Martin Luther King Jr. vs Malcolm X: Different Approaches to Civil Rights

Amazing Men Fighting for Equality

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were two of the most well known African American Leaders in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was a baptist minister, a social activist, and later became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, while Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and also a human rights activist. They used different tactics for violence to achieve their goals, and they also had different beliefs for the roles of whites in the Civil RIghts Movement. Martin Luther King Jr led the group (SCLC) which was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, it was founded because of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The reason the Montgomery Bus Boycott occurred was due to Rosa Parks being arrested after she refused to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. Malcolm X became a spokesperson for the group Nation of Islam it was a religious movement that also expressed black pride and black nationalism. Then also later lead the group (OAAU),which was the Organization

and Malcolm X believe in? Martin Luther King jr. came from a Christian background, he believed in peaceful demonstrations, acting with love and staying calm. And by doing so he promoted equality through nonviolent ways of protest and actions.His beliefs also included that all people were created equal, and that all people should be allowed the same opportunities regardless of color. He based a lot of his beliefs on the foundation of his religion due to his father being a preacher, and most of his father’s beliefs were passed down to him. While Malcolm X and MLK were both civil rights activist they had some differences in their belief system, Malcolm X believed in the separation of black and white americans, and disliked integration. He was more interested in “ African American’s gaining control of their own lives”, and he also promoted black nationalism, which included political, economic, and social