Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

844 Words2 Pages

In the words of Dick Feagler, “ Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression”. Freedom was one step ahead with the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. In Dr. King’s speech “ I Have a Dream” at the March for Washington 1963, he spoke with optimism and encouragement. His message was integrating through civil disobedience. The second part of his speech was very inspirational. Dr. King grew up in a very stable home where his dad and grandfather were both in the ministry. Dr. King’s message was taken from his religious background. During the Harlem Freedom Rally of 1960, Malcolm X spoke very pessimistic. His message was segregation by the creation of a separate African American …show more content…

X grew up with an unstable life after his mom was sent to a mental hospital and his dad’s death. He also had moved a lot as a kid because of death threats, and at one point his family home was burned down. The difference between both men are many. Martin Luther King’s message in his speech was that racial equality can only be achieved by integration through civil disobedience. Dr. King wanted to use non-violent resistance, for example, peaceful protest. He wanted to do this no matter what happened. Dr. King once stated, “ We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic height of meeting physical force with soul force” (King, 3). This supports that Dr. King wanted racial equality by using acts of civil disobedience. The quote also shows how much Dr. King wanted these protests to be non-violent. Dr. King spoke with an optimistic tone and he chose what he said carefully. This is clearly shown when Dr. King stated, “I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Gandhi

    285 Words  | 1 Pages

    "an unjust law is no law at all."- quote by St. Augustine who was an Christian theologian and philosopher, whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity. Martin Luther King Jr. was a baptist minister and civil rights leader that made advancements for civil rights peacefully, exclusively for African Americans in America. Mohandas Gandhi was a non-violent leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. Accordingly, both MLK Jr. and Gandhi were leaders for civil rights that practiced and preached non-violent approaches for their freedom.Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi were both valid in their judgment to break the law for their peaceful protests.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King And Cornel King

    1995 Words  | 4 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. and Cornel West both want the same thing; peace and proper freedom for all African Americans within the United States, and even on a worldwide scale. Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his letter while imprisoned in Birmingham that; "Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it again." (Luther King Jr. 1963).

    Read More

  • Summary Of Rhetorical Devices In Martin Luther King's Speech

    540 Words  | 2 Pages

    On August 28th, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, Martin Luther King Jr., spoke to roughly twenty-five thousands people attending the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. In Dr. King’s speech, “I Had a Dream”, he uses rhetorical devices to convey that all people are created equal and to educate the importance of the Civil Rights Movement.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Malcolm X And Douglass

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a slave Douglass was prohibited from learning to read and write. He started to learn from his mistress who taught him the alphabet. Later, she became aware that teaching Douglass to read could give him power. Therefore, Douglass was forbidden to read. In fact it was illegal to teach a slave to learn. As a result she and her husband tried to stop Douglass from learning to read. Every time she saw him with a newspaper she beat him. They didn’t allow him to have any books in the house and they monitored him at all time. Douglass didn’t give up. He kept learning secretly and faced his obstacles.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Civil Rights Movement “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon without cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” - Martin Luther King Jr. “I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defence; I call it intelligence.” - Malcolm X Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were two of the most prominent leaders during the Civil Rights Movement who helped the African Americans to gain equal right and collapse the walls of oppression held. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were both African American civil rights advocates who fought for freedom against racial discrimination, but used different approaches to get their message across.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X paved a significant path towards a racially neutral society. There is no doubt that both Martin and Malcolm influenced a whole generation of rebels to fight racism and discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. had a more peaceful standpoint to attempt to solve racism. Malcolm X on the other hand used violence and force to get the necessary results. They both shared a common objective, but took different actions to achieve the goal.

