“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” This quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech basically sums up the entire Civil Rights Movement. Not all people know that there wasn’t just one major Civil Rights leader. Although Americans study MLK more today, there were several other Civil Rights leaders, none more famous than Malcolm X or known by his Islamic name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. MLK and Malcolm X had almost completely opposite methods of achieving their dream, for blacks to be treated equally. MLK believed that it could only be achieved by non-violent protest, while Malcolm X used violent protest. Malcolm X and MLK protested in a very different style, both of which were very successful; however, MLK was more successful in his protests.
Firstly, MLK and Malcolm X were a lot alike. Both had a similar vision of a future of blacks and whites together. However, MLK approached the Civil Rights Movement preaching non-violent civil disobedience. While Malcolm X believed that violence was the only way to get their equality. MLK also believed that blacks and whites should be totally desegregated, and Malcolm X thought that blacks and whites should remain segregated, but whites should not control everything blacks do (Boelstler). People usually believe that Malcolm X and his followers just attacked racist whites, but this is not true. Malcolm X and his group only used violence when they were attacked by angry whites during their protests. MLK and his followers never used violence, and still were punished as they had committed a serious crime. Even when MLK’s followers were brutally ...
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...alcolm X made some very big movements during the movement, but just did not touch as many Americans in need or led huge rallies like MLK did. That is why when the average American thinks about the Civil Rights Movement, they think about Dr. Martin Luther King JR.
Works Cited
Boelstler, Melissa. "MLK vs. Malcolm X." Life Examinations. N.p., 6 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
Simon, John J. “Malcolm X—His Legacy.” ProQuest sirs. N.p., Feb. 2005. Web.
28 Apr. 2014.
"Martin Luther King Jr." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 14 May 2014. .
Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered as motivation to fight for their rights and help paint the picture of what America could look like in the future. He does this by in the beginning saying that even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed African Americans are not treated as normal citizens. By saying this Martin Luther King Jr. was saying we should not just be content with being free from slavery. That now it is time to fight for our rights and to end discrimination because of the color on one’s skin.
Martin Luther King admired Muhammad Gundi and Gundi’s idea of peaceful protest. King adopted this idea and organized much historical peaceful protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality. King led the Montgomery bus boycott of 1963 to protest the arrest of Rosa Parks, King also led the “march on Washington” when over 200,000 people gathered to hear King’s most famous speech. Kings most famous speech, I Have a Dream, was given on the steps of the Lincoln memorial on august 28th 1963. In King’s speech king conveys his idea of a perfect society of all races living together peacefully. King had much larger impact on civil rights than Malcolm X mostly because of King’s theories and principals of peaceful protest and Civil disobedience as opposed to X’s view of “whatever it takes.” Unfortunately much like Malcolm X King was also
MLK once said "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."(The Biography.com website). MLK knew that if we used force it would be a disaster and they would never get freedom. While MLK was at Birmingham Jail he wrote about nonviolence for all people to read. He said"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue."(The Biography.com website) So many thought MLK would come and be this guy who would see violence as a tool to use, but when he didn’t people were very supprised that nonviolence was his choice of action. MLK has a family too and it was not only but his family too. They probably wondered all the time if their father would be home that night. Many suffered from these movement acts and wondered if they would be able to kiss their kids goodnight, or see their wifes. Would you be able to not see your dad for weeks or maybe even months? This is why many had patience. They knew what they were fighting for all of them had a purpose. MKL knew one day there would be freedom everywhere. He also knew it wasn’t going to come easily. He never gave up though and he always believed in
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X DBQ Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both African American civil rights leaders wanting to bring freedom to black people during the 1960s. Even though both leaders wanted to liberate black people, their philosophies were drastically different. Malcolm X wanted racial separation, while Martin Luther King wanted both races to coexist. Religion is also a major part of this situation because most African Americans, including MLK in America, were Christian. Malcolm X’s goal was to turn all people who follow his path into Muslims.
