Compare And Contrast Malcolm X And Martin Luther King

Same Dream, Altered Focus In the time surrounding the 1960s racial equality was a far off concept. In addition to blatant racial oppression, “Jim Crow” laws were in effect, barring African Americans from classrooms, bathrooms, train cars, theaters, and even legislatures. The civil rights movement began as an effort to end racial segregation and discrimination evident during this period. Civil rights activists, Martin Luther King and Malcom X, delivered speeches through their subjective rhetoric and different perspectives to violence within its relevance to the movement. King and Malcom establish credibility, emotional effect, and appeal to the audience’s values to establish a connection with them in efforts to persuade their spectators to

Malcom states:
We have a common enemy. We have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. But once we all realize that we have this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy – the white man. He’s an enemy to all of us. (Malcom X, 2)
Through the use of anaphora, he motivates his audience into a state of united hatred and gives them a common enemy, the white man. This leads to his conclusion that the only way to gain independence is to revolt through violence, a destructive and dark path. Malcom had lost all hope for equality and concluded that rather than fighting for the right to sit next to a white man on the bus or even go to the same bathroom as a white man, they should fight for the right to a country of their own through a bloody, and violent

He questions, “How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and Alabama when your churches are being bombed and your little girls are being murdered, and at the same time you’re getting violent with Hitler and Tojo and somebody that you don’t even know?” (Malcom X, 4) Malcom points out the incongruity of a dispute for nonviolence when the very nation of which they live in responds with violence whenever they feel threatened or provoked even in the slightest. He stirs up an emotional reaction talking about “your little girls” being murdered and makes the statement relatable. The white oppressors of the time could be seen as a “Hitler,” and he feels the only way America responded to him was through violence, so they should do the