    Read More

  • March On Washington Speech Analysis

    1169 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning of his speech Martin Luther heralds back almost one hundred years by linking the importance of the march to the Emancipation Proclamation(King 3). By doing this King puts the issue of equality into a timeline by showing that while it has been a hundred years since African Americans had been given freedom it also shows that while freedom has been granted to them there has still been very little that has happened to give the African race a better life. Not much further in his speech King say, “ This note was a promise that all men-yes, black men as well as white men-would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (King 3) Again by taking an important article from America’s past King says that when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution they meant for all Americans to be equal. Midway through the speech King pleads with his people to never resort to violence in the face of adversity that is handed to them by their oppressors, because King has came to realize through his own trials that the “their( referring to the white man)destiny is tied up with our destiny.”(King 3) As King’s speech progresses he tells the masses that until they have their rights be equal to those who rights are unbounded that they must not stop until they have achieved their goal. By being able to use

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On The Jim Crow Laws

    1624 Words  | 4 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very prominent part of the movement to end Jim Crow laws. In 1963 he and the SCLC organized a boycott and marched to challenge these laws in Birmingham, Alabama. He and many others were arrested for this and while in jail he wrote to a response to the white ministers that were critiquing him. King was not afraid to stand up to the white people. He explained two kinds of laws, just laws; laws that needed to be followed, and unjust laws: laws that needed to be disobeyed. He is speaking about the Jim Crow laws, they were the unjust laws meant to be broken, these were the laws that needed to go away and go away for good and African Americans were not going to stop until the unjust Jim Crow laws were gone for good and they were not afraid of a fight. But within the African American community there were two opposing forces; the church force who had a non-violent approach and were very complacent, and the militants who were advocates of violence, believed white people were blue- eyed devils and that African Americans were better off not integrating and should create their own nation. King placed himself in the middle of these two forces. King was smart in placing himself in the middle of the two forces because he created a spectrum of options for himself and others who want to join him. King may have been oppressed by the whites, but he was not afraid to fight back and tell them how he felt, and by placing himself in between the church and

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Malcolm X

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read” address their abilities of being self taught to read and write. A deficiency of education makes it difficult to traverse life in any case your race. Being an African American while in a dark period of mistreatment and making progress toward an advanced education demonstrates extraordinary devotion. Malcolm X seized “special pains” in searching to inform himself on “black history” (Malcolm X 3). African Americans have been persecuted all through history, yet two men endeavor to demonstrate that regardless of your past, an education can be acquired by anybody. Douglass and Malcolm X share some similarities on how they learned how to read and write as well

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

    1408 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King jr. and Malcolm X are still highly controversial African-American leaders.  Martin, a Christian integrationist, and Malcolm, a Muslim nationalist have been a powerful force against racial injustice.  Each man sacrificed his life for the freedom of his people; however, Martin and Malcolm had taken very different approaches in achieving equality and identity for African-Americans in the land of their birth.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist who was constantly engaging in peaceful protests to eliminate segregation. He was a minister who believed that there was four basic steps to a nonviolent campaign which are: “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action,” (King). Therefore, he constantly used these steps to perform sit-ins and marches in order to face the unjust racism he and other black people in America were facing at the time. Similarly, he had to use these tactics because the whites in society refused to listen to King when he wanted to negotiate with them (King). Dr. King made many sacrifices throughout his

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast the Work of Martin Luther King Jr & Malcolm X

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Jfk And Martin Luther King

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy were two very commendable men. They were two very different men that I feel had the same incredible amount passion for human beings. Both Dr. King and President Kennedy had such high hopes for this country and regardless of the sad and devastating time era, they both spoke with much poise and compassion. I truly believe they are exactly what this country needed and still needs to this very day.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. to the African Americans and to the white Americans in the August of 1963 was undoubtedly a motivator for many. It is no wonder why a vast majority of people living in the United States can recite words from the speech of a now deceased man. Because his language and diction spoke to all believers in freedom as well as to freedom's adversaries, his message was universal and had a meaning to all who heard it. This continues today. Freedom and equality are something to be attained, for all of us.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Gandhi And Martin Luther King

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    The definition of a leader is a person who influences people to a common purpose. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr are examples of great leaders who brought about social change through alternative means in the 20th century. Their means were through nonviolent protests of freedom. Gandhi fought for freedom from Great Britain, and King fought for freedom from segregation and equal rights for all Americans.

    Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

Open Document