Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were prominent and powerful leaders. While each man believed in fighting for blacks and equal rights, they maintained different approaches to achieve their goals. These different paths stemmed from each man’s ideologies, which were largely shaped by their upbringings and religions. While King grew up with a respected Christian father and had the opportunity to attend school his entire life, Malcolm X, on the other hand, experienced extreme acts of violence against himself and his family. While King practiced Christianity and shaped his ideals around this, Malcolm X was a practitioner of the Muslim faith, and he implemented many of Muslim ideologies into his ideals.
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. shared few similarities in their approaches to leadership. However, the similarity they shared was fighting for a better life and equality for blacks. While the two leaders took different approaches to achieving this, their shared vision of an equal world
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approached their battle for equality differently on practically every level. King believed in non-violence. Because of his Christian background, he taught that violence would only beget violence. To King, violence would not cure the nation of racism, and violence and fighting would only lead to hate and injustice. He also believed that blacks and whites should work together in brotherhood to rise above hatred. Without whites joining forces with blacks, King knew that combatting racism would not be possible.
On the other hand, Malcolm X promoted doing anything necessary to achieve Black Nationalism and pride. Unlike King, Malcolm X discouraged blacks from joining with whites. He trusted the idea that blacks needed to support their own race first, developing self-pride and unity before involving themselves with whites. If blacks could achieve this unity, then, Malcolm thought, whites and blacks could join to create a better