But why? He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race.". All Rights Reserved. The wealth and status of his family allowed Martin early access to a higher level of knowledge than most blacks at the time. And that mountaintop moment is going to be the Selma to Montgomery march, even though initially, when we think about March 7, 1965 Bloody Sunday demonstrators, including the late Congressman John Lewis, are battered by Alabama state troopers, non-violent demonstrators, peaceful demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. So what's interesting about this idea of separatism, Malcolm argues separatism is Black people having enough self-love and enough confidence in themselves to organize and build parallel institutions. Parents Earl Little, a Baptist lay preacher and his wife Louise instilled in Malcolm and his siblings the values of self-reliance and black pride which was to influence their famous son as a young man to enter politics. Martin Luther King took an opposing view, seeing integration as being the best way to bring about harmony in society and break down divisions. However, both men's tactics and strategies were vastly different. Visit our corporate site. The civil rights leaders did not see to eye to eye, and their encounter lasted minutes. Their different views may have been rooted from the where they were raised. Louise Little was committed to Kalamazoo State Hospital when Malcolm was about 9 years old causing him and his siblings to be separated and sent to foster homes. Before Martin Luther began his journey to fleeing his fellow Black from racial . But Parks defiance led to her arrest and the courts. So the morality and the religious argument is that Black people could not succumb to enemy politics. The epic journey along Route 80 attracted thousands and saw 25,000 entering the capital city in support of voting rights for African Americans. Some have literally slept in the mud. ", On what Malcolm X meant by racial separatism. On multiple occasions, Malcolm X took aim at King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, referring to him as an "Uncle Tom" (though he later drew back from using the term). You see him in an interview with [writer] Robert Penn Warren, saying that he and King have the same goals, which is human dignity, but they have different ways of getting there," Joseph explained. Although these two civil rights firebrand leaders operated from conflicting ends of the spectrum, they both demonstrated courage to the point of risking their lives, in order to bring about change for African Americans. As men with a shared vision for the future, but embracing divergent strategies, they become two of the most important and influential political activists of the 20th century. But author and Black Power scholar Peniel Joseph says the truth is more nuanced. Malcolm X was 39 when members of the Nation of Islam gunned him down on Feb. 21, 1965, as he gave a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. "Malcolm X was the first modern activist who was really saying 'Black Lives Matter' in a really deep and definitive way and became the avatar of the Black Power movement.". His impoverished upbringing where he spent several years in foster homes after his parents died shaped his outlook on life. Operation Paperclip: How Nazi scientists advanced American space travel, 8 fascinating facts about the summer solstice, The blue plaques honouring Black and Caribbean history in London, Who were the Dahomey Amazons? We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. The controversial boycott which lasted 385 days was sparked when seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man after the front white section was full. The lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King: The firebrand and the pacifist, 3 iconic Black civil rights activists born on Valentine's Day. The boycott of the Montgomery public buses finally led to a victorious conclusion when a ruling by the United States District Court, decided to prohibit racial segregation on all Montgomery buses. "King was the person who helped mobilize Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, and [he faced] German shepherds and fire hoses and was a big, global media spectacle," Joseph said. And when we think about after Watts, that's where King and Malcolm start to converge, because Malcolm had criticized the March on Washington as the "farce on Washington," because he said that King and the movement should have paralyzed Washington, D.C., and forced a reckoning about race in America. In response, Malcolm intensified his attacks on King, particularly over the March on Washington held just weeks later, and the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church that killed four African American girls that September. In his book, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Joseph braids together the lives of the two civil rights leaders. Although only meeting each other once at a public gathering and exchanging polite acknowledgement of each other, no two men fighting for the same outcome could have been so different in their beliefs and strategies to bring about emancipation for African Americans. Betty Shabazz long held Louis Farrakhan and other leaders in the Nation of Islam responsible for Malcolm Xs death, though Farrakhan has denied involvement in Malcolms murder. It was angriest I have ever been in my life'. New York, His father was an NAACP organizer and leader, and King credited the loving atmosphere of his youth for his belief in non-violent, civil disobedience as the means to attack racial prejudice in America. West Africa's fearsome female fighters. Aside from their differences in racial beliefs and ideologies, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King's struggles have a distinct trajectory. Thabo Jaiyesimi/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, The Power Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Anger, 'A Proud Walk': 3 Voices On The March From Selma To Montgomery. His main belief that underpinned essential strategies for change was that he believed what black people needed was to lead themselves and not rely on Christian traditions to save them. Decades after their deaths, the messages of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X still touch the hearts of millions. He's constantly telling especially as the movement gets further radicalized Black people that white people are good people, that white people, we can redeem the souls of the nation. Malcolm X operated from a traumatised youth. Malcolm X advocated for Black empowerment by any means possible countering Martin Luther Kings philosophy of peaceful non-violent protest to bring about change. The rock was landed on us', MLK : 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be not judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of the their character', MX : 'You and I have never seen democracy, all weve seen is hypocrisy' and 'If you were black you were born in jail'. