, Malcolm X gave his "Message to the Grass Roots" speech advocating the idea of separation as the way to black freedom (Malcolm X 3). Like Martin Luther King, he saw the blacks has having a serious problem in America, and that America had a very serious problem as well. Malcolm X believed the problem stemmed from the fact that the Negro was not wanted in America (Malcolm X 4). The Negro was still treated as an ex-slave. Unlike King, Malcolm X believed that the Negro had a common enemy--the white man. This common enemy should unite all blacks--regardless of their personal differences. He cautioned his followers who did not believe that all whites were their enemies that the future would prove his theory true. (Malcolm X 5).
Malcolm X cited, as an example of black unity, the 1954 Bandung conference, which brought together delegates from African and Asian nations. Some were Buddhists, some were Muslims, some were Christians, and some were atheists. There were communists, socialists, and capitalists at the conference, but despite their religious and economic
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