By Gary Topping–
In April, 1963, Dr. King was one of the leaders of demonstrations in Birmingham against Alabama’s segregation laws. Although a judge had issued an order prohibiting such demonstrations, King and his colleagues persisted and were roughly thrown in jail. While he was incarcerated, King read a newspaper article by eight white Alabama clergymen called, “A Call for Unity,” in which they called for a return to civil order and cessation of protests. King felt moved to respond, and the resulting “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which he began writing on the margins of that very newspaper, has become a classic, not only of the civil rights movement, but of American literature. Although King was a Baptist, the logical underpinning of the letter was an unjust law theory developed by Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
“An unjust law is no law at all,” King quotes St. Augustine. So what is an unjust law? For that he cites St. Thomas Aquinas, to the effect that “An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law.” St. Thomas’s actual language is “Laws framed by men are either just or unjust. If they are just, they have to power of binding in conscience, from the eternal law whence they are derived.” Conversely, if they are unjust, they are not binding. Segregation laws, which are demeaning to human nature, are thus unjust laws and ought to be disobeyed and repealed.
To be sure, King also cites the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and Protestant theologians Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich. But a large part of the letter’s persuasiveness and lasting value is its solid grounding in Catholic social thought.
Gary- I had never really thought of this famous letter as based on Catholic social teaching, so I learned something interesting today. This is proof that you can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks. Thanks, Mike O’Brien.