Martin Luther King Jr. & Malcolm X

Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are very prominent African American individuals throughout history. They fought for what they stood for but in really different ways because of their grown environment. King grew up in a middle class family and was well educated and his father was a pastor. So because of the education background and his religion belief, King was always against violence even though he may have been attacked physically. In the speech “I have a dream”, it more make people think about the future. He was trying to use a nonviolence way to fight for the civil rights. And he spoke out for passive resistance and what he called “weapon of love”.

However, Malcolm X almost has totally different way thinking about the civil right “war”. Malcolm X grew up in an underprivileged environment that was very hostile with barely any schooling. That is a cause about why his speech was so aggressive. Malcolm X was a Muslim, and believed in Muslim principle. He believed fighting back physically. Malcolm X was suspicious of whites and willing to use “by any means necessary” to achieve equality. Although later in his life he visited Jerusalem, and met other Muslim, he changed his view, and become nonviolence, which is also a cause of to him. The similarity between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X is that they both wanted equal rights for African Americans, they just went different paths to receive those rights.