It was almost a hundred years since slavery, but blacks were still threatened by whites. Police used new tactics to arrest African American on minimal offenses and Jim Crow Laws were still relevant. Although black people were not slaves of a plantation; they were still slaves of America’s inequality. Trying to receive civil rights for African Americans in the 1960s was a revolution for equality. African American’s had two leaders that were not afraid to stand up for black people. Malcolm X and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King stood for desegregation, independency, and equality. Although both of them had different approaches, both were equally influential. Upbringings, social environments, and life events affected Malcolm X’s and Martin Luther King’s perspective on the extent to how violence should be incorporated into their ideologies.
In the Ethical Demands for Integration, Martin Luther King stated that “the impact of the nonviolent discipline has done a great deal toward creating in the mind of the Negro a new image of himself.” Because African Americans have a history in slavery, blacks are accustomed to punishment for working too slowing or ruining product. Besides his background, Martin Luther King believes that non-violence is the best way to approach to succeed in revolt because it exposes black to a new wave of being a human. African Americans have never had a time to use their knowledge, words, and actions to fundamentally change their government and Martin Luther King believed that it was the time to use it. On the other hand, Malcolm X had a more violent method. Malcolm X believed that it was silence that suppressed slaves in the past and the only way to change it was to respond violently. Violence allowed for African American to have more than a “voice”. It put their words into actions, which he believed to be more influential than peaceful aggression.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 to Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He had two siblings and he grew up comfortably in a house in Atlanta, Georgia. His family had a middle class income and although he lived in the urban city, he received the best possible education. Until college, his family remained together and they didn’t worry about much financially. He always had the company of his siblings for comfort, support, and enjoyment. Along with his sibling, Martin Luther King’s “second home” was the church. His father and his grandfather were pastors and their role led Martin to want to follow in their footsteps. On the contrary, Malcolm did not have such a cheerful childhood, he states: “People are always speculating- why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All pf our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that has happened to us is an ingredient”. Malcolm Little was born on May 19th 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to Louise and Earl Little, with the name Malcolm Little. He had ten siblings and his family was well off. His father was financially self- sufficient, a Baptist preacher, and an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. Because his family was constantly under scrutiny, Malcolm lived with constant fear through his childhood. His family was frequently being harassed by the Klu Klux Klan because of his father’s involvement with the UNIA. At the age of four, Malcolm’s house was burned down and when he was six years old, his father was murdered. Martin Luther King developed a more peaceful approach because of his positive childhood, and Malcolm Little was more violent because that is what he is used to.
