Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X Comparison Essay

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. The men had contrasting ideas when it came to fighting for racial equality. Martin Luther King’s philosophies made more sense than Malcolm X’s philosophies, because King believed in working together and nonviolence protests to change the minds of the white society. Where Malcolm X believed in working separately to gain independence for the black communities, so

Malcolm X pushed for the idea of being able to build own shops, and business, Malcolm X knew this would bring in income and stability for the black communities. Malcolm X expressed his beliefs in his book “The Last Years of Malcolm X: Evolution of a Revolutionary,1967. Malcolm states, “..(W)e have to learn how to own and operate the businesses of our community and develop them into some type of industry that will enable us to create employment for the people of our community so they won’t have to constantly be involved in picketing and boycotting other people in other communities in order to get a job” (Document G). Malcolm X justified the reason to start building communities, instead of protesting for the right to be able to go into a white-owned store. King was engaged in nonviolent protests,