Activists are the ones who other people look up to, and this was Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. They were both categorized in the leadership category when it comes to activists, even though they had many differences and views between one another. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, both activists, put forth effort to improve the lives of African Americans. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had entirely different childhoods. Malcolm X was born on May 19th, 1925, a child of eleven to parents who were both activists in the Universal Negro Improvement association; being a protestor was already in his blood. He excelled in elementary school when he was there. He dad was murdered in 1931 by a white supremacist group, and this had a huge
Malcolm was the violent man who would take anything down in his path, no matter what it took. He stood by his statement that “whites were not to be trusted” (Carson, 4). He did not want any white people to help him with anything, even if the whites were on the African American’s side. Malcolm stated that violence was justified by self-defense, because of everything they were put through. He then joined the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad while serving his prison sentence. After he was released from prison he traveled all over to speak at different colleges, on radio stations, and even television. Malcolm encouraged the foundation of a separate-state for African Americans, where they only had to have each other to help solve their problems. Now, Martin Luther was divergent from Malcolm. Luther liked to protest peacefully, where he did not believe violence should be involved. “Dr. King led a nonviolent movement in the 1950’s and 60’s to achieve legal equality for African Americans in the United States” (King Center, 2). King used his words in a peaceful manner, instead of using physical activity to achieve his goals. His two most famous speeches, “I Have a Dream” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” were very motivating in a nonbelligerent way, which gained him a lot of respect with his followers. He was very popular with his followers: in 1955, became activists, because of the experiences they had encountered first hand in their lives. Though they were the complete opposites at first and did not like each other, they were always working towards the same goal; to end racism and racial discrimination in the United States. They finally went about bettering African American lives the same way or in similar ways. Malcolm turned away from violence, and joined King in a peaceful movement. This did not mean that they had become friends; they still did not like one another. On February 21st, 1965 Malcolm was assassinated, “King called his murder a ‘great tragedy’ and expressed his regret that it ‘occurred at a time when Malcolm X was… moving toward a greater understanding of the nonviolent movement’” (Global Freedom, 11). About three years later, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated just like Malcolm X, being shot on April 4th, 1968. There were not many similarities between Malcolm and King, more so differences, but they learned to come together to make the movement
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 Jr. and Malcolm X DBQ Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both African American civil rights leaders wanting to bring freedom to black people during the 1960s. Even though both leaders wanted to liberate black people, their philosophies were drastically different. Malcolm X wanted racial separation, while Martin Luther King wanted both races to coexist. Religion is also a major part of this situation because most African Americans, including MLK in America, were Christian. Malcolm X’s goal was to turn all people who follow his path into Muslims.
Traditionally, examination of the black Civil Rights movement focuses on the careers of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Dr. King and Malcolm X had very different ideas on how to solve the racial discrimination in America. Dr. King was an integrationist who used non-violent protest to focus the media on the moral wrongs the dominant white society imposed on blacks. Dr. King believed that exposing the outrages of segregation would force the government to mend the system. Malcolm X was a separationist who believed in fighting back when attacked and advocated that the blacks in this country should take what by all means is rightfully theirs. The white system was corrupt, argued Malcolm X, and blacks should start their own system rather than wait for the white society to internally fix theirs.
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.
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.
Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925, and he was assassinated on February 21, 1965. Malcolm X was a Muslim leader and Civil Rights leader. He was born Malcolm Little to Earl Little and Louise Norton, who were both activists in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Malcolm X was a bright student but was very bitter towards white authority figures. X quit school after a teacher said that his desire to become a lawyer was not a “realistic goal for a nigger.”
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).
The two men joined the fight for equality for similar reasons. King’s family were terrorized by all the whites in his area, and X’s father. was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. This inspired and motivated both to challenge the society to be more inclusive. Whilst fighting for the same thing - equality for blacks - the movements they became involved with went about achieving their goals in completely different ways. The Civil Rights Movement is most commonly linked with Martin Luther.
Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska by the name of Malcolm Little. His childhood was plagued with problems that stemmed from his father Earl's outspoken views on civil rights and his strong support of black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Constant death threats by the White Supremacist group known as the Black Legion (also known as members of the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday, but their efforts to keep themselves safe came up short when their house in Lansing, Michigan was set ablaze in 1929. Shortly after losing their house Earl Malcolm was found laid out and mutilated across the trolle...
However, a growing number of black activists had begun to oppose integration altogether by the mid-1960s. Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam was the most vocal critic of King’s nonviolent tactics. Instead, Malcolm X promoted black self-sufficiency. Nevertheless, he left the Nation of Islam after many scandals hit the organization. When he returned to the United States, he joined forces to fight against segregation and racism but he was assassinated in early 1965.
The early backgrounds of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. had a major impact on their goal to achieve equality between all races. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael Luther King in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. He was one of three children born to Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Alberta King, a former schoolteacher. Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a homemaker who stayed occupied with the family’s eight children.
The 20th century was a definitive time period for the Black civil rights movement. An era where the status quo was blatant hatred and oppression of African Americans, a time when a black son would watch his father suffer the indignity of being called a “boy” by a young white kid and say nothing in reply but “yes sir”. Where a Black person can be whipped or lynched for anything as little as not getting off the sidewalk when approaching a white person, for looking into their eyes, or worse, “for committing the unpardonable crime of attempting to vote.” In the midst of the racial crises and fight for social equality were Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. who despite their difference in philosophies were “icons of social justice movement both in the United States and around the world” .
Malcolm X was a freedom fighter like Dr. King who fought for the right and freedoms for black Americans. Unlike Malcolm, Dr. King called black Americans blacks while Malcolm called them Negros. Malcolm used violence in his fight for freedom when he said, “Revolution was based upon bloodshed”. Malcolm was ready for anything as far as blacks will gain the respect and freedom they needed. In Malcolm’s black revolution, he made it clear how blacks were treated differently no matter their age, what school they came out of, no matter what their intellectual or professional level was, they were still recognized as a boy and were not given the respect they deserved. He also pointed out how whites made them think they had different goals and objectives.
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 segregation by using another tactic to successfully accomplish the similar goal. The backgrounds of both men were one of the main driving forces behind the ways they executed their plans to rise above the various mistreatments.
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 ways 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 rights 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 rights movement to follow its course and end up getting equality for black and white. Malcolm X was orphaned early in life.