After World War II, “ A wind is rising, a wind of determination by the have-nots of the world to share the benefit of the freedom and prosperity” which had been kept “exclusively from them” (Takaki, p.p. 383), and people of color in United States, especially the black people, who had been degraded and unfairly treated for centuries, had realized that they did as hard as whites did for the winning of the war, so they should receive the same treatments as whites had. Civil rights movement emerged, with thousands of activists who were willing to scarify everything for Black peoples’ civil rights, such as Rosa Parks, who refused to give her seat to a white man in a segregated bus and
On the other hand, Malcolm X believed in the utilization of any denotes indispensable to reach his goals. The one area is the kindred attributes between the two. In fact, one could verbalize that Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were consummate antitheses. Martin Luther King was able to enlighten the world an edification. He showed us that goals can be reached without violence. Although , Malcolm X may have reached his goals, but he engendered nonessential violence along the way.. You may argue that even though Martin Luther King’s protests were halcyon, violence still occurred. The difference in my opinion is that the Hangings and attacks that African Americans faced were out of their control. It was the decision of those that they were protesting against to bellicosity beat them and kill them. Malcolm X on the other hand was many times the initiator of violence. He brought violence to his protests and ergo engendered extra violence, which can be deemed to be nonessential. At the terminus of the day many would favor of the lessons which Martin Luther King Jr uplifted as his decisions and outcomes can influence the decisions of future generations in times of conflict. Malcolm X’s conception of doing anything to reach his goals is not a good representation for future generations as it remotely
A man name James Earl Ray shot and killed Martin Luther King out of pure hatred for the man doing so much good in the world. Even though MLK was killed, his dream carried on, and his people began to gain equality and segregation soon became a thing of the past. “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood,” (Americanrhetoric.com). Although it took time and hard work, MLK’s dream of peace and brotherhood was finally reached. The loss of MLK definitely fired up those involved in the Civil Rights movement, and helped them push through to their goals. Even though he lost his life in the process, surely he would be very prideful for his accomplishments, and will surely never be
...le could use simple nonviolent protests and still have great outcomes. If you compare Malcolm X to Martin Luther King, King has more peoples respect and achieved a lot more than X did. During King Life he achieved what many world leaders can not achieve today, such as using nonviolence to overcome suffrage against social injustice. No matter how bad a situation was King always believed in nonviolence which lead him to victory in several situations, and also winning the publics respect. If u compare today?s world to yesterday?s world, you can see the similarities, in what King was fighting for and today?s struggles.? Remember him as a man who tried to be a drum major for justice, a drum major for peace, a drum major for righteousness. Remember him as a man who refused to lose faith in the ultimate redemption of mankind.? The Trumpet of Conscience, Coretta Scott King.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the revolution there was a young man known Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The revolution in which he was leading was a revolution rather different than the one of Malcolm X. Dr. King’s revolution was one in which all blacks and all whites could work together. He spoke of this in his infamous speech I Have A Dream. Though the two leaders were rather different, they fed off each other’s roles, which in turn provided possibly the strongest leadership since the Harlem Renaissance, until the death of Malcolm X.
African Americans are fortunate to have leaders who fought for a difference in Black America. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X are two powerful men in particular who brought hope to blacks in the United States. Both preached the same message about Blacks having power and strength in the midst of all the hatred that surrounded them. Even though they shared the same dream of equality for their people, the tactics they implied to make these dreams a reality were very different. The background, environment and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were largely responsible for the distinctly varying responses to American racism.
Until the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his life’s work was dedicated to the nonviolent actions of blacks to gain the freedoms they were promised in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. He believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King, 1963). These injustices had become so burdensome to blacks that they were “plunged into an abyss of despair” (King, 1963). The nonviolent actions of the sit-ins, boycotts, and marches were so the “individual could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths…to help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism” and ultimately lead to “inevitably opening the door to negotiation” (King, 1963). Not only was King’s approach effective with the older black generation, it was also successful with white people. They did not feel threatened when approached by King. White people gained a sense of empathy towards the plight of black freedom as King’s promise of nonviolence did not threaten their livelihood. Malcolm X viewed the world similarly to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., however; his beliefs to changing the status quo were slightly different from his political counterpart. Malcolm X realized that “anger could blind human vision” (X, 1965). In realizing this, X knew that in order to achieve racial freedom blacks had to “forget hypocritical politics and propaganda” (X, 1965). While Malcolm X was more so an advocate for violent forces against white people than King, X merely used force when it became necessary for defense. According to X, “I don’t go for non-violence if it also means a delayed solution. I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to American black man’s problem” (X, 1965). However, this le...
...artin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X approach the same problem differently. They both use pathos, a central metaphor, and give a warning. However, Martin Luther King Jr. uses pathos to create a welcoming and patriotic feeling whereas Malcolm X uses fear. Martin Luther King Jr. uses a check, used on a daily basis, as the object of his central metaphor; Malcolm X uses a powder keg, a very damaging and dangerous object, as the object of his central metaphor. Lastly, Martin Luther King Jr. warns his audience that the people of color will revolt passively. On the other hand, Malcolm X warns his audience that the people of color will revolt violently with bloodshed. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X both achieve their goal. After reading both speeches, Malcolm X seems, in my opinion, to have made a greater impact on the white community because fear is stronger than joy.
Although both of these activists have different solutions and deliver things differently, they both address racism and the injustice the U.S. government performs on daily basis. In addition to this, they are both African Americans who persuading different audiences but are delivering the same content. In MLK’s letter he responds to his clergymen’s criticisms by addressing the racial injustices in Birmingham; while Malcolm X is delivery the same content but his audiences are blacks and whites. Even though they are both striving to declare freedom and are willing to fight for their human rights, MLK is more effective than Malcolm X in fighting against racial
Malcolm X was a freedom fighter like Dr. King who fought for the right and freedoms for black Americans. Unlike Malcolm, Dr. King called black Americans blacks while Malcolm called them Negros. Malcolm used violence in his fight for freedom when he said, “Revolution was based upon bloodshed”. Malcolm was ready for anything as far as blacks will gain the respect and freedom they needed. In Malcolm’s black revolution, he made it clear how blacks were treated differently no matter their age, what school they came out of, no matter what their intellectual or professional level was, they were still recognized as a boy and were not given the respect they deserved. He also pointed out how whites made them think they had different goals and objectives.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were very significant during the Civil Rights Movement. Both were excellent speakers and shared one goal but had two different ways of resolving it. Martin Luther King Jr. chose to resolve the issues by using non-violence to create equality amongst all races to accomplish the goal. Malcolm X also wanted to decrease discrimination and get of segregation but by using another tactic to successfully accomplish the similar goal. The backgrounds of both men were one of the main driven forces behind the ways they executed their plans to rise above the various mistreatments. Martin Luther King Jr. was a more pronounced orator, a more refined leader, and overall saw the larger picture than Malcolm X.