Similarities Between Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X

The civil rights movement in America contains two transformational figures; one being Martin Luther King Jr., who preached the message of love and unity between blacks and whites. However, on the opposite end, Malcolm X used messages laced with fear and separatism. Nevertheless, both sought the same goal of racial justice for blacks in the United States. This paper will explore the opposite viewpoints of these two pivotal figures and how they separately and unwittingly complemented each other to achieve the overall goal of racial justice.
King and X differed on the tactics used in the pursuit of racial equality. King sought to pacify whites so that blacks would not be regarded as a threat versus X’s implications of violence; thus King sought

to win over whites with love while X tried to take equality by force and fear. The King’s letter is an attempt to address eight white clergymen who questioned his coming to Birmingham to take place in a civil protest. King responded to the clergymen in a language that they would understand in stating “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” While this is an iconic King line more telling is his other motivations as did Paul, one of the prophets of the Christ in which he too was required to spread the message of love and temperance. Conversely X starts with an ultimatum “…Where do we go from here? …the ballot or the bullet.” And continues to explain that “…I myself am a minister, not a Christian, minister, but a Muslim minister: and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.”
The separation and distinction between a Christian minister and a Muslim minister were clear and deliberate as X wanted his audience to know just because he was a man of religion it did not mean he was not a man of action; and if that action meant violence then so be it. X explicitly names King in his address and distances himself from peace by all means necessary through the use of violence. Clearly, X’s threats of violence regardless of the reason is meant to instill fear while King references to Christ and the gospel is meant to display the qualities which Christ professed which is the act love.
Opposing strategies are clearly evident as King promotes unity amongst black and white and seek a harmonious communal relationship; while X seeks a separate but equal societal arrangement with black having their own economic, political, and social structure.

Additionally, King does not seek to label all whites as the problem and is precise in his address, assigning blame to individuals as Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Conner and Mayor Alber Boutwell. Conversely, X uses the term white man in repetition as to foster us against them mentality, not that the blacks in that era needed any further justification X sought to put a name to the black struggle, to name the monster under the bed and it is the white man. In the opposite fashion, King saw the lynchpin to black civil rights struggle as moderate white and Christian whites. Thus, X exacerbates the discord between whites and blacks with the generalization that all whites are evil which may be attributed by the black superiority ideology of the Nation of

Islam.
The motivation of the masses of the growing civil rights movement was again on the polar opposite of the spectrum. Moreover, King preaches messages of persistent pressure and hope by “laying [their] case before the conscience of the local and the national community.” On the other hand, X motivates through intimidation and revenge admonishing his audience “[we are] not going singing “We Shall Overcome.” [We are] not going with white friends … [We are] not going with round-trip ticket we are going with one way tickets” in reference to the peaceful march on Washington in 1963. Moreover, X references leading a “non-nonviolent army to bring the filibuster in Washington to a halt. King’s upbringing in the church taught him that all Christians were reading from the same bible that he read since he was a child, thus, King always had and held on to hope. Hope that one day Christians would wake up, that their actions would match their words and that America would live by the ideal on which it was founded; freedom. King’s hope can be observed in the passage “I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our case…” furthermore “I am in deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears of love” King usually refers to the future with hope knowingly that the God he serves can do anything but fail. X’s life does not necessarily incline one to hope however, it provided him the inclination that progress in only achieved by direct action. X saw everything as a pessimist; for him any gain in the civil right movement were tricks, the filibuster a conspiracy and the appointment of blacks by the President as “…camouflage…treachery [and]…window dressing.” As much as X promotes fear he is fearful of trusting and being disappointed thus he distances himself from any hope of a better future dismissing progress as non-existence, subsequently, he argues “How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours…That’s not progress.”
The call to action for both X and King are similar as they both urge blacks to vote, and advocate the use of economic and civil protest as a means to achieve their common goal.

While not necessarily at odds over what needed to be done, it is the how that was being called into question. X called for the selective use of the black vote, noting that in several voting districts the black vote would be the deciding vote subsequently giving blacks voting power while at the same time he admonishing them that the white man is plotting to steal their vote and that they are were trying to dilute their vote by gerrymandering. Some would say the X is a realist that he is preparing his people for the harsh realities of the civil right movement yet King finds a way to prepare his people but gives them hope for a new day. X provides his audience with the means of power; the black vote than in the same breath says the white man has made it null and void, clearly then the mantra “A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.” is a play on words and is meant to threaten as much as it is meant to inform. Subsequently, X expounds on the notion that American cannot win a guerilla war and certainly cannot win one against people of color. Additionally, X proclaims “There’s a new strategy coming. It’ll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next

month. It’ll be the ballots or it’ll be bullets. It’ll be liberty, or it will be death.” Conversely, King’s call for action is not haphazard, he lets it be known that they are patience and hopeful people with a plan and with a purpose which goes through great pains to show Christian love. Kings lay out their four-step to a nonviolent campaign, assuredly the first step is founded in love as who would need to collect the facts to determine if injustices exist in Birmingham yet they take the time to collect the facts so that they do not unjustly accuse the wrong person. While X seeks confrontation Kings seeks negotiations, X seeks to focus his audience’s frustration in a destructive manner “ballot or bullet” while King urges his people to use their pent-up frustration in the constructive manner of nonviolent protest.
With the lineage of Christ’s teaching being three generations strong; King has a deep well of love to draw on conversely X was a self-made man and virtually raised himself in less than ideal conditions of the orphanage and jail. For X survival meant self-reliance and by any means necessary. Consequently, it was exhibited through their leadership style for X would rather be feared than loved and King would love so not to be feared. Kings message of love was more potent as love cause one to feel the emotions of sympathy, empathy, and compassion. However, fear breeds resentment, distrust, spitefulness, and vengeance. Both King and X foresaw a time that blacks tired of oppression would rise up to take what was rightfully theirs if justice was not swift to come with King calling it “ a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.” X’s call to action would have made this prophecy and inevitability as fear would have strengthened the views of those that promoted racial hatred and bigotry and alienated the moderates that were desperately needed for change. Love, on the other hand, would accomplish its mission just like it did on Bloody Sunday, where the nation saw racial hatred from the ugly monster that it truly was.
Consequently, progress would not have been as quick if the forces of love and fear had acted alone. If there was no King, X’s Black Nationalism had the potential to set back race relations in America. They would be the example that a racist would use to prove that black was a brutish, unsophisticated race and that the laws were necessary for separation to protect the white race. If there was no X, the political structure could kick the civil rights can down the road indefinitely “ justice too long delayed is justice denied.” But together those in love and fear worked to the betterment as love demonstrated the black humanity and the white brutality, it endeared those that were in the middle to the black sacrifice of justice with fear ever lurking in the shadow as a reminder that “the streets of the South would[be] flowing with blood.”