Compare And Contrast Malcolm X And Martin Luther King

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Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are the two important figures in the American history, who are primarily known for leading the civil rights movements, aimed at undermining the discrimination and segregation in American life. In order to achieve their objectives, they adopted different approaches. Through the points of their life goals, and their respective strategies and approaches to achieve those goals, it is clear that they had similar believe in the big picture. However, they had their reasons to peruse it in different ways. Both the Malcolm and Luther King had very different background and experiences. Malcolm had to bear many bitter experiences, at early stages of his life. He belonged to a poor family. His father was assassinated by …show more content…

First of all, being the influential leaders of civil rights movements, both of them worked for helping black people to empower themselves. They always discouraged those campaigns, which were launched at that time to promote racism. In other words, they both tried to improve the position of black people, not only in the United States, but also throughout the world. Secondly, they both were equally cognizant of the hardships of subjugated people. For this purpose, they raised their voices, for the rights of such oppressed people, at every major platform. Open criticism of the Vietnam War, by both of them, is glaring example of this fact. Thirdly, both these leaders were greatest supporters of modern education, and laid great importance to education. Due to this reason, both of them married to the educated women. Fourthly, due to their open and straightforward views, both of them met the same end; they both were assassinated at relatively younger age of 39. They had an age difference of 4 years. Malcolm X was 4 years older than Martin Luther King. Another similarity, related to their ideas, was that both of them had anticipated their future. On many occasions, they both got a variety of life threats, and according to many experts, they were cognizant of their unfortunate end. Finally, families of both the leaders after their assassination expressed concerns about their death inquiries. Although many suspicious persons …show more content…

First of all, although they both were leader of civil right movements, yet they both had a different approach to win those civil rights. Martin Luther King remained a peaceful person throughout his life. He used to hate violence, and always recommended the amicable ways to achieve his goals. Apparently, he appeared to be inspired by the Gandhi, the founder of the India, who also used non-violent ways in order to make his mission successful. On the other hand, Malcolm X believed in adopting aggressive attitude when it becomes necessary. He believed in the philosophy of getting the rights by fighting. For Malcolm, there was nothing wrong in adopting violent or aggressive policy in order to subjugate the opponent. Secondly, both of them had different religious thoughts; Malcolm was a Muslim and believed in equality of everyone. On the other hand, Martin was a Christian and used to cite the verses of Bible in order to motivate his followers. Thirdly, Malcolm X had to suffer a lot in his childhood; he belonged to a poor family. At very young age, his father died and his mother became a mental patient. Due to these reasons, he experienced a much tougher time in his youth. He also spent many years in jail. On the other hand, Martin enjoyed a relatively blessed