Martin Luther King Jr. And The Civil Rights Movement

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were both very influential icons in the civil rights movement. They both pushed people to start fighting for their rights and helped change the lives subsequent to their time. They both used different strategies in their speeches and type of protest which varied from peaceful to violent protest. Martin Luther King often encouraged for people to show their voices in a peaceful manner, whereas Malcolm X encouraged people to defend themselves using more brutish tactics. A famous quote from Dr. King is , “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon.”

Malcolm X was a very outspoken speaker whose beliefs were sometimes considered “controversial”. “Malcolm X was suspended by Elijah Muhammad as the spokesperson of the Nation of Islam because of the statements he made about John F. Kennedy’s assassination” (Morrison para.6). He made some controversial comments about Kennedy’s decisions while in presidency. Malcolm X had many enemies that he even knew about. He even addressed his self as a “marked man” a few times.

Despite Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. both being highly respected speakers whose use of scruples of the country to benefit their points in gaining equality for black, Martin approached the situation more appropriately and was able to have a bigger effect on society. Martin spoke to all races while Malcolm X spoke strictly to African Americans. X always used the anger many African Americans had with society about they were treated as a basis for his speeches and criticized the fact that they weren’t trying to make a change. Malcolm was very condescending towards his audience yet he used it in a way to make them realize that they have to be the change they want to see.

“The most oppressive feature of black secondary education was that southern local and state governments, through maintaining and expanding the benefits of public secondary education for white children, refused to provide public high school facilities for black children.” In sum, Anderson uses this chapter to build a broader argument about the “separate, but equal doctrine” under Plessy v. Ferguson that mandated segregation. More specifically, he situates this argument through case studies in Lynchburg, VA and Little Rock, AR. In the culminating chapter, James Anderson discusses the emergence of historically black universities and black land-grant colleges.

Here, the Supreme Court ruled that the existence of “separate but equal” facilities was unconstitutional, for it violated the 14th amendment. This could not have occurred in the 19th century for the sheer fact that Plessy vs. Ferguson, the case that Brown overturned, was ruled on in 1896. America in the 19th century was not ready for this case, but the truth is, neither was 1950's America. Implementation of Supreme Court rulings rely on legitimacy, and it was clear that the South did not take Brown’s ruling seriously. After change was developing at a glacial pace, the Civil Rights Movement became a grassroots coalition.

In the early 1890’s the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal. This means that blacks and whites used different restaurants, hotels theatres, and hotels. Blacks were considered inferior to white people and got less money from the government. The black schools and hospitals were considerably subpar to the white public places. Jim Crows laws in the South allowed this type of segregation and inequity to occur.

Martin Luther King Jr. spent his days fighting for the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Knowing the dangers of those who oppose him, King travels to Memphis, Tennessee to deliver “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to the sanitary workers. In his speech, King utilizes words with heavy connotation and paralipsis, as well as several others, in order to unite the people and proclaim nonviolence rebellion. Martin Luther King Jr. begins by alluding to the Bible before the crowd in order to make his message more relatable and clarify his objective; saying, “I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promise land.” He continues using repetition to rally the people and affirm his support, saying, “I wouldn’t stop there,” when referring to places and times that he could go to help the cause.

Many things are different today in 2018, than they were in the year 1968; the price of coke and gas, the rights of women and of course, the act of wrongful dispensation in the Negro community. On February 1st, 1968. Two Memphis garbage collectors Echol Cole and Robert Walker were devastatingly crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck. This situation was the last straw for the black community because of a long pattern of neglect and abuse of the employees of the Memphis Department of Public Works. As a result, 1300 men went on strike to make a difference and stand up for what they believed in.

Malcolm X blamed the government, the mostly white government, for the lack of equality endured by African Americans. He complained that the white politicians did not care about African Americans. King’s complaint regards the white moderate; the white moderates claim allegiance to his cause, but do not actually help the cause. The white moderates claim that African Americans deserve equality, but King is approaching the problem the wrong way, even though they are not fighting back, their demonstrations are causing violence. King, appalled at that statement, claimed that blaming the peaceful African Americans protesters for the violence inflicted on them is like “condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery...

He explains the hopes of his movement, as well as the ignorance of the people keeping racism unresolved. His speaks in depth of the lack of human rights, the fraudulent American government, and the unification of African Americans. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s childhood gives insight on their approach to freedom fighting as well as their similar message of uniting Americans; with their differences in conveying their message their contrasting legacy is shown through their writings. One’s upbringing has a large effect on their future. From an early age, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s life were very unalike.

Because of the African Americans were treated unequal, they started the Civil Rights Movement, they desired to get more civil rights through the Civil Right Movement. Many successful non-violent strategies had been used by African Americans such as bus boycott, sit-ins and marching of Birmingham. Also because of the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr, the Africa Americans gained some civil rights at the end of Civil Right Movement. Reference • History.com,2015, Civil Rights Movement, retrieved at 12 August 2015 fromhttp://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement • Tavaana.org, 2015, Martin Luther King Jr, Fighting for equal rights in America, retrieved at 12 August 2015 fromhttp://www.tavaana.org/en/content/martin-luther-king-jr-fighting-equa-rights-america-0 • Paterson D, Willoughby D, Willoughby S, 2010, Civil Rights in the USA, 1863-1980, Heinemann, Oxford • January B. 2003, Witness to history: Civil Rights in the USA.

Malcolm has more justification for the black rights movement than just arguing about the variable of time, he also states that without African Americans the United States wouldn 't have its riches or status. This is all based on the idea that without slavery and generations of black workers, America would never have evolved into the prosperous

The ruling thus lent high judicial support to racial and ethnic discrimination and led to wider spread of the segregation between Whites and Blacks in the Southern United States. The great oppressive consequence from this was discrimination against African American minority from the socio-political opportunity to share the same facilities with the mainstream Whites, which in most of the cases the separate facilities for African Americans were inferior to those for Whites in actuality. The doctrine of “separate but equal” hence encourages two-tiered pluralism in U.S. as it privileged the non-Hispanic Whites over other racial and ethnic minority

The Civil Rights movement played a very dominant role in African-Americans life in establishing equal rights for all Americans. Even though King Jr. protested in the peaceful manner, the racists burnt down many African-American churches to state their opinion on equal rights to them. But still after so many years, some African-Americans face some injustice and inequality today in their daily day to day life. He believed injustice can be made into justice by three ways, one is hopelessness, next is violence and the third one is non violence. He chose the third one and fought injustice and succeeded.

He endured this separatist country for forty years, meanwhile leaving behind his legacy. A legacy in which he challenged America for its forms of oppression and imprinted ideas of equality for all men. Malcolm X responded to the racist situation he faced with violent actions that were not only excusable but necessary. Firstly, the separation of skin color affected not only Malcolm’s family but also all blacks in the United States.