The aims, methods and achievements of MLK and Malcolm X Essay Example for Free

The presences, methods and achievements of MLK and Malcolm X EssayCompare the aims, methods and achievements of MLK and Malcolm X. Which man do you speak out was most successful at achieving civil rights for African Americans in the mid-sixties?I would kick up that Martin Luther king was the more successful man in terms of achieving civil rights for African Americans in the sixties. speckle this may seem a choice curved by public estimate, I would purport that there were issues with Malcolm Xs image and methodology that made it unlikely that he would ever be accepted (and thus, respected) by washcloth America. I think that Martin Luther queer, fleck viewed by some swarts with contempt for his relatively moderate attitude, genuinely evaluated the situation in which he was operating and suited his modus operandi to make it as beneficial as possible. As a gist of this, I think that Martin Luther world-beater made it easier for himself to achieve his aims of bringing a bout equality for African-Americans in the 1960s in America. I will, however, examine in greater detail the differences in the methodology of the men subsequently on.Put simply, Martin Luther big businessman aimed to ensure that drab flock were equal in America in the 1960s. variation was made manifest through segregation, whether in the guise of schooling, buses, or white-hots only benches. This stemmed mostly from world-beaters childishness and experiences as a young adult, one of which led to him being threatened with a gun for demanding portion in a segregated restaurant. Kings aims were not all this simple, however. First, he had to occurrenceor in the point that he would need to reach the greatest sum of people possible with his message, and make them receptive to it. I would indicate that this was a battle between the fight for civil rights and the dangers of playing Uncle tom turkey to Washington politicians. While King did liaise with President Kennedy, I would suggest that this was an accomplishment of Kings rather than one of his aims.This is because Kings main objective, I feel, was to influence Washington into passing civil rights laws, and talking with the Kennedy brothers was only a means to this end. Second, King aimed to influence politicians through grassroots movements rather than the dealings of smoke-filled rooms. I think that this can be observed in King choosing to demonstrate the engage of African-Americans through initiatives such as the 1961 freedom rides and the 1963 March on Washington. I would suggest that these activities exhibit essential differences in the aims of King and Malcolm X- that is to say that whilst Xs objectives were dependent on caustic on white hostility, Kings were rooted in egalitarianism. I would suggest that this made King more accessible, and thus helped his plight through the participation of many moderate blacks and white student activists.Kings methods were ones designed to capture the atten tion of Kennedy, and afterward Johnson, but whilst exercising caution and maximising participation. However, I think that King was not so untold a true crusader as a brand for the Civil Rights Movement. As the US at once is personified by its President, I think that the CRM needed an utile, moderate face that was not too black for White America. I would suggest that this is one of the few instances in which one could justify a comparison between Martin Luther King and current US President Barack Obama. For example, in the instance of the 1963 North Carolina sit-ins organised by the SNCC, King was effectively chosen as the face of the movement, a movement that was in fact initiated by improve students desperate for change. As this movement led to the desegregation of Atlantas schools, one could argue that King was in fact not the true leader of the Civil Rights Movement, but more like Orwells poster of Big companion omnipresent benevolent- a brand. One method used by King was th e use of non-violent protest.Utilised in its earliest form in the Montgomery bus boycotts, I think that non-violent protest was the most effective manner with which black and civil rights activists could champion their cause. This is because non-violent protest did not provide white America with the ammo to vilify Civil Rights activists (though many tried). This is because non-violent protest raised awareness while making it hard for natural law to use emphasis to disperse protesters. Also, I desire that such mass action made it grueling for politicians to ignore the plight of African-American people in the 1960s. While the NAACP may have taken on the Supreme Court through litigation, I think that if they had parted there would be no attention stipendiary to the case. It would have been, I feel, business as usual.But the mass action used in initiatives such as the March on Washington in 1963 made black issues impossible to ignore, and helped black people experience solidarity and ubiquity in their anonymity and numbers. King himself proclaimed The Negro is shedding his fear, and while this is something King was worried about, I think that this is something that was in fact brought about by King. Black people in America could now see that it was acceptable to feel insulted angry and bitter about the injustices of slavery. Because of this, I would suggest that Martin Luther King succeeded in his aims as I would suggest it