Malcolm would attend their meetings and build his perspective from them. Malcolm had many troubles his father was killed by a white mob and his mother institutionalized; although he was advanced in his studies and wanted to be a lawyer, he became discouraged by the discrimination and the racial blockades he would have to face to become a professional; and dropped out of school. He became involved in the gritty street life of his new home Harlem, New York. He sent to prison where he was self-taught and followed the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. To understand Malcolm and Martin's ideas, it is necessary to know where they came from and how they formed their beliefs.
With their polar opposite upbringings and different experiences with racial discrimination shaping their perspective of civil rights, it is expected for them to have different philosophies and views on the concept of using race as a way to categorize people. Martin, like his father and Christian teachings, preached tolerance and denounced violence as a means to achieve something. Influenced By Mahatma Gandhi and the victory Gandhi gained with his non-violent civil disobedience policy, Martin as an African American leader, urged his people to act in a civil well mannered way; but to resist oppression, a hybrid method of "fighting back the system" while showing that African Americans can have eloquence and defy violent negative stereotypes; he called it nonviolent resistance. King would argue that black people cannot conform themselves with a system where they are treated unfairly, and that they would only be working with the system; he also argued that while conformity is not the way, violence is not either, as it would only bring temporary solutions and race the racial tensions and wounds; He stated "If you confront a man who has long been cruelly misusing you, and say, "Punish me, if you will; I do not deserve it, but I will accept it, so that the world will know I am right and you are wrong This man, your oppressor, is automatically morally defeated, and if he has any conscience, he is ashamed".
