Luther King Vs. Malcom X

King and X had so many differences that popular misinformation or misinterpretation resulted in the conclusion that they were enemies.

In 1963, after being arrested for leading protests in Alabama, King wrote his LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL in which he stated the clarifications of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. A year after that, X spoke to African-Americans in many US cities in the speech entitled THE BALLOT OR THE BULLET in which he stated the role of politics and economics in oppressing blacks. Through these documents and their lives we can see quite a few similarities with many differences between them.

Here we have the story of two black men struggling with the same problem but with different philosophies, views, beliefs, attitudes and actions that led them to the same destiny.

same goals, their different methods to achieve that seemed to lie in their opposite past.

King was raised in a middle-class family in the south. He attended a segregated school and graduated with honors as a Bachelor in Sociology. After that he earned a doctoral degree in Systematic Theology. He earned many other awards and at the age of thirty-five he was the youngest ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

King advocated and used non-violence as form of action. In “Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored” (King 27) he shows how the non-violence action method works. On the other hand X said: “It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if you are not ready to pay that price, don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary” (X 79), showing his extremely radical view about the way of action.

In the end King and X had one similar dream: the dream of freedom and the end of racism but unfortunately their destinies didn’t give them time to realize these goals. X was assassinated in Manhattan, by three Muslim men with fifteen bullets into his body and King was assassinated in Memphis by a sniper who killed him with just one shot in the neck. But death did not kill their dreams. They were destined to become legends for all the generations that followed and the inspirations for some problems that still remain in our world. Today, African-Americans regard both as martyrs who died for their people in the fight for equality and they probably could have accomplished even more changes if their lives hadn’t been ended so early.

X had emerged from an oppressed black community in the north. When he was six years old

Some topics in this essay:
Asia Africa, BALLOT BULLET, Muhammad’s Muslim, Jr Malcom, Manhattan Muslim, I’m Muslim, Prize King, Systematic Theology, Christian Muslim, Rights Movement, black community, civil rights, religious philosophy, black nationalism, white people, christian minister, false sense, king christian,