king

   Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X held some common ground. They both "shared...the fierce desire that the black American reclaim his racial pride, his joy in himself and his race - in a physical, a cultural, a spiritual rebirth" (White 168). But, the strongly disagreed about how to go about attaining these goals.
     Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a champion of black pride, activism, and acceptance. His most powerful and consistent message was that of nonviolent protest of the conditions that black Americans were subject to. As the son of a Christian preacher, Dr. King subscribed to Christian motives for action. But, as a seminary student he heard a lecture about India and became interested in the teachings of Mohandas K. Ghandi. After studying Ghandi, Dr. King, who was a pacificist, "added Ghandi's philosophy of non-violent resistance to injustice to his intellctual system, and later came to celebrate the redemptive power of love and suffering as forces for social change" (White 119). In his own words: "Christ furnished the spirit and motivation, while Ghandi furnished the method" (White 121).
     Dr. King was a major force behind the Montgomery bus boycott which helped the civil rights movement gain early momentum. He went on to lead organized movements throughout southern states in several chosen cities. His emphasis on non violence was always closely observed and upheld. For each of these movements, his organization went in with a set of goals, such as integrating lunch counters, voter registrations, and school desegregation. The movements generally realized the majority of their goals, but some critics looked at their gains as token achievements that didn't really make a difference. But, often publicity, such as the TV news coverage of Birmingham Mayor Bull Connor having the police attack black school children and marchers with firehoses, clubs, and dogs carried more public relations weight than the actual event. No serious injuries were reported, but the nation was shocked by what they saw an the white mayor Connor came across as a villain.
     Although the goal of this campaign, school desegregation, was not achieved there were some gains made. Also, that campaign provoked the administration of President Kennedy to introduce civil rights legislation and to publicly acknowledge that "'the events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can purdently choose to ignore them'" (White 129).
     It was this campaign that showed Dr. King to be the leader of the civil rights coalition and a Newsweek opinion poll of blacks shortly after "indicated that 95 percent regarded King as their most succesful spokesman" (White 129).
     Just previous to this Birmingham campaign, Dr. King served a short prison sentence in which he wrote the "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In this he warned that "black disaffection had already produced the Black Muslim sect 'made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incurable ''devil''"(White 128). The leader of this Black Muslim sect was Malcolm X.
      Malcolm X was a student of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of Black Islam. Black Muslams rejected their given surnames as legacies of their slave history and adopted the suffix "X." They rejected the term "Negro" as derogatory and claimed high morals prohibiting the consumption of pork, tobacco, and alcohol, as well as extra-marital relations, military service, and political activity. They also had they own theology, including their own creation story and concept of people.
     Despite his devotion to Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X soon outgrew the theology and limitations of Black Islam. Much of this was facilitated by his own visit to Mecca where he discovered the nature of true Islam. Soon he seperated himself from the mysticism and inactivity of Elijah Muhammad's Islam.
     He went on to advocate black organization and pride in their image. He deplored the attempts, which in his youth he had fallen prey to, of black people to make themselves appear like white people by straightening their hair. He also believed "'it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.'" (White 155). He went on, "'The time has come for the American Negro to fight back in self defence whenever and wherever he is being unjustly and unlawfully attacked'" (White 155).
     Where Dr. King pushed for integration and acceptance, and nonviolence above all else, Malcolm X pushed for organization and self sufficiency, with pride above all else. Towards the end of his life, Malcolm X had actually idealogically moved towards Dr. King. It was Dr. King's non violence that lead to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and his influence which lead to much of the civil rights legislation that we now benefit from.

WORKS CITED

White, John. Black Leadership in America. Longman: New York, 1985.

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