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Essay on Martin And Malcolm: Two Sides Of The Same Coin
| Date: |
03-02-03 9:39am |
| Subject: |
History |
| Word Count: |
2183 |
| Page Count: |
8.73 |
Martin And Malcolm: Two Sides Of The Same Coin
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were two of the most important and influential figures of the Civil Rights Movement during the sixties. Both Martin and Malcolm represented the two different sides of the same coin in the black movement to fight for freedom. Though the their struggle for black freedom was shared, their approach tactics were not. Both were highly intelligent, accomplished men in their own right, both were ministers of different faiths yet they both believed in the same God.
Martin and Malcolm were both well matched but differently styled orators. Martin’s speeches were insistent to white America and at the same time soothing to his black followers, his voice soulful and inspiring. Martin spoke as if he plucked the words right out of the mouth of God. Malcolm on the other hand was fiery, outspoken, indignant, with an accusing tone pointed toward white America, and he appealed to the gut and pride of black America. Malcolm spoke fearlessly and impatiently and his words rammed straight into the hearts of his listeners. Martin represented the side of the coin that was “turn the other cheek” and Malcolm represented the other side which was “an eye for an eye.”
Martin, a Southern Baptist minister preached and followed the effective ideology of Mohandas Gandhi in securing Civil Rights through peaceful, non-violent protest and advocated integration and peaceful co-existence between blacks and whites in America. Malcolm X, a former juvenile delinquent who joined the Nation of Islam and eventually became a minister for the Nation of Islam embodied militancy in the struggle for equal rights. Malcolm called for the use of “any means necessary,” to obtain freedom and he also believed in a separate nation for blacks--not integration.
One of Martin Luther’s first speeches advocating non-violence was in the light of the fire sparked by Rosa Parks that turned into the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama on December 5, 1955 into the birth of a more insistent Civil Rights Movement. In the Holt Street Baptist Church Martin preached, “If you will protest courageously, and yet with Christian love,…the historians will have to pause and say, ‘There lived a great people-a black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.’” This speech would mark the beginning of Martin’s constant reminder to the black population of Christian love.
Martin Luther’s next speech would be given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on May 17, 1957 celebrating the third anniversary of the Brown v Board of Education decision and sent out an appeal to Congress about the voting rights of black citizens. Voter’s Rights that would not be passed until almost 8 years later in 1965, and Martin’s speech titled “Give Us the Ballot,” implicated the federal government’s responsibilities to uphold democracy in America and the growing impatience of the black masses. Martin Luther also called for leadership from white northern liberals, white moderates from the south, and stresses the need for leadership from the Negro community that is, “…calm and yet positive.”
Martin’s speech reflected the urgency of the American Negro’s cause, and at the end he pounds home the philosophy of the Bible “Love your enemies,” and stresses to the mass that “We must follow nonviolence and love. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man…,” and he also warns against the very evil that put blacks where they were in mentioning that “We must not become victimized with the philosophy of black supremacy…we must follow nonviolence and love.”
Martin Luther kept preaching fight for freedom with nonviolence to the masses, but even with the “Little Rock Nine” passing through the doors of Central High School in Arkansas you could hear the impatience in his voice in many of his speeches. Martin clearly believed that true freedom for blacks did not just mean integration of schools and public facilities, that was just small steps. But to attain the coveted right to vote, meant that blacks in America had a say in their own destiny, and that they would have the power to make changes.
At the Crusade of Citizenship in 1958 Martin stated his impatience, “Let us make our intentions crystal clear. We want freedom—now. We do not want freedom fed to us in teaspoonfuls over another one hundred years.” While Martin conducted his peaceful crusade chinking little pieces off the armor of white America, Malcolm X was still an unknown. Ironically both left America in 1959 to tour the Eastern Hemisphere, each bringing back with a different philosophy.
Martin departed early in the year of ’59 for a tour of India as a guest of Prime Minister Nehru and studied Gandhi’s life and teachings of peaceful, non-violent protest. This trip to India proved to cement in Martin his role as a leader in the movement as he resigned from his ministry to devote more time to the Southern Christian Leadership Council. While Malcolm in the summer of ’59 toured the Middle East and Ghana (which incidentally King was in Ghana prior to Malcolm in March of 1957 attending their celebration of Independence).
While Martin Luther King met with President John F. Kennedy to push the cause and participated in a flurry of nonviolent sit-ins, Malcolm in 1962 was becoming well known through debates various college campuses. Malcolm would prove to be an eloquent, electrifying speaker, enthralling even those who were opposed to the Nation of Islam’s black militant , separatist stance. In a debate at Cornell University in 1962 Malcolm plainly and vehemently shows his disdain, contempt and impatience for nonviolence in responding on the platform, “Someone slaps you on one cheek and you’re going to turn the other? What kind of nonsense is that.” While Malcolm advocated black pride, eye for an eye, and a separatist stance, Martin tried pushing integration, peaceful co-existence.
