Pan-Africanism: A Debate Through The Eyes of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X
Pan-Africanism: A Debate Through the Eyes of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X
On the surface, the two African-American figures Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X are not as different as one might think. Although Garvey was most active in the early 1900s, and X was at the peak of his success just before his assassination in 1965, both of these influential figures preached the very controversial topic of Pan-Africanism. In a nutshell, Pan-Africanism can be defined as the belief that all Africans, including African-Americans, are one-in-the-same, as far as race, culture, and history. Thusly, supporters of this movement, including Garvey and X, believe that in order for Negroes to advance as a race, they must become entirely separate from any other race, and must be able to provide for themselves everything necessary for survival. It is obvious that in the era of either of these two figures, great changes needed to be made in order for total separation to become a reality. The way in which Garvey and Malcolm X went about trying to get this separation is where the ideologies of the two differ the greatest. Marcus Garvey made it clear that he had absolutely no hostility towards other races, including whites, and was even quoted saying, “White Capitalists are Black peoples best friends.” Due to this attitude, Garvey had the support of prominent leaders of the white race, such as Senator MacCullum of Mississippi, and Senator France of Maryland, both of whom fully backed Garvey’s Back to Africa movement (“Africa for the Africans” 1099). Malcolm X, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Being that the majority of his popularity was during the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Malcolm was speaking to the same population as the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a noted advocate of integration and nonviolence: everything Malcolm X was against. Speaking directly about Dr. King, Malcolm X said, “While King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes
On the surface, the two African-American figures Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X are not as different as one might think. Although Garvey was most active in the early 1900s, and X was at the peak of his success just before his assassination in 1965, both of these influential figures preached the very controversial topic of Pan-Africanism. In a nutshell, Pan-Africanism can be defined as the belief that all Africans, including African-Americans, are one-in-the-same, as far as race, culture, and history. Thusly, supporters of this movement, including Garvey and X, believe that in order for Negroes to advance as a race, they must become entirely separate from any other race, and must be able to provide for themselves everything necessary for survival. It is obvious that in the era of either of these two figures, great changes needed to be made in order for total separation to become a reality. The way in which Garvey and Malcolm X went about trying to get this separation is where the ideologies of the two differ the greatest. Marcus Garvey made it clear that he had absolutely no hostility towards other races, including whites, and was even quoted saying, “White Capitalists are Black peoples best friends.” Due to this attitude, Garvey had the support of prominent leaders of the white race, such as Senator MacCullum of Mississippi, and Senator France of Maryland, both of whom fully backed Garvey’s Back to Africa movement (“Africa for the Africans” 1099). Malcolm X, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Being that the majority of his popularity was during the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Malcolm was speaking to the same population as the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a noted advocate of integration and nonviolence: everything Malcolm X was against. Speaking directly about Dr. King, Malcolm X said, “While King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes