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Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

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American citizens during the 1960’s were either completely for desegregation, or completely for segregation. There was no middle ground between the two. The Civil Rights Movement was reinstituted after the Brown vs. Board of Education supreme court case declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. This gave a new, and vigorous offense, to the African American community in their fight for independence. With the conclusion of the Brown vs. Board of Education case, a new, modern era of equal rights initiated and two leaders emerged as the front runners. They were: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm Little(x). Their objectives for attaining equality were actually pretty similar. …show more content…

Capitol(Document 1). As discussed in the introduction paragraph, King’s philosophy of equality for all is demonstrated in his many famous speeches including the “I Have a Dream Speech”given in Washington D.C., and his “Our God is Marching On” speech given at the Alabama State Capitol(Documents 2,4). He desired for every black man and every white man to unite. King only desired for every American to be judged by their character and not by the color of their skin. King’s philosophies, however, greatly differed from Malcolm X’s …show more content…

King preached non violence no matter what the circumstances are. Malcolm X claimed violence was an appropriate action to free the black community(Document 9). On January 18, 1965, Malcolm X was interviewed in “The Young Socialist” where he stated his idea that all white men are violent and that is their only language. Therefore, in order for black people to gain their equality, they had to speak in the white man language of violence as well. Countering that, King gave a speech at a staff retreat approximately two months prior to Malcolm X’s interview, in which he spoke on the importance on the negativity of violence(Document 8). He believed that the white man would eventually grow tired of abusing the black man and give up. He did however say that the way to get the attention of the whites was to boycott, march, and altogether stop buying from all white companies(Document 6). This caused major losses in the business which forced companies not to discriminate against African Americans. The reason that Dr. King’s methods were more fitting for the 1960’s was because it was centered on nonviolence and peace. Nobody was ready for more bloodshed, especially since World War Two and the Korean Conflict had just ended. Also during this time in history, the Vietnamese Conflict was occurring and people were already ready to get out of that struggle because of the massive amount of casualties. Therefore, peace was

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Malcolm X believed in doing whatever it took to finish what they started. On the other hand, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to the white clergymen. He explained to them, “But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I…” (King ). Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to show the men that even though they treated them poorly, he still believed they were good men in their hearts.

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King believed in the power of love, nonviolence, and reconciliation as means to bring about social change. He championed integration, equality, and voting rights, utilizing strategies like boycotts, sit-ins, and marches to challenge segregation and systemic racism. King's approach aimed to appeal to the conscience of the nation and gain sympathy and support for the cause. Black critics of King's nonviolent tactics, such as Malcolm X and the Black Power movement, argued that nonviolence was ineffective in the face of systemic racism and violence directed at the Black community.

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Meeting violence with violence proves to be a speedy tactic when change is in need. However, although Malcom X’s approach inspired some of king’s followers to switch sides and take the aggressive approach Malcom preached about; it gave those who oppressed African American citizen’s rights something to complain about. If given the chance too, Malcom X’s violent approach may have earned African American’s rights sooner, but at the cost of both black and white lives while also labeling the African race as violent bunch. Dr.Kings approach, in my opinion, was that of taking the high road. It proved that those who followed in his footsteps were calm, peaceful, and relatively harmless Americans who wanted nothing more equal rights.

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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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DBQ: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X: Rewrite During the 1960’s there was a greatly increased in violence in America. There were riots, bombings, racism, and discrimination. Many African American were mistreated due to the racist people who intervened the African Americans from doing anything. Two civil rights activists wanted change for African Americans and were both fighting for the same cause, civil rights.

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Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were both important and impactful leaders during the Civil Rights Movement who made a change for black people in the nation today. Due to the efforts of both leaders, the nation today consists free of

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Martin Luther King Jr said,“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”. In the late 1960s, racial tension was high, African Americans were not given the right to vote, the right to a fair education, and the right to a fair judgement. This then led to the separation of schools and the destruction of a normal livelihood. Dr.King and Malcolm X, two men in the face of oppression rose up to challenge the racial barrier, thus changing the world forever. Although Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X seem to have mutual respect and an equal understanding of the inequality, their philosophies were quite different from each other.

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are two profound African American figures in history. They both fought for equality and to better humanity. But, the tactics they used were very different. Their different views may have been rooted from the where they were raised. Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in a middle class family and received a very solid education.

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Malcolm X was an effective leader because he had exceptional communication skills. These skills are viewed in his speech “By Any Means Necessary” and have been analyzed. The main goal of this speech was for blacks to figure out or to begin to figure out, what they can do to change the injustice, in order for blacks to gain things that

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And if you're black and you not thinking black at this late date, well, I'm sorry for you. ”(Malcolm X) And his drive was to show white Americans that black nationalism would not be held back, even if it meant taking the fight by legislation or by force. To exemplify how controversial he was, his push for self-sufficiency in the black community was in deep contrast to the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout the speech he makes multiple jabs at King's passive approach.

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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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"If they make the Ku Klux Klan nonviolent, I'll be nonviolent. ... But as long as you've got somebody else not being nonviolent, I don't want anybody coming to me talking any kind of nonviolent talk." He noted that there is no point if only a group of people who is trying hard to become nonviolence, but on the other hand, there were also another group of people who do violence and this is where the topic of justice comes along and according to him, if the Whites are using violence, therefore, the Blacks also need to use violence. At the outset, I did not somehow agree with his judgement but as I go along, I really managed to read what he really stands for. From my own discernment, I conceived that what Malcolm tries to deliver is that when people attack us in any manner, we should somehow attack them back in a way to protect ourselves so that others will not simply oppress and use up an action to

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Malcolm did on the other hand create pride for African Americans, but his methods would have never created the racial equality we have today. King states “What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program which will bring the Negro into the mainstream of American life as quickly as possible. So far, this has only been offered by the nonviolent movement”. He explains that nonviolence is the quickest way to change the lives of many Americans. King showed people that in order to achieve your goals, you will have to work for it in a righteous way, even though it is much simpler to take the easy way out by using violence.

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During his speech, King emphasizes his point by speaking at a slow rate, while using appropriate vocabulary to describe the problem and his solutions; the problem being that “the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” (AmericanRhetoric, par 3, 2023) and to solve the lack of equality, “we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence” (AmericanRhetoric, par 8, 2023). Although King spoke the truth of inequality in America by underlining the negatives of participating in the protest, that people will get hurt and blamed for wrongful deeds, he failed to provide additional information on the successfulness of the protest. Although the movement was a pyrrhic victory, King should have implemented a better plan and focused on his ideas of the movement rather than telling the audience to follow faith. If King were to speak more about the civil rights movement, he could have gained more supporters, especially White Americans; White Americans did not join the movement because many were afraid to face the same discrimination faced by African

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“By any means necessary,” was also one of his famous quotes. He didn’t care what happened he just wanted blacks to be considered equal. Malcolm X wanted other blacks to see what the whites are doing to them and fight for what they thought was right. Malcolm X thought that violence was always the answer. Racism has made a lot of advancements form what it once was, and I think that it will improve slowly throughout time.

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