There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.

\- [“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”](http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html), Martin Luther King, Jr.

When I was in eleventh grade, AP History fell the same period as jazz band. So though I play jazz trumpet fairly well, my American history knowledge is woefully incomplete. In the years since, I’ve tried to piece things together on my own. But until today, I really knew MLK’s writing only through various heard snippets of his “I Have a Dream” speech.

This morning, however, I read through his ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’. If you haven’t read the piece in its entirety yourself, take ten minutes on this holiday day to do so. It’s a great window into King’s mind, an excellent snapshot of America at the time, and a clear reminder of why he very much deserves a national holiday in his honor.