A Different Kind of Leader There are many prominent Civil Rights leaders that stand out from the past. All of which had their own unique way of fighting for what they believed in. Two of those past leaders are Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They both fought for Black Rights and were both very good at what they did. Even though they both fought for Civil Rights, they used different approaches to fight for what they believed in because of their different upbringings and how that influenced them as they became adults and later as leaders in the fight for Civil Rights. Malcolm X had an interesting childhood that ended up shaping how he would end up as an adult. Malcolm had a very large family, he was one of eight children. His mothers’ name was Louise Norton Little. She was a stay at home mom and cared for her children. His father, Earl Little, was a very outspoken Baptist minister and an avid supporter of the Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. This is where his life started to get interesting. Earl's civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday. ( www.malcolmx.com p 1). Earl wanted nothing to do with violence and wanted to keep his family safe from harm. He tried to put as much distance between him and the Black Legion. Despite his efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929, their home in Lansing, Michigan, was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl's body was found lying across the town's trolley tracks (www.malcolmx.com p 1). Police declared that both of these incidents were in fact accidents and not attacks on the family by the Black Legion. This violent end to Malcolm’s father’s life ... ... middle of paper ... ...or freedom by “any means necessary,” including violence, Martin Luther King, Jr. used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly-impossible goals. (www.thekingcenter.org. p 3). Martin Luther King, Jr.’s childhood really did affect how he acted as an adult and shaped the way he acted as a Civil Rights leader. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. were both great leaders. They both fought for Civil Rights, but they fought for it in different ways. Their upbringings, and studies greatly influenced how they fought for Civil Rights. Malcolm X was more for violent attacks or whatever they thought was needed to achieve their goal. While, Martin Luther King, Jr. was an advocate of nonviolence and fought for what he believed in without violence.
Of the people whose names are mentioned in history, some men like Thomas Edison are praised for their genius minds, while others such as Adolf Hitler are criticized for leaving a depressing legacy behind. While it is relative easy to notice the type of legacies these two men left, legacies of other men are often vague and they seem to be imbedded in gray shadows. This is how many people view the life of Malcolm X. Malcolm X during his lifetime had influenced many African Americans to step up for their rights against the injustices by the American government. One on hand, he has been criticized for his hard stances that resemble extremism, while on the other hand he has been praised him for his effort in raising the status for African Americans. The extremes in viewing his life from the modern day perspective have often come from reading his climatic speech The Ballot or the Bullet that he gave in many cities across America in 1964. When he was with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X favored Blacks to be separated from the Whites, and during this time he strongly opposed White Supremacy. This also seems quite prevalent in his speech The Ballot or the Bullet. However, one events during the last year of his life reveal that he wanted the Blacks and the Whites to coexist as peaceful Americans.
If there was any one man who demonstrated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man was Malcolm X. The African American cultural movement of the 1920s lost momentum in the 1930s because of worldwide economic depression. The Great Depression helped to divert attention from cultural to economic matters. Even before the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment and poverty among blacks was exceptionally high. It was under these difficult conditions that Malcolm X experienced his youth in the South. Malcolm X was a very controversial character in his time. He grew up in a very large family. His father hunted rabbits to sell to the white people for money, and his mother stayed home to take care of all the children. Several times when he was young, his family was forced to relocate due to the racist groups that would burn or run them out of their home like the Ku Klux Klan. One of these groups called the Black Legion killed his father by tying him to the railroad tracks. Malcolm’s father had life insurance but was not given to his family because they said that Earl Little had committed suicide. This was quite impossible because his head was bashed in and he tied himself to the railroad. Without his father’s income, Malcolm's family was forced to get government help and food. Applying for this type of assistance brought many white Social Workers into their home. They asked questions and interrogated the entire family. Malcolm’s mother always refused to talk or let them in.
