Who Is Martin Luther King Jr To Malcolm X

In the words of Robert Kennedy, “Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the…acts [which] will be written in the history of our generation.” Small steps often lead to great changes, and so it was with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, pioneers in the fight for racial equality. These two great leaders had the same goal, to achieve racial equality; however, they went about achieving that goal with two very different approaches. Dr. King’s message in his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963, was one of optimism and hope that the broken promises of the American government would one day be fulfilled. His hope was to achieve racial equality through integration rather than segregation. Dr. King grew up in a very loving and stable home where both his grandfather and father were
His demanding tone can be seen in his insistence that the government deliver land. His angry and demanding tone springs from a turbulent childhood. His father’s early involvement in the Civil Rights Movement resulted in threats to the family; this caused them to uproot and move several times. At one point their family home was burned to the ground. Later Malcolm X’s father was found dead on the local trolley tracks; the death was ruled an accident, but occurred under very suspicious circumstances. His father’s death caused his mother, Louise, to have a breakdown and she was committed to a mental institution. The children were split up between foster homes and orphanages. Malcolm X fell in with a bad crowd, had several run-ins with the law, which ultimately ended with a stint in jail. One can understand his anger toward the white race which he felt was the source of all his issues. The contrasts between these two men and their speeches are many. One must examine the message, tone, and sentence structure of both speeches to truly understand just how different their approaches were to