Compare And Contrast Martin Luther King Jr And Mlk

Martin Luther King Argumentative Essay

At the times of both Malcolm X and Dr. King, African Americans were not being treated fairly by white people. During these times, many people believed that segregation had to end.

They were called civil rights leaders. Among these leaders were Malcolm X and Martin Luther

King. They, like their fellow civil rights leaders, believed that segregation had finally gone too far. While they fought for the same cause, they had very different ways of going about it.

Malcolm X pushed more towards violence, and Dr. King preached for peace. Even though Dr.

King and Malcolm X both fought against racial inequality, Dr. King was more persuasive in his letter because he is more likely to gain the respect of those who

As a result, when he said fellow, he hinted that he too is a clergyman and that they should listen to him and speak to him as an equal. This would make more people listen because he is a high ranking man in the church. Another part where King is very persuasive is when he mentions that he is “president of the Southern

Christian Leadership Conference.”(King) an organization which has “eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human

Rights”(King). By saying that he is the leader of such a prestigious organization, he is gaining the respect and support of those who thought that he was not a credible person to be leading a campaign. This is a clear representation of how he is getting people to respect him because the extra detail about his credibility would allow people to see him for who he really is, a strong and respectful man who just wants all men to be treated equally. This is how Martin Luther King used ethos to gain the respect of his opposers. Just as how Dr. King used ethos to gain his supporters, Malcolm X believed that pathos was the right course of action.

Likewise, Malcolm X was also a very persuasive writer. Some aspects where he

A reason why he failed to bring the white communities support was that he used racial slurs like “Polacks”(X) for those with Polish descent, and

“Honkies”(X) for any white person in general. This would cause the white community to turn away from his cause and campaign because they would be offended by the way he talks about them. This would also make them believe that Malcolm X is saying that Blacks are better than whites, not that they are equal. Another aspect where he failed to be as persuasive is when he preached violence instead of peace. In his speech, Malcolm X mentioned that if there is no change then, the African Americans will start using “Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next month.”(X). In the speech, X is saying that if the

African Americans don’t start to get treated right with peace, then they would resort to violence and fight. This would not help persuade the whole community because if you fight fire with fire, then you will only result in a larger fire. If he decided to go to war for this, then the only thing that it would result in was more chaos. Malcolm X was not as persuasive as Martin Luther