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream'. 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"Malcolm X is really scarred by racial trauma at a very early age," Joseph says. Malcolm X didnt believe legislation would change anything whereas MLK hoped that the implementation of laws, won through the courts, such as the headline grabbing boycott of Montgomery buses in 1955, could begin to dismantle racism and segregation. Unlike Malcolm's more extreme experiences, Martin experienced class inequality to a higher degree. King was 39 as well, when James Earl Ray shot him down on April 4 1968, as he stood on . It can be said that the family situation has the most decisive influence on the ideology of the two civil rights activists. Malcolm X traveled to Washington in 1964 to testify on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Did the Mob kill JFK? It's the weapon of people who are powerful and courageous and brave and heroic and disciplined. And what he means by Black dignity is really Black people having the political self-determination to decide their own political futures and fates. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Leader. ", It is perhaps because they evolved and were willing to learn from each other that each man has remained as relevant today as in the 1960s. A mugshot of Malcolm X in 1944, Public domain. He encouraged white people to "work alongside useach of us working among our own kind.". As cameras clicked away, Malcolm expressed his desire to become more active, saying, Im throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights struggle. Then, just as quickly as it began, the brief meeting between the two legends was over. "Even with George Floyd and Black Lives Matter and the global protests, the only way to understand these movements is to understand Malcolm and Martin," Joseph said. Although Malcolm X eventually came to believe in black citizenship his early separatist vision, which he translated as not being about segregation between black and white citizens but separation, was based on his belief that white people did not want black people to be citizens and have dignity. Dr. King and Malcolm X both worked hard to establish legal equality for blacks. The piece famously They were the forefathers of many generations of black people. His mother was institutionalized several years later. "[They] were talking about so much of these issues of police brutality and the criminal justice system, racial segregation and poverty and state-sanctioned violence.". But Malcolms notion of empowerment leant itself to ideas of Black Supremacy and the separation of black and white Americans. Dr. King underlined that the white man should not be held accountable for the oppression of minorities and blacks. During this period, Malcolm was also very interested in the black suffrage movements. ", Related: Frederick Douglass: The slave who became a statesman. Later in his civil rights activity, we can see that Malcolm's early concerns are still rather significant. They just want to be included in the body politic and have citizenship. iIt was going to be more than just voting rights and ending segregation. Adopted a Global Consciousness Before Death. Comparing and Contrasting Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X In this compare and contrast essay, a student discusses Malcolm X's and Martin Luther King Jr.'s different approaches to the U.S. civil rights movement. This lesson will contrast the respective aims and means of . The Rev. In February 1965, King and other civil rights leaders were in Selma, Alabama, leading a voting rights campaign. "One of the surprising things is that we don't discuss the way in which the person who is most radicalized by Malcolm's assassination is Martin Luther King Jr.," Joseph said. Our forefathers arent the pilgrims. NY 10036. And of course, King famously had had armed guards around him in Montgomery, Ala., after his home was firebombed during the bus boycott of 1955 to '56. So King is going to make his last, fully nationally televised speech on March 25, 1965, where he talks about American democracy, racial justice, but the long road ahead. Due to his experiences of racial torments and humiliation the adolescent King felt resentment against whites in the segregated South. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. MX : 'We havent experienced the American Dream. Unlike the other children at the detention center who were sent to a reformatory, Malcolm was allowed to attend Mason Middle School, the only regular middle school in town. It was March 26, 1964, and both men were in Washington D.C. attending a Senate hearing on an anti-discrimination bill what would eventually become law as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 according to Biography. For his part, King warned that "fiery, demagogic oratory in the Black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as [Malcolm X] has done, can reap nothing but grief," according to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Malcolm, who publicly denied being an American, worked for the Nation of Islam, which wanted to establish a distinct society for its members. Of us working among our own kind. `` in racial beliefs and,. Was 39 as well, when James Earl Ray shot him down April! About change on our site, we can see that Malcolm 's early concerns still. That Malcolm 's more extreme experiences, Martin experienced class inequality to a higher.... 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