How Did Malcolm X Influence The Civil Rights Movement

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Although slavery in the United States ended in the late 19th century, racism, discrimination and segregation continued to oppress African Americans and minorities. For decades, civil rights activists had been fighting for simple constitutional rights against laws and social customs to ensure equality for all Americans. The civil rights campaign saw many different methods and various leaders who influenced the progress that it took. Malcolm X was one of these great leaders. The way he tackled the civil rights movement was largely influenced by the discrimination he received. Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. Malcolm X witnessed his family continually being harassed and attacked by whites in his city. His father was a Baptist …show more content…

However in contrast to Malcolm X, King had a different aim, strategy and feeling towards the civil rights movement. King believed in provoking a response for action by means of a peaceful protest. Coming from the south, King wanted to grant blacks the right to equality which they deserved. Born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia in a city filled with racial segregation. However King grew up in a sustained family of wealth, with his parents owning a local pasture. Yet he was the victim of much discriminative actions from the whites, making him resent them just like Malcolm X. As a Baptist minister by training, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sought to raise the public consciousness of racism, to end racial discrimination and segregation in the United States. While his goal was racial equality, King plotted out a series of smaller objectives that involved local grassroots campaigns for equal rights for African Americans. In 1955, King became involved in his first major civil rights campaign in Montgomery, Alabama, where buses were racially segregated. After a year-long boycott, a United States District Court banned racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses. The Montgomery bus boycott kicked off a national struggle to eliminate racial discrimination, with King leading the