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Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

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Issues with racism and equality have plagued America for centuries. 50 years ago, the tensions came to a peak, and two key figures wrote to inspire the nation to come together. These two leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, impacted the thoughts and actions of many people throughout their lives. They each wrote influential essays that persuaded the rest of the nation to fight for equality. While in a Birmingham jail cell, MLK composed a letter to eight clergymen from Alabama who did not believe it was the right time to fight for equality. Later that year, Malcolm X wrote a statement for a newspaper detailing the need for a revolution of equality in America. Although both essays focus on the need for equality, they differ in …show more content…

King utilizes repetition, and Malcolm X employs analogies. MLK repeats examples of people considered extremists for their revolutionary ideas to emphasize his own common characteristics with them, “Was not Jesus an extremist for love?… Was not Amos an extremist for justice?… Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel?” (King 900). King repeats these leaders to reinforce that extremist and revolutionary can be synonyms. MLK uses this repetition to ensure that the main argument will not be missed. The repetition acts as a highlighter, showing the audience the most vital points throughout King’s essay. On the other hand, Malcolm X writes analogies that continue through the essay to highlight the key points for the reader to follow. In one analogy, Malcolm compares the government to a chicken, “The present American ‘system’ can never produce freedom for the black man. A chicken cannot lay a duck egg because the chicken’s ‘system’ is not designed or equipped to produce a duck egg” (X 304). Malcolm X’s analogy simplifies down his argument to something everyone can agree with, a fact of nature. There is no way for a chicken to produce a duck, therefore there is no way for America to produce freedom for black men. Both arguments use the literary devices to highlight their main point and emphasize it in a way not previously stated. By restating the argument to be more easily understood, both MLK and Malcolm X broaden their audiences to reach more people with their essays. Reasserting their main points with literary devices, both authors establish a specific target group they are

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113 Words | 1 Pages

MLK also uses rhetorical devices to persuade the audience. MLK states In Letter To Birmingham Jail, “Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth?” (King 7) MLK used rhetorical questions so the audience would have to think to themselves. MLK is showing the audience that by doing these actions is the only way they will be heard.

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1249 Words | 5 Pages

Malcolm X’s use of such radical ideas and solutions to the civil rights problems of his day, and MLK’s use of historical examples they captivate their audience and through logos and convince them of their views. Malcolm X completely shatters his listeners’ beliefs, using a roundabout form of rhetoric: he uses harsh language that seems to degrade his audience, while, at the same time, he increases their self-confidence subconsciously through their emotions and through logos builds in their minds the necessity to fight for equality. MLK uses analogies and enthymeme to relate to his audience the importance of equality in order to construct logos in the mind of his audience and convince them of the logic behind back equality. Through the use of appropriate elements of logos, MLK and Malcolm X appeal to logos to make an effective

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1595 Words | 7 Pages

1963 and 1964, two pivotal years in American history. In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and in 1964 Malcom X wrote “The Ballot or the Bullet”. Before, during, and after these two years the United States was a place where racial equality was inexistent. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were pioneers in bringing attention to this issue. Both men wrote letters and released them to the public, one from a jail cell and another recited his letter in a church.

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971 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief History with Documents written by David Howard-Pitney is a great history book that gives us an entry into two important American thinkers and a tumultuous part of American history. This 207-pages book was published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in Boston, New York on February 20, 2004. David Howard-Pitney worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in 1986, and that made him a specialist on American civil religion and African-American leaders ' thought and rhetoric (208). Another publication of Howard-Pitney is The African-American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America.

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2210 Words | 9 Pages

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.

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1692 Words | 7 Pages

The most important decision of a leader is the style of leading they decide to use when inspiring others, or providing a vision for the future. By looking at the past, it is proven that some leadership styles are guaranteed to be more effective than others. The leadership style of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights provides significant evidence of how different styles of leading can turn out to be a major success or defeat. Malcolm X’s leadership style included using violence to protest against violence and unequal rights, as well as supporting the segregation of African Americans and the whites. Martin Luther King’s style included nonviolent marches and protests against violence, and peacefully fighting for integrating the blacks and whites.

