Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcolm X: Comparing Their Messages

Introduction

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are two of the most famous Black American leaders who influenced the African-American struggle for emancipation during their lifetimes and left legacies that have proved even more influential after their premature deaths. Both leaders were contemporaries with similar goals but with widely different personalities and equally contrasting strategies for achieving them. Both men were fiery orators who moved all those who heard them. The messages of Malcolm X and King have been discussed and debated long after the assassins' bullets silenced the two great men in the turbulent decade of the 1960s.

King was essentially a man of peace — a passionate believer in nonviolence and the Gandhian doctrine of nonviolent struggle known as Satyagraha. He believed that beneath the surface, Black and white people were the same, and he struggled throughout his life to remove the barriers of segregation created by bigotry and racial hatred. Malcolm X, on the other hand, was the quintessential radical — the Black Nationalist who did not believe the white man would ever voluntarily concede equal status to Black people. He did not desire desegregation and instead taught his people fierce pride in their own race, urging them to develop themselves rather than look to white society for reconciliation. Reflecting these contrasting messages, journalist Jerry Large, himself a Black man, made a pertinent observation:

Early Lives and Influences

"Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X perch on my shoulders. Martin leans in and tells me we are all the same under the skin. We are bound to love one another by and by. Malcolm shakes his head. He sighs. Indeed, we may be all the same under the skin, he says. We are all motivated by perceived self-interest. Their self-interest is not our self-interest. Never has been. Never will be." (Large)

There is no doubt that early life and formative influences have a major impact on later intellectual development. The early lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were vastly different, though both were born into religious families. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929 and was the eldest son of a Baptist minister who served as pastor of a large Atlanta church. He was himself ordained as a Baptist minister at the early age of eighteen (Norrell). Malcolm was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925; his father, Earl Little, was also a Baptist preacher.

While King studied in segregated schools where he excelled academically — graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1948 and earning a doctoral degree in theology in 1955 — Malcolm's early life was vastly different. His father was greatly influenced by the "Back to Africa" movement of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey and vehemently preached social and economic independence for Black people. Earl Little was murdered in 1931 and is believed to have been killed by white supremacists because of his radical political beliefs (Finkelman). The murder devastated the family: Malcolm's mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and Malcolm drifted through foster homes, reform school, and ultimately Harlem's criminal underworld, where he became known as "Detroit Red." By the time he turned twenty, Malcolm was serving a ten-year prison sentence for armed robbery (Ibid.).

Meanwhile, King was absorbing the influence of Christian theology on the struggle of oppressed people and became deeply interested in the nonviolent teachings of Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi regarding political struggle. In 1954, King became pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, whose previous minister was already leading protests against segregation, and King continued that work (Norrell).

An important phase of Malcolm's life began while he was in prison. He came into contact with the Nation of Islam and the teachings of its leader Elijah Muhammad, who advocated an amalgam of traditional Islamic religion mixed with the Black nationalism of Marcus Garvey and economic self-help programs for Black people living in urban ghettos. More importantly, Elijah Muhammad and his followers — the Black Muslims — advocated a reverse-racist philosophy that characterized white people as a race descended from the devil and Black people as children of God. The Nation of Islam also predicted an oncoming race war in which the white race would be destroyed and Black people would rule the world (Finkelman). Malcolm adopted the new religion, and upon his release from prison took the name Malcolm X — the Black Muslims dropped their surnames, calling them "slave names." Due to his impressive oratory and wholehearted commitment to improving the lives of ghetto-dwelling Black Americans, Malcolm X became a leading minister and spokesperson for the Nation of Islam.

The Contrasting Messages

During the decade between the mid-1950s and the mid-1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X delivered widely contrasting messages on the theme of Black emancipation. King was ceaselessly working, as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, to integrate Black Americans into the mainstream of American life by dismantling the structures of segregation. Malcolm X was doing exactly the opposite. He believed that the Judeo-Christian religious traditions on which Western culture is based were inherently racist. He held the Christian church responsible for the enslavement of African Americans, citing its role in tolerating and abetting that inhumane institution. He also rejected the "turn the other cheek" philosophy of Christianity and found in Islam a religion more in keeping with his assertively proud nature. He expressed this view by stating:

"There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion." ("Malcolm Quotations")

Martin Luther King's message was far more conciliatory. It was based on persistently appealing to "Christian brotherhood" and "American idealism," followed by legal action and nonviolent demonstrations, protest marches, and boycotts. These tactics were modeled on Gandhi's Satyagraha practices as employed in India's struggle for independence from British colonial rule. The success of these tactics relied on provoking an overreaction by white authorities that would expose the obvious injustice of the situation to the wider public. King also appealed for the support and sympathy of liberal Northern white Americans, and many white people did participate in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Several older Jewish radical activists, such as Stanley Levison, provided King with funds and strategic advice. He also enjoyed the close cooperation of a number of white Protestant ministers.

King genuinely believed in the ideals of civil rights and in the people's right to resist unjust laws — a principle asserted by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence. He expressed these sentiments movingly in his "I Have a Dream" speech during the famous March on Washington in August 1963, declaring: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Malcolm X was unimpressed. He quipped, "While King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare" (quoted in Finkelman). He also declared that nonviolence was the "philosophy of the fool" (Ibid.). Malcolm was seeking a deeper recognition of Black people as human beings, not merely the winning of civil rights in the eyes of the law. Writing in an Egyptian newspaper in 1964, he asserted: "We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans."

Conclusion

Ironically, Malcolm X himself underwent another significant transformation in his beliefs after making a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and following his split with the Black Muslims. After that experience, he denounced the racist philosophy of the Nation of Islam — its characterization of white people as "devils" — and appeared to be moving toward a more universalist outlook. He was assassinated in February 1965 before this new phase of his thought could be fully developed.

Different people have interpreted the messages of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in many different ways over the years. This is probably because both leaders were cruelly cut down in the prime of their lives and did not have the opportunity to fully elaborate their philosophies. This is especially true of Malcolm X, who passed through several distinct phases and had clearly embarked on a new one before the end. It is fair to say, however, that the two leaders shared a common goal — the emancipation of their people — but adopted vastly different approaches in pursuit of it. King sought integration through nonviolent moral persuasion; Malcolm X demanded recognition through pride, self-determination, and, when necessary, force. Together, their contrasting visions defined the full spectrum of the African-American freedom struggle and continue to resonate in contemporary debates about race and justice.

Finkelman, Paul. "Malcolm X." Article in Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta, 2002.

Large, Jerry. "Martin & Malcolm — Two Differing Voices." Seattle Times, 25 Nov. 2002.

"Malcolm Quotations." Official Web Site of Malcolm X, 2000.

Norrell, Robert J. "Martin Luther King Jr." Article in Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta, 2002.

Malcolm X. "Message to the Grass Roots." Speech, Detroit, Nov. 1963. Published in Malcolm X Speaks, Chapter 1, 1965.