Belief Driven

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Recommended: Roles, impact and influence of Martin Luther King

While confined in the Birmingham City Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to his followers, more importantly the eight clergymen. Informing them what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to achieve was in the name of peace and would maintain his functions nonviolent for the safety of everyone. Henry David Thoreau wrote his letter describing the reasons why he did not believe in the government. He believed that it was unjust for him to pay taxes, to directly fund the war that the United States was in at the time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had much in common with Henry David Thoreau in the sense that men were fighting for equal rights and believed in justice for the people. Yet Dr. King and Mr. Thoreau differentiated from each other in rather simple ways, such as Dr. King was successful with what he intended on doing and Mr. Thoreau was not. In hindsight both men either successful or not, we know them to this day for what they tried doing to help the American people.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau both wrote documents stating their beliefs and reinforcement for their beliefs. Dr. King’s letter is known as the “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” and Henry David Thoreau letter is known as “Civil Disobedience”. Both pursued a nonviolent matter in the attempt to accomplish their initial goals. Having done so, the U.S. federal and state governments would not favor their actions; as a result both men were arrested for their beliefs and their reasoning for not trusting the U.S. government. In the same way that Henry David Thoreau was educated so was Dr. King; they both went off to college, pursuing the ability to have had a greater understanding of the society they lived in. Their similar beliefs consiste...

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...ice and equal rights for everyone. Though they fought for similar causes, they still were looked at differently being that Dr. King was successful and Mr. Thoreau was not. They lived into two different centuries and two complete different regions of the United States. Forever they have left their impression on American history; Dr. King’s birthday is now celebrated as a national holiday. With all the similarities accumulated, there will always be differences between these two brave men. Reason being is that they lived their own lives and fought and stood by their beliefs until the day they died.

Works Cited

King, Jr., Martin Luther. “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” We Are America, Ed, Anna Joy.
Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. 240-248
Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience.” A World of Ideas, Ed. Lee A. Jacobus.
Boston: Bedford 1st Martins, 2006. 137-157

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