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573 Words | 3 Pages

When the following speeches were given, they were brought about by the fight for African American rights. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had made speeches about the rights for employment for the African Americans, in addition to giving ways of the change to happen. Matrin Luther King Jr was so important because of his enactment towards the nonviolence resistance for African Americans equal rights. Just as Malcolm X is similarly important for being a leader in the Civil rights movement. Both speakers are trying to construct employment for the African Americans.

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Nearly a century following the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in the South still faced a world of inequality, segregation, and other forms of oppression. “Jim Crow” laws, state and local laws enforcing racial segregation, were prime examples of this. In 1954, the US Supreme Court put in place the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state sanctioned discrimination, drawing attention to the plight of African Americans. During the years that followed, activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring about change. Among these leaders were Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two prominent activists during this time.

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were both leaders of the Civil Rights movement often on opposite ends of the movement. The two men approached the need for equality in the black community from differing perspectives while sharing a similar ideology. King addressed the struggles, goals, and hopes of the movement with his speech I Have a Dream. In response, Malcolm X gave his own speech The Ballot or The Bullet, within his speech he addressed a specific topic of Black Nationalism. In both speeches, we find classic uses of rhetorical tools such as ethos, pathos, and logos.

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874 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil Rights Movement, occurring in the mid-20th century, transpired as a time of intense struggle and injustice in the black community as they clamored with systematic oppression. Using his influence as a prominent leader in the movement, Malcolm X innovated the values and philosophies of America. X had a verifiable mastery of the English language, which granted him the upper hand amongst other activists with less developed language skills. “The Ballot or the Bullet,” one of X’s most famous speeches given in Detroit, Michigan on 12 April 1964, teems with a flabbergasting amount of rhetorical devices. Using matured rhetoric, such as anaphora, contrasting ideas, and repetition, Malcolm X manipulates the masses into a position in which they

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880 Words | 4 Pages

History 131 Spring 2016 Dr. Robert Miller David Howard-Pitney’s novel Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, discusses Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X and the noticeable similarities they developed in their last years of life. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X came from two very different backgrounds and at the beginning of their rise to fame, their contentions contrasted each other. It wasn't until many years of struggle that the two profoundly successful men realized that their power would be even more influential if they worked together. Martin Luther King Jr., the son of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King, born on January 15, 1929, into a prominent middle-class

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1974 Words | 8 Pages

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were two influential men who served as important figures for the Civil Rights Movement. The two men came from diverse backgrounds and had contrasting views in life about religion and African American’s stance in society. Malcolm X was born in Nebraska and had great amounts of exposure to racism. Martin Luther King was born in an educated family in Atlanta, where he experienced racism, but to a lower extreme than Malcolm X. Although they passed away long time ago, they continue to live on today in a world independent of segregation. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X used opposing principles to achieve equality for blacks; King utilized integration of both races and nonviolence as opposed to Malcolm X who separated the same races and employed non violence so as to achieve the same goal.

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1941 Words | 8 Pages

In Malcolm X’s, By Any Means Necessary, he said, “But we think they should control theirs and we should control ours. Don’t let us try and mix with each other because every time that mixture takes place we always find that the lack man is low man.” Through his experiences with white people, he had concluded they were evil. Malcolm X believed that the African Americans should avoid mixing with the whites even though it may not have been the safest option. Since the whites were depreciating the value of the blacks, Malcolm X was certain that the blacks would be better independent of the whites.

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1250 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout his speeches, he spoke about the importance of violence and how it was often necessary to endure such harm, once stating, “Power real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action” (www.biography.com). Although these two men differed in their thought on violence, they often agreed on how important their fights were. Without Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, Civil Rights would have been nonexistent,

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466 Words | 2 Pages

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech he uses many different rhetorical devices. He uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions. In each writing, he uses the devices for many different purposes. These purposes can be similar, or different. In short, Martin Luther King Jr. includes rhetorical devices in his writing.

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