Martin Luther King Jr. Vs. Malcolm X

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Recommended: Contrast martin luther king and malcolm x leadership styles

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X played a major role in Civil Rights protesting. They were the most famous, and are still heard of frequently throughout History textbooks and magazine articles. Though they died a while back, their legacy still lives on, to live in a world free of segregation, but they each had different ways of “getting what they want”, and some ways of getting what they want led to the bad memories that people rather not speak about.
Martin was a peaceful man, his father was a southern Baptist preacher; and he as a young boy decided that was where his path was leading as well. (King in Fisher) While being a preacher he decided he wanted to be a civil rights leader, which began his journey as a well known leader. His way of protesting was fine yet effective. Martin’s long speeches often caught people’s eye, and drew them into the crowd. He was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee; which led to many riots by the African American community. Malcolm X was, well, a lot different. As Martin was remembered by everyone happily, most people tried to forget Malcolm. After being sent to prison for drug use he was converted to Islam and prior to that was pro segregation. (King in Fisher) But he wanted to be treated equally. Malcolm was known for his boldness, he is often tagged with the quote “To do whatever it takes”(Robert Shetterly/Americans Who Tell The Truth) Meaning that he would do whatever it took to be considered equal. This usually led to less peaceful acts of protesting, plus he was more interested in spreading “black pride”. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
Both Martin and Malcolm were considered great leaders by people. They each just had a different way of expressing their opin...

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...h their opinions and ideas were expressed in dissimilar ways, Martin Luther King Jr. got his voice on constant replay in people’s heads; and Malcolm X was feared and respected by people to be the man who was a “black activist”.(X in Fisher) And each had their role in black and white history, even though their stories aren’t black and white at all.

Works Cited

Robert Shetterly/Americans Who Tell The Truth. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/malcolm-x

Ladenburg, T. (2007). Martin Luther King & Malcolm X on violence and integration. In
Digital History Retrieved from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/ lesson_plans/pdfs/unit11_6.pdf Fisher, R. (n.d.). Martin Luther King and Malcolm X debate [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4PqLKWuwyU&feature=share&list=PLyhMzRYjXzh. ez1oSSNn8TW3KrU6My0dzc&index=4

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