The Aims and Methods of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

The Aims and Methods of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

The civil rights movement saw many leaders and campaigning groups but

it is fair to say the two most significant leaders were Malcolm X and

Martin Luther King. Although over the horizon the same objective was

clear in both of their minds, their methods were contrasting and their

views were different.

Martin Luther King, for a black man was born into a fairly rich

family and raised in a loving environment his dad being a Baptist

preacher. King wanted to follow his father and studied at university

and became a preacher.

King aimed to achieve total integration and equality in the U.S.A,

and for all to live in a loving environment. He wanted to change

America for the good and he felt that greed needed to be eradicated

from society if he was to achieve his goal. But King is best known for

his strong belief in non-violent means of achieving his targets, even

in the face of white violence he told blacks they should love their

enemy – this bemused a lot of blacks but King argued that this kept

Blacks on the morale high ground.

The Montgomery bus boycotts gave King a chance to spring into the

limelight as a leader, King was a key figure in organising cab runs

and continually motivating boycotters, due to his gift of speech. The

boycotts were a success and this was largely thanks to Kings

contribution, he gave people new hope of achieving things they had

never dreamt about before. Although for his non-violent approach to be

successful, he needed the inverse (violence), to make whites out to be

the beast, one could argue that without violence Martin Luther King

would not h...

... middle of paper ...

...r stages of both men’s

careers they grew to respect each other more and understood each

others beliefs. It is this notion that Malcolm X was perhaps on the

brink of achieving all the more of his potential as a leader that

makes the point of his assassination all the more interesting.

Both men were hugely different in the philosophies and character –

there is no question in that. But the interesting factor we can draw

from both of their lives is the impact in dissimilar fashions they

both had upon the civil rights movement. Towards the end of both their

careers they were gradually moving closer to the same wavelength. What

makes these two men remarkable is their courage to preach for justice

throughout any circumstance and their fight for civil rights to the

bitter end has undoubtedly helped change our society today.