Sources used in this document:

What Malcolm X tried to express to his audience was that the Voting Rights bill was just a ruse that the administration had created in order to alleviate protests from Negro citizens of the country. For him, the bill was just any other resolution that attempted to solve the problem of racial prejudice and discrimination in the country; unfortunately, this ruse had been uncovered early on by Malcolm X and his fellow Negros. Thus, he proposed that what Negros need was not a defective legislative system and a bill that purports to fight for equal rights in the country, but active participation in fighting the social plague that was prejudice and discrimination against Negros. Thus, from the assertion that "... The only thing that I've ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend themselves ... " Malcolm X was not extending the fantasy that Negros can achieve equality; in fact, he tried to bring his audience back to reality, tried to downplay the hopes that the Voting Rights bill posed for his fellowmen. Indeed, his arguments had shown that Negros' social realities were a far cry from the peaceful and egalitarian state of society that the administration argues the 20th century to be.

This last assertion was subsisted to by Johnson, who, in his speech "We shall overcome," put up the hopes of Negros by proposing and expressing his desire for the passage of the Voting Rights bill. He put forth the 'fantasy' or ideal that, indeed, equality will be achieved and discrimination, eliminated. This fantasy was realized through the Voting Rights bill, which, he explicated as "[t]he bill that I am presenting to you will be known as a civil rights bill. But, in a larger sense, most of the program I am recommending is a civil rights program. Its object is to open the city of hope to all people of all races." This generalization was put forth despite criticisms against Malcolm X one year before the passage of the bill to become the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

While Malcolm X kept a pessimistic view of the Negros' welfare under the said legislation, Johnson relied on the bill's power and influence to unite American society, regardless of race, socio-economic status, or beliefs and values of people in life. From the analysis of Malcolm X and Johnson's speeches, it became evident that the former subsisted to a more real illustration of the Negro condition in the country, while the latter (Johnson) believed that a goal, achieved through the fantasy that American society would lead to the development of an egalitarian society, will help and provide opportunities for Negros to better their welfare in the society.