoulder the consequences of doing so. The idea is not merely for you to “get away with it” but to get the law changed for the better. Gandhi used nonviolent civil disobedience to protest for India's Independence struggle in England, it was called the famous Salt March against the British monopoly to salt. Martin Luther King Junior also used nonviolent civil disobedience to highlight racial injustice. Sometimes there are laws and regulations that go against a person’s core beliefs. if you refuse to follow that law or regulation because it goes against these beliefs, for the reason that human freedoms and values are more important than any law made by man, that is civil disobedience. It is a philosophy that some laws are just plain wrong, and it;s acceptable to disregard them for that reason.Thoreau believed that individuals could be free only if their actions were true to their own beliefs, with or without the support or approval of the community, or of friends and family. There are many examples throughout history that contemplates civil disobedience for the idea of justice, the righteous action, or law. Laws are supposed to be righteous and protective but what if a law is unfair and brutal. An historical example of civil disobedience would come from the old segregation laws which were common in the United States of America: Blacks were required by law to ride in the black of the bus, and even e give up their seat to a white person. To refuse to ride in the back, or to refuse to give up your seat, would be examples of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King Junior was iconic for his strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience, which he used to advance the civil rights of black Americans, who had been treats as second low class citizens for more than a century. Dr. King was influenced in his philosophy and theology of non-violent civil disobedience by Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. While many people were against Martin luther King Junior and his dream of securing civil rights for blacks, King responded with an analysis of the nature of non-violent political action. Like Thoreau, Martin Luther King Junior was persistent on the moral righteousness and duty of citizens to disobey unjust laws. Also, he affirmed the importance of accepting the penalty, which many activists know can be extremely stressful personally. Dr.King’s response was the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," published on April 16, 1963.“One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all." ... One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly... and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.” King distinguishes between two different kinds of laws; the unjust and the just. For an example, the unjust are the laws that not righteous, they are brutal like how blacks could not vote or become educated because of the color of their skin. King found that people had to stand up for these unjust laws because that’s what it had said in the Declaration of Independence.The quotation "...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...," the quotation bears a much closer resemblance to King’s comment in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail: "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." Martin Luther King Jr found himself ambushed at every turn of the civil movement, and not only by those who outright rejected the moral arguments of civil rights but also by those he considered moderate in the white community. In the following extract from his letter, he goes so far as to suggest that these moderates were in fact the root of the problem.”Over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.” … Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”King';s struggle and his legacy of civil disobedience are most often misunderstood because the moderates urged restraint and were the "allies" of the movement. When King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, he was given support by the government. The next year the Civil Rights Act in 1964 was passed into law and went some way to diffusing racial tensions in the U.S., though all of this became reality because, in no small measure, the alternative was unthinkable for those in power. One of the great people who influence Martin Luther King Junior was Mahatma Gandhi and his use of nonviolent civil disobedience in India. Ghandi once said, "nonviolence is a weapon of the strong." This means that nonviolence is a tactic best employed by protest and resistance movements that are in a position of strength. Martin Luther King Junior’s civil rights movement was very similar to Gandhi's independence movement, they were both a nonviolent civil disobedience act that proved strength from the more militant Black Nationalists. A major step for the fight for Indian Independence in England was fought by Gandhi, the famed Salt Marsh where Gandhi led tens of thousands of Indians on a 250- mile trek. The British "salt tax" and monopoly throughout colonial India is what the march was solely aimed at. Support for the Indian independence movement was strengthened when the brutal crackdown by British police on the nonviolent protesters achieved international media attention. Henry David Thoreau inspired both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior with his essay on Civil Disobedience. Individuals could resist immoral government action by simply refusing to cooperate was what Thoreau suggested in his essay.. Gandhi followed many of Thoreau’s thoughts in developing his concept of non-cooperation, or Truth Force. One of the most significant and tangible effects India has had on life in the United States was Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on the Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, who adapted Gandhi’s idea of civil disobedience to the civil rights movement in the United States. Martin Luther King always paid tribute to Gandhi as one of the most important sources of his own values. In 1959, Dr. King made a pilgrimage to India to honor Gandhi’s legacy. Civil Disobedience is what shapes up America into a better place that it is today. Without doing something about an unjust law, America today would still be a place where blacks are prejudiced upon. Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi made great brave drastic changes for the justice of all citizens. When faced with unjust laws, Thoreau proposed that people could “obey them, amend them, . . . or transgress them.” With respect to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Thoreau chose to transgress. Non-violent oppositions to brutal governments had a good track record in the late twentieth century. Many people such as ordinary or righteous people like King and Gandhi have proven Thoreau to be correct: “When all subjects have refused allegiance, and all officers have resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished.”