Comparing and Contrasting Medgar Evers and Malcolm X
At first glance, Medgar Evers and Malcolm X seem almost completely different. One was a member of the Nation of Islam. The other was a disciple of Martin Luther King. One was a very urban individual living in the north, while the other lived in the rural south. One believed in integration, while the other believed in separatism and armed conflict. These two men seem almost as different as is possible. In the following pages, the plan is to explore their lives and beliefs to find points of contrast and points of similarity.
One of the major points of similarity between Medgar and Malcolm is in the manner of their deaths. Both were murdered in the assassination rife 1960s. For many years, both murders went unpunished. Yet, in the case of Medgar, the murderer was long known and he has finally been convicted (Dreifus, 1994). That murderer was a white southerner named Byron de la Beckwith. He was an ardent segregationist who had very publicly condemned the NAACP and had written letters to the FBI for years about his intentions to destroy the work of the NAACP (Vollers, 1995).
It was clear from the beginning that de la Beckwith was the guilty party. Nonetheless, a jury of his peers, which meant other white, male segregationists refused to find him guilty. He was eventually convicted in Hinds County, Mississippi in February of 1994, more than 30 years after Evers' murder in 1963.
While both were assassinated, Medgar Evers was killed by a white segregationist, an opponent from outside his race and outside his philosophical orientation. Most speculation about the death of Malcolm X has focused on the likelihood that he was murdered by another member of the Nation of Islam as punishment for his defection from that group and is new, heretical viewpoints. There has even been speculation that he was murdered by Louis Farrakhan or some group connected with Farrakhan in...