Dr. King and Malcolm X each suggest radically different approaches to attaining freedom and equality for African-Americans in American society, contrast these two leaders’ approaches to freedom and equality, and state which side you believe is the more effective approach.
4 comments on “Dr. king Vs. Malcom X?”
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Valerie K
August 10, 2010 at 1:53 am
i hate malcolm X he tlked rudely about white people while mr. king tlked about freedom 4 every1
Mr. L
August 10, 2010 at 2:40 am
I won’t answer the question for you, but try this outline: (I happened to give my 8th graders almost this exact paper last year and I partially wrote the outline as an example for them)
I.Intro
a.Early in his career, Malcolm X believed in doing whatever necessary to get what he wanted while Martin Luther King believed in peace above everything else.
II.Malcolm X
a.Emotions that motivated him
b.Outlook of the future
i.Will the “race problem” be solved?
ii.If it’s not solved, creation of separate state.
iii.How will he accomplish his goals?
III.Martin Luther King
a.Emotions that motivated him
b.Outlook of the future
i.Will the race problem be solved? (Hint: Think about the I Have a Dream speech)
ii.How will he accomplish his goals?
IV.Which leader I agree with
a.Malcolm X
i.African Americans should not suffer inequalities so they should do whatever they have to so that things are made right
ii.He has every right to be angry – White people killed his father and burned his house down twice.
V.Conclusion
a.In conclusion, while both Civil Rights Leaders wanted a better left for African Americans, they attempted to accomplish their goals in very different ways…
Good luck.
Willow
August 10, 2010 at 3:38 am
Dr. King used Non-violence, he used peace.
Malcom X used violence, he was bitter and angry.
Jas G
August 10, 2010 at 3:43 am
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted a more peaceful approach. He hoped that with sit-ins and peace marches to appeal to the ideals of dignity and justice in the white people of the time. To show them the wrong in themselves, but only so that they would want to correct it in themselves out of their own personal honor.
Malcolm X on the other hand believed that white people would never give up their power, at least early on in his career as a civil rights leader. He believed they would only give it up if forced to do so, and that meant through militant means. He would eventually give this idea up in favor of more peaceful means after finding white Muslims who treated him and other black men as brothers; and black men who treated white people as brothers as well. And with this he began to realize that they could live in peace, and so he switched to a more peaceful style in his protests.
And while I know you didn’t ask about him, I think Jesse Jackson’s ideas at the time do merit some consideration. Now Jesse Jackson has since lost his credibility, he’s become out of touch with reality and his own integrity.
But at the time he was part of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, he had some pretty good ideas himself. While he wanted something more peaceful than Malcolm X, he was of the belief that something more radical than Dr. King’s style would be needed. He chose to use economic means to achieve the goal of black equality.
He used boycotts and protests of businesses that would refuse to serve black people equally to white people. He would take away from where it would hurt them most, the wallet. He didn’t appeal to a sense of justice, since not every white person saw black rights as justified. And he didn’t appeal to fear, as Malcolm X did; since he knew there would be those who would fight and it would cost everyone, but probably black people worse than white people.
He got them where it mattered to them, and that is money. He showed white people just how much black people had come to matter, just how much damage they could do to them even without violence. Everyone cares about money, and Jackson was able to exploit that for gain in the civil rights movement. Too bad he lost perspective, he would have been an amazing inheritor of Dr. King’s and Malcolm X’s if he had been able to keep himself in line.
Personally, I believe it is only a combination of the three that was effective. White people were shown the damage that could be done if they allowed Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson to gain control of the civil rights movement. Those two and the more militant members of the movement showed the white people just how far the black race was willing to go to get what was rightfully theirs. But this also showed the wisdom of dealing with those who were far more peaceful in their approach, like Dr. King.
And as they were “forced” to listen to Dr. King, they began to realize just how much sense he made. They would not have listened to him if it weren’t for the the more militant leaders; but once white people did listen to him, they began to see the errors of their ways and to move toward the more equal society that America espoused.