Laws are made to protect people and to make society run more smoothly. However, no matter how effective a law is at the time it is enacted that is not associated with the quality of the law later on in time and as society changes. Many laws passed have had to be modified or amended, replaced by a completely new law, or removed all together to fit the ever changing views and beliefs of people and society.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in response to another letter “A Call for unity,” written by eight White clergymen from Birmingham. That letter told of their thoughts about “outsiders” taking “direct action” in their town. In his letter, Martin Luther King Jr. talks about how some laws are unjust and need not to be broken but destroyed. At that time many people were blinded by prejudice over segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. was completely correct. Laws are made to cover a broad array of situations with only one solution, simply because it’s easy. Laws cannot be written in sufficient detail to cover every possible circumstance. In this instance the laws only had to appease the White majority or those with the power to vote.
If when a law is enacted only a limited number of views are present then the law should not be allowed to be ratified. Laws such as those that prevented Blacks from having basic rights should include the thoughts and wishes of those affected. The only exception might be where those affected pose a continuous danger to society such as habitual violent criminals. After all it’s not right to decide what an individual or group can or cannot do without sufficient reasoning. Skin color and heritage alone are not sufficient reasoning.
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