Ryan Grimley
Who achieved more for blacks in the American civil rights movement, Martin Luther king or Malcolm x?
Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm x were very important in improving the situation of African Americans during their time alive and even after. Martin Luther king was the voice of the civil rights movement, and was a big influence to many black and white people during the 1950s and 1960s. He used non-violent action in order to protest and achieve equal rights. He was inspired by Gandhi who had helped defeat the British and whose philosophy he was inspired by I, MLK was inspired by this and is where lots of his tactics originated from. This worked to great success, and he was one of the main reasons the civil rights act was passed in 1964. On the other hand, Malcolm x used violent protests and actions in order to try to achieve
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This was where Rosa parks, a black woman, sat in a white section on a bus after a long day at work. She was tired and refused to give up her seat for a white person. This led to an outrage in the black community, who boycotted the busses. MLK became the spokesman for the event, and gave a speech in 1955 at Montgomery in which he said “There will be no white persons pulled from their homes and taken out on some distant road and murdered.” This was one of his first major speeches, and in which he promotes his idea of using non-violent protesting in order to challenge these laws and allow equality for black people. After the boycott ended, MLK became one of the main leaders for the civil rights movement, and their main spokesman for events. The boycott was very successful, as it allowed black people to be able to sit where they wanted on the busses. While this was only a small victory in Montgomery, this was one of the key events that not only started a major growth of the civil rights movement, but started MLKs career as a major civil rights