Martin Luther King Jr. / Malcolm X

During the twentieth century Black people faced a lot of discrimination from the whites and found it very difficult to achieve civil rights. Black people were at one point denied of voting. In order for blacks to achieve civil rights they needed a leader to follow. Many black leaders did rise for the fight for civil rights, some had some ways of thinking some had others. Two of the most powerful and influential leaders of the twentieth century had to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. These two leaders had different approaches, and different views towards white people, but fought for the same thing. Malcolm X was Born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Malcolm was six years old, when his father was murdered by the Black Legion, a group of white racists belonging to the KKK. He changed his name to Malcolm X while in prison. He was serving ten years because of a robbery. Also while in prison he became a follower of Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad was the leader of an group called the Nation of Islam. During the 1950's, Malcolm became the spokesman for the Nation. Malcolm became a powerful speaker in the movement. As King captured the spirit of the Southern Black, Malcolm became the messiah of the ghettos of Harlem, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Originally a small group, the Nation grew rapidly under Malcolm's leadership. He not only spoke the words of the Koran and his spiritual adviser, Elijah Muhammad, but he also lived it to its fullest. As the crowds grew to hear him speak, so did the disapproval to his rising popularity. Malcolm taught a message of self help and personal responsibility. This is the message from the Nation of Islam. Like the Nation, he also spoke of a separate nation for Blacks only, which was also the view of Marcus Garvey, a leader that Malcolm followed, and also the view that Black is beautiful. .The beginning of Malcolm's problems with the Nation of Islam was whether or not to participate in the civil rights march on Washington in August 28, 1963. He wanted the Nation to because he thought it could be used to show that the Nation was pro active in trying to create change. Elijah Muhammad refused it. All of this led to the Nation taking advantage of a comment that Malcolm made after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Kennedy never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon. But, it all came to an end for Malcolm X on February 21, 1965, when he was assassinated at a OAAU rally in New York, New York, by men allegedly connected with the Black Muslims. Malcolm's death didn't end his views, his beliefs, and his way of achieving civil rights.. Martin Luther King was one of the world's best known advocates of non-violent social change strategies, Martin Luther King, Jr., created ideas drawn from many different cultural traditions and was a Christian Pacifist. He was Born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929 Dr. King and the other African-American community leaders held a meeting to organize future action for Blacks. They named their organization the Montgomery Improvement Association and elected Dr. King as its president. On the 1st of December 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks, a African-American, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not standing and letting a white bus rider take her seat. The police were called and Mrs. Parks was arrested Mrs. Parks was not the first African-American to be arrested for this so called crime. But she was the first to be arrested who was well know in the Montgomery African-American community. She was once the secretary to the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African-American

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