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Compare And Contrast Malcolm X And Mlk In The Civil Rights Movement

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The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s is regarded as one of the most remarkable social revolutions in modern history. It is the reason Americans can attend school or go to work with people of color, and why no race is given priority over another. But before this social reform, people of color (POCs) and most prominently African Americans were subjected to segregation; a flawed system in which the races were “separate but equal”. Through organizations like the NAACP or the SCLC and individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) and Malcolm X, relative equality was achieved for Africans Americans and all POC’s. Both civil rights leaders Dr. King and Malcolm X held a synonymous belief: black empowerment, but adhered to philosophies that …show more content…

King and Malcolm X had both wanted a better life for their race, however, what divided their efforts towards a common goal was their way to get there. Dr. King promoted a world with integration, a place where all races coexisted peacefully and treated each other amicably. MLK was very surprisingly realistic about segregation, claiming African Americans had “come a long, long way” but had “a long, long way to go” towards integration. He was of the opinion that through hard work and persistence, one day blacks and whites would regard each others as equals. His fairly idealistic world directly counteracted Malcolm X’s clause of segregation in his policy of Black Nationalism. Influenced by his devastating childhood, Malcolm X subsequently led a campaign protesting for white America to atone for its sins committed against black people because “an integrated cup of coffee isn’t sufficient pay for four hundred years of slave labor” (Doc C). Malcolm wanted to separate from the “wicked white race” (Doc C) to fulfill his policy in which the “black man should control the politics and the politician in his own community”(Doc D). Integration was MLK’s answer to the black person’s predicament, contrary to Malcolm’s resolution of blacks making their own separate community for themselves, away from the

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