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Cover of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" / "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr.

"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" / "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Martin Luther King Jr. · 1963

Written in the margins of a newspaper in a Birmingham jail. The most important political essay in American history after the Declaration. "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

Essays · the Pro canon

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.