A Just Crown

              When King writes, “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality,” he illustrates the traveling of law (Letter From Birmingham Jail).  Law has the power to adjust and alter life.  King believes that an unjust law “degrades,” while a just law “uplifts” (LFBJ).  To degrade is to treat someone with contempt and disrespect; the unjust law reduces someone to a lower rank.  In many cases, reducing them to a sub-human form.  This degradation illustrates the profound nature of an unjust law; King suggests that the law acts as a vehicle of a traveling fate.  One that can be abysmal, unjust laws that degrades, or on the other hand “uplift” (LFBJ).  This vehicle of law can also take people to just heights, to uplift means stimulating or elevating someone’s spirit or morals. A just law, the type of law any man deserves, eludes King.  He searches for answers for justice and injustice in a time of travel for the law.  What does the vehicle of law govern?  It governs “human personality,” the quality of characteristics, which define each individual (LFBJ).  “Human personality” echoes redundancy because we usually associate personality with being human.  His rhetoric and diction suggest that “human personality” is the very distinction that separates us from animals; meaning, he believes that injustice has reduced blacks to animals, beings that cease to have personality (LFBJ).  The vehicle of law “distorts the soul and damages the personality,” because it is unjust.  The law can help people elevate to new heights or experience elevation of spirit.  But conversely, it distorts and damages the human fabric.  Law is a vehicle of travel because it governs the human spirit, whether it uplifts you to a beautiful feeling of justice or if it degrades you with injustice; you journey with its governance.