was his methodology of mass action that invigorate black people to rise up, and the White House (and people) to sit up and listen. However, there was to be another denotation with what some today would consider a more direct influence on the position of black people in 1960s America.Malcolm X approached the Civil rights struggle in America in the 1960s in a very contrastive manner to King indeed, and I would suggest that in spite of his iconographic status, he largely failed in his aims. X aimed to rail against the whole idea of dema nding Civil Rights, suggesting that black and white men could never be truly equal. X regarded black people as Africans who just happened to be in America, and as such X took up a position described by Cornell as The basic aim to counter white supremacy, better known as Black Power. X advocated violence, and I would suggest that this was to issuing in a short term failure for X. This is because Xs white rivals, segregationalists and racists, would now convey a legitimate excuse to be opposed to black people- violence reminiscent of a advance(a) day terrorist group. I would draw parallels with terrorism because terrorist groups are not evil- they merely seek to advance an aim through violence, and are despised by the majority for it.Malcolm Xs methodology, I feel, caused short-term failure, yet it would be unwise to dismiss his efforts out of hand. In the late 1960s disaffected black youths flocked to Malcolm X because they felt King was playing Uncle Tom (especially following Ki ngs poorly judged discussions with Chicagos Mayor Daley in 1966 that resulted in King appearing artless and ineffectual), and I think that this was the central tenet of Xs early philosophy- that of the angry young man. I think that Xs function with the Nation of Islam in addition helped Xs relations with disenchanted blacks, his rebellious and extremist views being ones that the frustrated and the angry could lock on to.However, I would suggest that the Nation of Islam was poor with regards to black/white relations and thus Malcolm X actually achieved little towards the real accomplishment of black Civil Rights (though I do indeed believe that X inspired a host of activists who may not have otherwise hightail ited for them). In addition, I think Xs anti-integrationalist stance would do little to affect any sort of white-dominated legislation for the better. Indeed, X-inspired groups such as the Black Panthers were labelled as dangerous by the US government, particularly due to their McCarthyist-frightening judgments, but also due to their advocacy of violence and separatism. One could draw parallels to Rastafarianisms call of back to Africa that I think as alienated White contemporaries, who were- like it or not- the Kennedys the Mayor Daleys, the Bull Connors- the people in power. I think this central lack of appeal to the white man was what made Malcolm X, in my eyes, largely a failure. I also think it regrettable that this appeal needed to have occurred, but it was truly required in this case.The methods used by Malcolm X, I feel, were in reality not so far removed from Kings as hypothesised by some. I would suggest that both King and X had relatively non-violent campaigns. While X advocated black supremacy, he in reality did similar things to King suggested blacks join voter rolls participated in sit-ins. Whilst the Black Panthers were inspired by X, I think he was always more of an orator than an activist, and that his easily attacked espousals of violence and his belief in the Doctrine of Yakub (which suggested that an ancient black scientist named Yakub created white men, and slavery was Allahs punishment for this) made him likely to fail in affecting mainstream white society. I would contend that a policy of non-violence was to prove crucial in the 1960s, and that a period of education of white America such as that seen in the cultural intricacy of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance was important in the meeting of the target of Civil Rights.To conclude, I would suggest that while both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had flaws which, ultimately, crippled the growth of the Civil Rights Movement, they both contributed in significantly different ways to the fight for black Civil Rights. While I would contend that the theological and occasionally violence beliefs of Malcolm X made him seem unacceptable to white America, I think that his effective martyrdom resulted in disaffected black youths returning to political activism after t hey felt shunned by what they perceived to be Uncle Tom behaviours on the part of King. One could, I feel, successfully argue that Xs increased appeal also came from his everyman gentility in Harlem, and that black youths could not truly identify with a Southern minister.In addition,one could argue that Kings campaign depended on violence as much as Xs. If Kings activists and followers were not viciously suppressed, I enquiry that moderate America would have eventually got round to championing their cause, evidenced by the fact that approximately a quarter of participants in the March on Washington 1963 were white. However, I would suggest that Kings populism was to raise a number of black activists and student dissenters that would result in white America being cowed by the influence of millions of African-Americans, and, finally, result in the Civil Rights that black America had been fighting for.