The Civil Rights movement was a movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern States that became nationally recognized in the middle of the 1950s. Though American slaves were given basic civil rights through the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments of the Constitution, African Americans still had a hard time trying to get federal protection of their newly found rights. A man by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the American Civil rights Leaders who used nonviolence in order to reach a social change. He used nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice against African Americans like segregation laws. He wasn’t just fighting for the equality of all African American but was also fighting for the equality of all men and women. Malcolm X is another great leader who fought for what he believed in. He was a black activist who, unlike King, promoted a little violence. Malcolm X wanted the nation (African Americans) to become more active in the civil rights protests. Both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had different methods for gaining civil rights. I believe that Martin Luther King Jr. method was more effective thanMalcolm X methods. In King “’Letter from Birmingham Jail” King defends himself on writing about why he is using nonviolent resistance to racism. Throughout the letter he shows his reasoning using logic, emotion, and ethics. Throughout his life King used this same method to reach how to hundred of thousands of African Americans.
Martin Luther King and Malcolm x are both strong representations of two different approaches to a common goal. Martin Luther King Jr. preferred a nonviolence approach to the situation. Whereas, Malcolm X handled racism in a violent approach. However, both man believed African Americans deserved their human rights and equal say. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in an integrated society while Malcolm X wanted African Americans to have their segregated neighborhoods just as good as the whites.
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.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were two of the most prominent leaders and orators at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. Although both leaders possessed the same objectives, their outlooks and perspectives differed immensely.
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. Instilled with hope of a better community and civilisation around the world,
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were the two most influential leaders of the civil rights movement. They inspired the need for change and the conquest for civil liberty. Stylistically, their philosophies, rhetoric, and feedback from the public significantly varied. Some of their tactics were controversial, and they both died in the fight for total freedom. Despite their differences, in the end, civil rights were established for all men, and segregation laws were eradicated. All in all, MLK and Malcolm X used different strategies to fight for civil
Malcolm was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska to Louise and Earl Little. His Father, Earl, was a Baptist minister and an active member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (founded by Marcus Garvey). Due to his involvement in civil rights, Malcolm and his family were harassed and experienced racism from an early age, and Malcolm’s encounter before he was even born. In his own words, Malcolm said: “ When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, ‘ a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped to our home, brandishing their guns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out’.”
The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most important events of the history of the United States. Although many people contributed to this movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely regarded as the leader of the movement for racial equality. Growing up in the Deep South, King saw the injustices of segregation first hand. King’s studies of Mahatma Ghandi teachings influenced his views on effective ways of protesting and achieving equality. Martin Luther King’s view on nonviolence and equality and his enormous effect on the citizens of America makes him the most influential person of the twentieth century.
In contrast, Dr. King believed in the change through nonviolent methods, influenced by Gandhi. He also showed his readiness to work with whites toward social justice. However, X and Dr. King, with their two different ideologies, wanted to attain the same goal, Afro-Americans’ freedom (Malcolm X).
Malcolm X or Malcolm Little and also known as “El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz”, was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. He had a hard child a young adult life. His admirers he was a courageous speaking for the rights of blacks, a man who accuses white America in the meanest terms for their crimes against black Americans; critics accused him of preaching racism and violence. “He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history along with martin luther king jr.” based on some of the things malcolm has done, Martin luther king jr. definitely had a different way of approaching issues. with both of their totally different way of getting their point across, discussion could be made on who was more effective in the civil rights movement as a whole. If Malcolm x wasn't around and fighting for civil right around the same time as MLK was doing it here he probably would of had much of a chance and would have just been killed, he in a way motivated the whole world into fighting for civil rights in their country, without his “black power” philosophy. he was easily in the top five people that got the civil right movement to follows it course and end up get equality for black and white.
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.
The civil rights movement in the 1950s-1960s was a struggle for social justice for African Americans to gain equal rights. One activist who became the most recognizable spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr, a christian man dedicated to the ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. Although the Civil war had officially abolished slavery, blacks were still treated as less than human for many years after. Martin Luther King Jr has positively impacted the world with his peaceful protest approach to gaining social justice; but with the increase of hate crimes being committed, I believe individuals today need to pick up where King left
First, Martin Luther King Jr. fought for civil rights for all people can be equal. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech in front of over