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Of them, Malcom X and Martin Luther King are of special interest to me. Ever since watching Malcom X’s biographical film, directed by Spike Lee, I have been willing to know more about his life and ideas, and about discrimination in America against the black community.
Thinking of Malcom X in relation to Martin Luther King was almost inevitable, as these two figures formed part of a broad movement that took place in the United States in the fifties and sixties, and that encompassed the American black community as a whole. ... I found a lot more information about Martin Luther King than about Malcom X and, while what was said about Luther King was always positive, people’s opinion about Malcom X was, in many occasions, quite negative. This fact confirmed my idea of writing a paper based on a comparison of these two figures in order to find out whether there were any points in common between them or not.
Purpose of the paper
This paper will deal with the struggle for black people’s rights in the USA during the 1950s and the 1960s, and more specifically with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X’s struggle.
Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X fought against racial injustice in the USA during that period of time, although they did so in different ways. While King preached an integrationist ideal by which blacks and whites would live in terms of equality, Malcolm X thought that integration between blacks and whites in the American society was impossible.
Because of his ideas of separation and of his promotion of self-defence, Malcolm X has always been regarded as an advocator of violence and remained in history as such. Martin Luther King, on the contrary, has always been considered a peaceful fighter for a fair cause and is remembered by a vast majority of Americans with much more respect than Malcolm X is. ... Some would argue that, in spite of their differences, both were fighting for the same cause, and against the same system that oppressed black people since the beginning of slavery.
In order to answer these and other questions that may arise, as well as to understand Malcolm X and Martin Luther King’s different approaches towards the struggle against injustice, we must first take a deep look at their social and educational backgrounds, which most probably determined the choices they made. As Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography: “People are always speculating why am I as I am? ... Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient…”
MALCOLM X AND MARTIN LUTHER KING
Their social, religious and educational background
Martin Luther King: His early life in the segregationist South
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, into a middle class family and community. The system of segregation in Atlanta –which was abided by law- was very strict, the same as in many other Southern cities:
“For a long, long time I could not go swimming, until there was a Negro YMCA. ... There were one or two Negro theatres, but they didn’t get any of the main pictures. If they did get them, they got them two or three years later…In those days, rigid patterns of segregation existed on the buses, so that Negroes had to sit in the backs of buses. ...
Martin Luther King was aware of discrimination since a very early age. ... And Martin Luther King was very privileged –in relation to many, or most, of the young people of his race- in that he received a very good education. ...
Two other factors contributed to his acceptance of white people. ... Two churches in the East were interested in him. ...
Malcom X: Northern white extremists’ attacks against his family
Malcolm Little, as was his name before changing it into Malcolm X, was born in 1929 in Omaha, Nebraska. ... Both his father and mother -unlike Martin’s parents who had both attended college- were uneducated. His father, as well as Martin Luther’s, was a Baptist preacher and as such, a promoter of black people’s rights. But unlike Martin’s father, he believed in separation rather than integration. ... Malcolm attributed his mother’s bitter feeling towards him as a reaction to his light coloured skin which ,according to him, must have reminded her of the anger she felt for her own father, a white man who had raped her mother. ... He felt they treated him in a condescending way and much as they seemed to like him, they didn’t expect from him the same they would expect from a white boy. ... His attitude towards whites changed after that trip. And it changed even more after his eighth grade teacher told him –in spite of his being one of the best students of the school- that it was not a realistic goal for a “nigger” to become a lawyer, as he had expressed to be his desire and that he should rather think of something that he could do, such as carpentry. ...
Conversion to the Nation of Islam: a first step towards becoming a leader
That same year, he converted to the Nation of Islam, a religion founded by Elijah Muhammad, the “Messenger of Allah”. ... That same year he met Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, the headquarters of the Nation of Islam. The following year, he changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X and became Assistant Minister of Nation of Islam’s Detroit Temple. ...
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Non-violent struggle for Negroes civil rights in America
Although Martin Luther King had always been aware of, and fought against, racial injustice in one way or another, it was not until he finished his studies and established in Montgomery that he began his actual non-violent struggle against the white segregationist system in the South. ...
Montgomery boycott
In December 1955, Martin Luther King, together with other members of the civil rights movement, organised the Montgomery boycott with the aim of achieving desegregation on buses. ... The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was born, with Martin Luther King chosen as its president, to determine how the specific goals of the protest were to be achieved. ...
Pilgrimage to Washington
In 1957, Martin Luther King became head of a newly formed organisation named Southern Leaders Conference –later, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)- which aimed at coordinating action among local protests groups. That same year, he carried out a Pilgrimage to Washington in commemoration of the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision outlawing segregation. ... Luther King participated in it not as a leader but as a supportive figure, invited to do so by the students who followed his steps in the non-violent fight. ... The same year, the Albany Movement fought against school segregation, denial of voting rights and segregation in parks, restaurants, libraries and buses. ...
The Albany Movement
In 1962, the Albany Movement invited the SCLC, Martin Luther being its president, to share leadership with it. ...
March on Washington
Later that year, Martin delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech in the March on Washington. According to Luther King more than two thousand people of all races and faiths participated in the march.
The result which Martin considered to have been achieved through this march was the fact that, thanks to the wide national and international media coverage, white Americans were able to witness for the first time the “informed, thoughtful, organised Negroes fighting for their rights” and thus to question the stereotyped image they had of the black man. ... Augustine, Florida – according to Martin, the stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan-, demonstrations were held as a reaction against violence and brutality both overlooked and committed by the police, as well as against segregation laws. ...
Martin would later reflect upon this achievement and say: “Demonstrations, experience has shown, are part of the process of stimulating legislation and law enforcement. ...
This same year, in recognition for his fight not only for civil rights but for human rights as well, Martin Luther King was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. ...
Martin Luther King´s first involvement in a North conflict
In 1965, Martin Luther King was involved in a North conflict at the invitation of local groups. ...
The invitation to participate in that conflict, gave Martin an opportunity to get more involved in the North’s racial problems, and it surely awoke his interest to start having a more active participation in them. ...
That same year, the Coordinating Council of Community Organization (CCCO), a coalition of civil rights organisations in Chicago, invited the SCLC to fight for quality integrated education.
Approximate Word count = 7144
Approximate Pages = 28.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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