MARTIN LUTHER KING AND MALCOLM X INTRODUCTION

Journalist Peter Goldman once described white America's perception of Martin Luther King Jr. as the "Angel of Light," and Malcolm X as the "Angel of Darkness." Goldman commented that what was missing in that view was the "...extent to which both men, Malcolm and Martin could set the pulse of America racing."

I have a dream that on day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, >We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal. Martin Luther King, Jr.

No, I'm not an American. I'm on of the 22 million

black people who are the victims of Americanism. . . . I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare! Malcolm X

These quotes, by the two of the most significant African American leaders of the twentieth century, reveal opposite views of America and its relationship to black America. Rarely have two individuals been so compared and contrasted than the lives and thoughts of these two men.

Understanding American race relations in the midtwentieth century requires some understanding the previous several generations. Slavery based on racial identity began in America some 300 years ago. Although slavery itself was outlawed after the Civil War, a kind of de facto slavery was established in the official segregation systems of southern states; in the North, segregation was not legally sanctioned, but it did exist in unofficial but very real expressions of

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ed his family as a laborer and itinerant preacher. He was a follower of Marcus Garvey, the AfricanAmerican leader who preached separatism and a backtoAfrica philosophy. Because his father preached Garveyism and separatism, the Ku Klux Klan made life very hard for the family. In Omaha, the Klan set fire to their house; the white fire department let it burn down before putting out the flames. After they moved to Lansing, Michigan, his father was murdered and dumped on the trolley tracks, where a trolley cut his body in two. After his father's murder, his mother was soon institutionalized. At 15, one of his favorite teachers asked him one day what he wanted to be when he grew up; he responded he was considering being a lawyer. Though he thought he was being helpful and realistic, the teacher shocked Malcolm by suggesting that "a nigger can't be a lawyer why don't you try being a carpenter?" His grades tumbled as a result (Dyson, 1994, p. 19). While Martin Luther King Jr. would go to college, obtain a Doctor of Divinity degree, and become a minister, Malcolm Little dropped out of school when he went to Boston, and became what he himself would later call a "street criminal." Sentenced to ten years in prison, Malcolm Little di

Category: History - M