Interview with Martin Luther King Jr. & Interview with Malcolm X (Compare & Contrast)

Student’s nameInstructorCourseOctober 30, 2018
Comparing the Interview of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
Both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were human rights campaigners and leaders, but they were different in their fundamental practices and ideologies. Luther King believed in the value of civil obedience as a way of change and in the 1950s to 1960s he was the head of the black American civil rights association (Haley 20). Malcolm X, on the other hand, was an African American Muslim minister and a courageous advocate of the blacks’ rights. He was harsh to the white Americans, who committed crimes against the blacks (Spellman 14). Both Malcolm X and Luther preached the message of fair treatment and injustice, but their intended results differed.
Luther’s message was powerful, but it never talked about violence while Malcolm X’s speech insulted the audience and this caused them to want to fight for their rights. His tone of the speech was aggressive and forceful in a way. Martin Luther’s tone of the speech was inspiring to the audience as he spoke against violence and aimed at peaceful protests. Luther believed that a peaceful protest would minimize hatred, violence, and racial injustice.
Malcolm X opposed Luther’s idea on a peaceful protest by saying it was Luther’s way of sacrificing the protestors through placing them in a conflict position with the whites hence denying them a chance to protect themselves (Spellman 14). Malcolm had the believed that Africans would be sent back to Africa since racial inequality was very high in the United States.

However, Malcolm X’s attitude toward the whites and blacks changed in the 1960s, and he agreed to work with Martin Luther. Luther is believed to be a better civil rights activist than Malcolm X because of his non-violence character (Haley 20).

Works Cited
Haley, Alex. “Martin Luther King Jr. Part 2 of a candid conversation with the civil rights leader.” throwback Thursday, 15 Sept. 2013.
Spellman, A. B., “Interview with Malcolm X.” Monthly Review, vol. 16, no. 1, 1964, p. 14.