Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a gift to move crowds like few men have ever possessed. King led thousands of people in peaceful protests against the appalling view on slavery. Eight Alabama clergymen wrote to King while he was in jail. This letter contained their discontent with King's demonstrations. To this letter, King replies with an intelligent and persuasive response. He addresses all the claims made against him and denounces the concerns of the clergymen.

In Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Burmingham Jail", King writes about many key and influential ideas that have been quoted in the past and are still used in the present. One of these ideas that has been quoted for nearly 50 years is the idea that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". This idea is both compelling and accurate. At this point in time, African-Americans were considered citizens of the United States of America. However, they were treated with extreme prejudice and injustice. In this quote, King is saying that because injustice has been shown to African-Americans, the door has been opened to injustice elsewhere. Adjustments had been made to the standards people had for justice and whites became accustomed to treating African-Americans with injustice. The dictionary definition of justice is fairness, equity, and impartiality. When African-Americans were not treated with fairness, equity, and impartiality, America had lost it's sense of integrity in the justice system which resulted in a threat to justice everywhere. If one group of people could be discriminated, why couldn't another?

An example of King's idea is Adolf Hitler and Germany's discrimination of the Jews. It began with a dislike and prejudice against the jews by taking away their rights. This injustice was much like the treatment of blacks in America. The Jews were limited as to what they could say, where they could go, and what they could do. This initial injustice opened the door to an injustice nobody could see coming. The death of six million jews.

Even a slight unfairness or inequity is a slippery slope. Once one people group is intentionally and consitently treated unjustly, it threatens the constitutional rights of everybody.

http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00117/civilrights.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justice
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/injustice
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143