Instead, King said that it was based in a belief in
law and also in a belief in the necessity to obey the law.
However, when a particular law was grossly unjust, that unjust
law itself endangered society's respect for law in general. If
the unjust law could not be changed through normal legal
channels, deliberate breaking of that specific law might be
justified. Because the person engaging in civil disobedience did
believe in the value of law, he would break the unjust law
openly, and he would willingly accept the consequences for
breaking it. He would participate in law-breaking and accept its
penalty as a means of drawing the attention of the community to
the immorality of that specific law.
Largely inspired by the successful Montgomery bus boycott,
mass protests and other direct action techniques began
to spread rapidly throughout the South and even into
the North. King was concerned that those using the
technique should fully understand its meaning and value.
Otherwise, he feared that it might be used carelessly and thereby
distort its moral and redemptive quality.
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