
"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.