How Did Martin Luther King's Cultural Movement Affect The Civil Rights Movement

Robert Yew

Professor Jackson

ENGL 101

November 29, 2014

Often times in history, memorable pieces of literature are brought about from the important cultural movements of a specific era. Timeless classics come in the form of books, letters, and news articles as a result of drastic social issues that people express through their creative work. New inspiring philosophical ideas often come about in these times of cultural unrest. These cultural movements a lot of times are brought about by the uprising of a minority group who show their discontent with political and social injustice through writing. One cultural movement that has not only brought about a major cultural shift in the United States, but was a catalyst for the unveiling of the American black

This social uprising of the black community, particularly in the southern United States, brought to attention the inequality and poor treatment that black Americans had to deal with for hundreds of years. Two men specifically were monumental figures in this movement, and those men were Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. Both of these men made a huge impact on the civil rights movement in the United States and expressed their unique strategy to acquiring equal rights for their people. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letters from Birmingham Jail expressed his discontent with mistreatment of black people in Birmingham, Alabama, where as in The Autobiography of Malcom X, Malcom shows through the story of his life the horrors racism. Both of these texts suggest how black people should overcome racism and stand up fight against the oppressive government in radically different ways. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter called for peaceful disobedience, and Malcom X’s autobiography demonstrations Malcom X’s shifting strategy from violence in his early life