Since the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in 1863 there was a perpetual battle for African American equality in the United States that was a key part of our history throughout the twentieth century. Anne Moody’s Coming of in Mississippi is a book that greatly outlines the hardships faced by a black individual during the fight for equality. One main theme covered in the book is whether violent or nonviolent action is more productive in the fight for equality. This argument is one that defined various African American leaders in the mid nineteenth century. Leaders such as Martin Luther King prided themselves on nonviolent protests while others such as Malcolm X argued that violence was needed to truly reach equality.
Malcolm X became the voice of Black Nationalism and Islam. Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power plan meant to reject assimilation and integration in white communities but create independent black
Critiquing the approach of prominent civil rights activists, who in his view were invested in a strategy of racial uplift that would only benefit a few selected African Americans, by largely upholding the racial and social status quo -- at the cost of the vast majority of Blacks in the country, whose situation was further deteriorating, Carmichael developed his more inclusive, grassroots oriented approach of black empowerment. Countering a politics of respectability that had proved ineffective in changing the hearts and minds of the great majority of Whites, Carmichael advocated a politics that centered on the interests of African Americans in a way that would end what he perceived as a vicious circle, the constant reliance on the fleeting goodwill of Whites. Informed by his own experiences in Lowndes County, Alabama, Carmichael advocated a strategy of local organizing that diverged from the civil rights movement’s narrow focus and dependence on the national Democratic Party. Instead of catering votes to the Democrats and hoping that they would make good on their promises, Carmichael argued that African Americans should form their own organizations. These would function as a power basis for future negotiations in the political realm.
At the turn of the century, two leaders drove the civil rights movement: W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. Both voiced responses to the fact that African Americans were shackled by the oppressive confines of an culture who viewed African Americans as inferior. Both men address the African American population, but neither men address how to change the mindsets of the white population, so men and women of all colors will be able to unite and live as one people. If African Americans follow Washington and limit themselves to the work and serve the white man “with devotion” as they did in the past, African Americans will continue to be enslaved, tilling the same fields as their shackled ancestors. Even if African Americans follow DuBois’
Organized into six topical groups, the author did an excellent job in comparing and contrasting King and Malcolm’s views on subjects including integration, the American dream, means of struggle, and opposing racial philosophies that needless any improvement. An interpretive introductory essay, chronology, bibliography, document headnotes, and questions for consideration provide further pedagogical support for students. The author explains how Malcolm X came closer than any social reformer in history to embodying and articulating the totality of the African experience in America while Martin Luther King was not only the most important figure in American religious history in the 20th century, he was arguably its most brilliant
This altered approach was a result of these leaders seeing what past leaders had done, and the results or effects that had come from their work. Additionally, the 1890s - 1920s leaders had already done some work towards changing people’s minds towards giving rights to Black people. In the first movements, such as those of DuBois and Washington, civil rights was a relatively new topic for the American public. These two men introduced the movement and started a foundation for which other movements would be able to work upon. Earl Thorpe wrote in his autobiography, “The Booker Washington philosophy and program were the first positive ones that the masses of Negroes in America ever had,” (Doc C).
Months later when Malcolm X took control over the protest over racial equality, he developed a more radical and orthodox strategies , with the help of Stokely Carmichael who worked with the SNCC, he stated than the Afro-American demanded economic help in order to become a more structured society (Document 3). Malcolm X urged to seize their freedom “by any means
Civil rights leader, Malcolm X, in his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” uses the teachings of Black Nationalism to assert that black people must take political action to gain equal rights. X hopes to unite the Black Community, so they can take action against a government that has denied them their rights. X uses an emphatic tone to rally his African American brothers and sisters in the fight for political representation. X needs his audience, whom he admits may be his enemies, to trust him in order to fulfill his purpose.(1). X uses words that characterize him positively in the eyes of the audience when he describes his understanding as “little” and “humble (1).
He states that the whites will still be respected and given credit. Blacks must work with each other to show that a black man can be independent. Malcolm X also states that a black man must be able to self-support, For example, “We 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 that they won't have to constantly be involved in picketing” (Malcolm X Document 7). Malcolm is saying that in order for the African community to have their own economy, they must learn how to budget, how to develop an industry so they can be self-employed. That they must know how to control their own economy so they don't have to boycott and soon follow a white man's word.
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.
Malcolm was not a man who believed that the problem of the African Americans would be solved through a peaceful, quiet means and nuances, he believed the problem has graduated through the centuries and has come to a stage when the assertion of African Americans’ existence as humans has to be forcefully done or never. Malcolm’s methods were mainly campaigns and speeches aimed at restoring the dignity of the black man, his confidence in himself and a complete freedom as Americans
Malcolm showed through anaphora that as a whole a fresh start was not needed. The only thing that was needed was coming together as a group to engage and take action to gain negroes human rights. Not only human rights but also leading towards gaining civil rights along with it. Not having any rights before led them to believe that coming together to take action will lead to fight for what they believed.
Malcolm X and his ideals are arguably a representation of the transition from the early 1950 's non-violent movement for integration to a more aggressive black power movement. Evidence of this is shown through powerful strands of his novel “The Ballot or the Bullet” including when he writes, “I don 't mean go out and get violent, but at the same time you should never be non-violent unless you run into some non-violence.” (Malcolm 439). In writing that members of the civil rights movement should never be non-violent he does so facetiously. This excerpt indicates a call for violence as a more powerful method for achieving the equality he feels they deserve.
In modern ages, there have been many problems in terms of racial and cultural division. To get past this stage, we need to learn from the lessons Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela tried to give us from their memoirs. From Malcolm X, the society can learn that through motivation, determination, and education, people can get to freedom. From Nelson Mandela, the people can learn that through love for one another, trial and error, and peaceful protests, we can change the society we live in, one step at a
The Pitfalls of Liberalism was a document by Stokely Carmichael who is known as one of the most recognized exponents of the “Black Power.” Movement. Stokely Carmichaels main argument in this document is that the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King along with other civil rights activists had reached an endpoint since the use of “Widespread resistance within America” (238) was in effect. Throughout the semester, we have never seen a document where a leaders only solution to advance is by “calling for the mobilization of organized violence by African-Americans in order to seize political power” (238). The concept of calling upon one single race to take action is new.
