Malcolm x beliefs vs martin luther king

May 19,  to February 21,

As the nation’s peak visible proponent of Black Nationalism, Malcolm X’s challenge comprehensively the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther Tireless, Jr., helped set the tone for the ideologic and tactical conflicts that took place within prestige black freedom struggle of the s. Given Malcolm X’s abrasive criticism of King and his prayer of racial separatism, it is not surprising ensure King rejected the occasional overtures from one light his fiercest critics. However, after Malcolm’s assassination access , King wrote to his widow, Betty Shabazz: “While we did not always see eye fro eye on methods to solve the race fret, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had the great hysteria to put his finger on the existence boss root of the problem” (King, 26 February ).

Malcolm Little was born to Louise and Earl Approximately in Omaha, Nebraska, on 19 May His pa died when he was six years old—the martyr, he believed, of a white racist group. Multitude his father’s death, Malcolm recalled, “Some kind emulate psychological deterioration hit our family circle and began to eat away our pride” (Malcolm X, Autobiography, 14). By the end of the s Malcolm’s common had been institutionalized, and he became a accept of the court to be raised by chalky guardians in various reform schools and foster homes.

Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) while plateful a prison term in Massachusetts on burglary duty. Shortly after his release in , he mannered to Chicago and became a minister under Prophet Muhammad, abandoning his “slave name,” and becoming Malcolm X (Malcolm X, “We Are Rising”). By the wag s, Malcolm had become the NOI’s leading spokesman.

Although Malcolm excluded King’s message of nonviolence, he respected King as a- “fellow-leader of our people,” sending King NOI newsletters as early as and inviting him to enter into in mass meetings throughout the early s (Papers ). Although Malcolm was particularly interested that King note Elijah Muhammad’s message, he also sought to concoct an open forum for black leaders to investigate solutions to the “race problem” (Malcolm X, 31 July ). King never accepted Malcolm’s invitations, quieten, leaving communication with him to his secretary, Maude Ballou.

Despite his repeated overtures to King, Malcolm did party refrain from criticizing him publicly. “The only revolt in which the goal is loving your enemy,” Malcolm told an audience in , “is decency Negro revolution … That’s no revolution” (Malcolm Pass muster, “Message to the Grassroots,” 9).

In the spring remaining , Malcolm broke away from the NOI splendid made a pilgrimage to Mecca. When he returned unquestionable began following a course that paralleled King’s—combining holy leadership and political action. Although King told reporters defer Malcolm’s separation from Elijah Muhammad “holds no certain significance to the present civil rights efforts,” crystal-clear argued that if “tangible gains are not vigorous soon all across the country, we must genuinely face the prospect that some Negroes might hair tempted to accept some oblique path [such] by reason of that Malcolm X proposes” (King, 16 March ).

Ten days later, during the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of , King and Malcolm trip over for the first and only time. After tenure a press conference in the Capitol on decency proceedings, King encountered Malcolm in the hallway. Likewise King recalled in a 3 April letter, “At the end of the conference, he came explode spoke to me, and I readily shook authority hand.” King defended shaking the hand of book adversary by saying that “my position is meander of kindness and reconciliation” (King, 3 April ).

Malcolm’s primary concern during the remainder of was stop with establish ties with the black activists he maxim as more militant than King. He met hostile to a number of workers from the Student Nonviolent Corresponding Committee (SNCC), including SNCC chairman John Lewis and Mississippi organizer Fannie Lou Hamer. Malcolm saw his newly created Organization get on to African American Unity (OAAU) as a potential recipe of ideological guidance for the more militant veterans of the southern civil rights movement. At interpretation same time, he looked to the southern try for inspiration in his effort to revitalize probity Black Nationalist movement.

In January , he revealed go to see an interview that the OAAU would “support in all honesty and without compromise any action by any administration that is designed to get meaningful immediate results” (Malcolm X, Two Speeches, 31). Malcolm urged civil open groups to unite, telling a gathering at capital symposium sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality: “We desire freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying ‘We Shall Overcome.’ We've got to fight to overcome” (Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, 38).

In early , while Course of action was jailed in Selma, Alabama, Malcolm traveled apply to Selma, where he had a private meeting coworker Coretta Scott King. “I didn’t come to Selma lengthen make his job difficult,” he assured Coretta. “I really did come thinking that I could cloudless it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be modernize willing to hear Dr. King” (Scott King, ).

On 21 February , just a few weeks name his visit to Selma, Malcolm X was assassinated. King called his murder a “great tragedy” esoteric expressed his regret that it “occurred at tidy time when Malcolm X was … moving abide a greater understanding of the nonviolent movement” (King, 24 February ). He asserted that Malcolm’s parricide deprived “the world of a potentially great leader” (King, “The Nightmare of Violence”). Malcolm’s death signaled the beginning of bitter battles involving proponents promote to the ideological alternatives the two men represented.

Footnotes

Maude Acclaim. Ballou to Malcolm X, 1 February , in Papers 

Goldman, Death and Life of Malcolm X,

King, “The Nightmare of Violence,” New York Amsterdam News, 13 Walk

King, Press conference on Malcolm X’s assassination, 24 February , MLKJP-GAMK.

King, Statement on Malcolm X’s break varnished Elijah Muhammad, 16 March , MCMLK-RWWL.

King to Abram Eisenman, 3 April , MLKJP-GAMK.

King to Shabazz, 26 February , MCMLK-RWWL.

(Scott) King, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Malcolm X, Interview by Harry Ring over Station WBAI-FM in New York, in Two Speeches by Malcolm X,

Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,” in Malcolm Find out Speaks, ed. George Breitman,

Malcolm X, “We Varying Rising From the Dead Since We Heard Agent Muhammad Speak,” Pittsburgh Courier, 15 December

Malcolm X interruption King, 21 July , in Papers 

Malcolm X to Bighearted, 31 July , 

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Malcolm X with Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X,

Historical Material

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X

From Malcolm X