RT Article
T1 Just Laws, Unjust Laws, and Theo-Moral Responsibility in Traditional and Contemporary Civil Rights Activism
JF Journal of religious ethics
VO 46
IS 4
SP 683
OP 717
A1 Mingo, Annemarie
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2018
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1585100080
AB In his 1963 response to an open letter from eight white religious leaders chastising his involvement in Birmingham, Martin Luther King, Jr. explained that civil rights activists' blatant breaking of some laws while obeying others was the result of two types of laws: just laws and unjust laws. Civil rights activists believed they had a legal responsibility to obey just laws and a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Today, new civil rights struggles continue to challenge unjust laws that shred the fabric of democracy that America espouses. Drawing upon both the Civil Rights Movement and the contemporary Movement for Black Lives, this article argues that unjust laws and practices must be broken and challenged before a just society is established. It identifies four ethical strategies for social activism: collective work and responsibility, strategic timing and economic disconnection, political mobilization, and faithful perseverance.
K1 Black Lives Matter
K1 Civil Rights Movement
K1 Activism
K1 Justice
K1 Moral Responsibility
K1 Resistance
DO 10.1111/jore.12241