Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were the two most important icons during the civil right movement, in the 1960s. These two men have impacted the way Americans live today in a number ways.

After slavery was made illegal in the United States, things were still difficult for black Americans. Many people were angry and displeased when slavery was ended, and lawmakers in some states, especially in the Southern States, made special rules to keep white people and black people apart. People of different races had to use different drinking fountains, different bathrooms, and even different schools. The Supreme Court ruled that it was legal as long as things “were separated but equal.” This separation of people between different colors was called “segregation.”

He was the second of three children born to a Baptist preacher. He attended a segregated school where he did so well that he was able to skip two grades and graduated at the age of 15. Shortly after graduating high school he went to Morehouse College, and he graduated with a degree in sociology in 1948. He had decided to become a minister, like his father, and so he enrolled in a Seminary to study religion. In December of 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on a bus to a white man, for which she was arrested and spent the night in Jail. Martin Luther King organized a boycott of the bus system. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted over a year, and so many people refused to ride buses that the bus companies lost a lot of money. In December 1956, the Supreme Court declared that segregated busses were unconstitutional. This was a major victory for the civil rights movement and it proved that peaceful methods could create change. Between 1957 and 1968, King worked tirelessly to promote civil rights. He travelled all over, giving thousands of speeches, writing five book, and many articles. With his hard work and speaking ability congress passed the civil rights act, which made segregation and discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or nationality illegal. On April 4, 1968 at the age of 39 MAtin was assasinted when he was standing