Following the tumultuous events during the Freedom Rides in 1961-1962, the year of 1963 would prove to be the year that both Martin and Malcolm grew more insistent at the black struggle. In April of 1963 King wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” a tone of impatience referring to Asian and African nations that were moving towards independence in what Martin termed, “jetlike speed…but we creep at a horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.”
August 28, 1963 the March on Washington is where Martin delivers his most famous speech that would epitomize the entire feeling of over 200,000 protestors who were present in “I Have A Dream.” Martin’s speech was as insistent as ever for black freedom and his impatience was reflected in his words, “There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.” Martin also pleads with the mass against the teachings of the Nation of Islam (Malcolm X was present at the March as an observer which he later commented on King’s dream as “a nightmare, only he is too dumb to know it” ) which Martin clearly targets.
“In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people…their destiny is tied up to our destiny…their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.”
Martin’s eloquent Dream speech protests loudly the segregation, discrimination, and the abuse that blacks were suffering at the hands of whites. Martin speaks of the dream that the psychological and physical barriers would finally one day be smashed down. Martin’s speech was, and still is seen as the high point of the Civil Rights Movement which had reached it’s crescendo. This speech was also King’s response to the rise of Malcolm X’s faction that pushed and developed “Black Power.” Militant use of violence was the method of means by which Blacks could empower themselves was seen by many as illegal and immoral and was rejected by many leaders part of the non-violent movement.
Malcolm responds to Martin’s preaching of nonviolence later in the year with his fiery “Message to the Grass Roots,” speech in November of 1963.
“There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion”.
Malcolm also responds and opposes Martin’s portrayal of many whites as the brethren of blacks in his Dream speech. Malcolm also disqualifies Martin’s references of whites and blacks intertwined indefinitely together in brotherhood and destiny.
“We have a common enemy. We have this is common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. But once we all realize we have a common enemy, then we unite—on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy—the white man. He’s an enemy to all of us. I know some of you all think that some of them aren’t enemies. Time will tell.”
Finally Malcolm takes his stance on integration and rejects it entirely.
“It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.”
Ironically, when Malcolm was once asked if he took milk in his coffee, he replied, “Yes, that’s the only thing I like integrated.” It would not be until his pilgrimage or hajj to Mecca in 1964 would Malcolm’s view on integration truly go under a slow transformation.
Upon Malcolm’s return to the United States in a speech addressed in Chicago showed how his tone had changed dramatically after his visit to Mecca.
“In the past, I have permitted myself to be used to make sweeping indictments of all white people, and these generalizations have caused injuries to some white people who did not deserve them…I no longer subscribe to sweeping indictments of one race.”
Though Malcolm took a less harsh stand on integration, and began to believe that not all whites were evil, he still did not stop preaching that nonviolence was futile in gaining any foothold in freedom. Malcolm’s public opinion of Martin also grew softer as he stated in his address to Mississippi youth in December of 1964 that nonviolence was an individual choice, and if it made a difference he was happy.
Malcolm and Martin had met once after a news conference on March 26, 1964, they would not meet face to face again. Despite their differences, during Martin’s Selma campaign in February of 1965 when Martin was jailed, Malcolm went to Selma to speak at Brown Chapel and hoped to visit Martin. Malcolm change in heart was evident as he told Coretta Scott King, “I want Dr. King to know that I didn’t come to Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come thinking that I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to listen to Dr. King.” Despite the change in heart of non-integration, Malcolm still stood by in what he believed that nonviolence might not be strong enough to push white America forward. Martin also reflected in sadness after Malcolm’s assassination on February 21, 1965 stating that, “Malcolm X was reevaluating his own understanding of the nonviolent movement and toward more tolerance of white people.” King continued his work with ever more strident urgency, bringing to light the injustices of the black people by reflecting on the hypocrisy of the Vietnam War. Even until the end Martin Luther King, Jr. preached nonviolence just before his own assassination 3 years after Malcolm X was.
“Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.”
Both Martin and Malcolm were extraordinary men in their time, and both continue to be revered as the great men of the Civil Rights Movement. Both died early deaths before seeing their dreams culminate. Born 4 years apart and assassinated 3 years apart both men impacted the lives of Americans through their courageous leadership. At the end, despite differences both men worked toward the same goal: Freedom for Blacks in America.
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