m, dignity, and opportunity for their people. King felt that this goal could be accomplished through integration and non-violent resistance to injustice, while Malcolm, through much of his political career believed that complete separation of blacks from whites was the only way to deliver blacks from white oppression. Whereas King believed in non-violent resistance, even in the face of violence during demonstrations and protests, Malcolm, for most of his career, advocated the use of any means necessary if blacks were forced to defend themselves.
The three most important ideas shaping the race relations views of King were protest, accommodation, and self-help (21). All of these ideas are generally optimistic, and they also were complementary in their effect on King and on the development of his philosophy of integration.
Cone writes that these ideas were the result of both practical and spiritual streams of thought running through King's life, as a child raised in a stable, loving and supportive family of activist Baptist preachers in Atlanta:
Political protest was associated with the Old Testament theme of justice. . . . Accommodation was closely related to the New Testament idea of love, particularly emphasized in the Sermon on the Mount, and like justice, a major theme in black religion. Self-help emphasized Christian obedience, which was interpreted by the black church to mean that "God helps those who help themselves" (21).
Christianity professes love for one's fellow human being, which led King to believe that the love expressed in non-violent resistance to evil and injustice had the power to change the hearts and minds of white racists. Integrationism is the means whereby Christian love could be implemented in a racially mixed society, and King's faith in this idea is linked with his faith in democracy:
Integrationist thinkers . . . believe it is possible to achieve justice in the United States and to create ...