Views of the Law by Malcolm X & Dr. Martin Luther Kin, Jr.

How did these two men see the law as hindering the upward mobility of black people? Malcolm X, formerly a career criminal, found some sort of solace in the Muslim movement while in prison. Until his journey to Mecca, and his resignation from Elijah Mohammed's movement, he was an extreme militant, searching for a way to create a black nation, whether in America or elsewhere. He urged racial unity, and even before that famous March on Washington, Malcolm claimed that "the nation's racial crisis 'might erupt into an uncontrollable explosion'" (Carson 1998 45). Malcolm was a firebrand, willing to cause the sort of eruption he predicted, while King was moirT a moderate, willing to control sit-ins and the famous march on Selma. It was a way of avoiding the law's most strict rules, but still, King was willing to go to jail for disobeying local laws in the South.

To this very day, there are African-Americans who dispute whether Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, Jr. deserves to be regarded as the major black "hero" of the Twentieth Century. "His (Malcolm's) image as a killer with a gun is way out of l

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obeys the stricter more powerful law of her gods. By breaking human law and obeying divine law, Antigone anticipates, correctly, that it will lead to her own mortal doom. The play not only depicts human conflict, between Antigone's determination to bury her brother against the wishes of the ruler of her land, but also the need to obey a higher law. We find this definition of "law" as a little foreign to us in the modern world, where, while respecting God or Allah or Buddah, we nevertheless must obey human law, expecting that it cannot violate divine law. It is at the conclusion of the play that Sophocles comes closest to the writings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle when he invokes wisdom, rather than doom: "Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness, and reverence toward the gods must be inviolate. Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to be wise" ( 142). It is this concept of wisdom that pits Antigone against other mortals. Man-made laws are not the supreme wisdom seems to be the gist of the play's central message. Antigone, therefore, is obviously willing to break one law in order to uphold a higher one. It would seem that there can be no compromise. Earthly po
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1568
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)