Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X both talk about the oppression that the black community suffered, and they defended their positions and their thoughts.
Martin Luther King Jr. expressed himself very politely in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail. He used the Bible as a reference to what he was doing. In his letter he was referring to the clergymen, these were men of God; Martin Luther King Jr. used the Bible to defend his fight against injustice because his audience saw it as the holder of truth. With this he showed the clergymen that he was also a man of God and that his cause was a just and good cause. Adding the reference to the Bible gave him a connection with the clergymen and showed that his work was related to the Bible and that the disapproval of his cause was like disapproving the Bible. The clergymen had called him an extremist and at first he says how disappointed he was by being called an extremist but then he quoted Jesus and called him an extremist of love "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (p.4), by doing this he agreed in being an extremist and that he was being and extremist for a good reason.
He also quoted historical figures like John Bunyan, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson to make his point. He called them extremists too, and he said, “The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?” (p.4), with this it´s understandable that he called everyone to be and extremist and that they had to choose which kind of extr...

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...rt of their fault that they were being mistreated because they let the white man interpret their rights, “The entire civil-rights struggle needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation. […].That old interpretation excluded us. […]. So, we're giving a new interpretation to the civil-rights”.
Martin Luther King Jr’s letter used an emotional approach to his audience, to try and make them feel and understand what the black community was going through. When he talked about how the black people were treated by the community and the authority. In his speech he tries to gain the sympathy of his audience.
Malcolm X’s speech had a very strong tone, while Martin Luther King Jr’s was more calm and pacific. Both of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X’s thoughts and feelings about segregation and how to eradicate it were well expressed and understandable.

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