The perception of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X is one where the two men are diametrically opposed figures in the battle against white supremacy (political insider vs. political renegade). The truth is more nuanced. King and Malcolm X shared “convergent visions” for the betterment of Black America. However, their strategies to attain their shared goal were shaped by their disparate upbringings.
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From the very start, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had contrasting upbringings. King hailed from a prominent middle-class family deeply rooted in the community, representing the atypical experience of southern Black individuals. Conversely, Malcolm X endured a lifetime of trauma, commencing with his father’s murder and the terror inflicted upon his mother and siblings by the Ku Klux Klan.
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These two men became each other’s “alter ego.” Malcolm X injected political radicalism into the national scene, which made Dr. King and his movement more acceptable to mainstream Americans.
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In 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a prominent voice in the Civil Rights movement when he assumed leadership of the Montgomery Improvement Association as a newly appointed pastor in Montgomery, Alabama. The association was formed to coordinate the Montgomery bus boycott, sparked by Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to relinquish her bus seat to a white passenger.
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As the primary representative of the group during the boycott, King successfully employed protest strategies that involved mobilizing the African-American community through their churches and drawing inspiration from the nonviolent protest methods pioneered by Indian civil rights activist Mahatma Gandhi.
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As Civil Rights protests spread across the South and the nation, King continued to blend peaceful methods of protest with his theological training, striving for equal rights for African Americans. On August 28, 1963, King participated in the March on Washington, a rally where 250,000 people of all races expressed their support for the civil rights bill pending in Congress.
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At the end of the day, standing at the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now-legendary “I Have a Dream” speech. Rooted in biblical and constitutional ideals, his words conveyed the hope that his dream of equality for all would one day become a reality.
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Malcolm X’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement began after he transformed his life following a period of incarceration and aligned himself with the Nation of Islam. While in prison, his siblings wrote to him, sharing the beliefs of this new religious movement, which advocated for complete racial separation as the solution to the challenges faced by black Americans.
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The Nation of Islam preached self-reliance, non-destructive behavior, strict discipline, and advocated for the eventual repatriation of blacks to Africa to achieve true liberation from white supremacy. In 1950, having fully embraced the teachings, Malcolm replaced his birth surname “Little” with “X,” symbolizing the African family name that had been denied to him.
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