Malcolm X vs Martin Luther King (war, greatest, 60's, Washington)

[Future Trooper]

We are finishing out the chapter of the 1960's and you know we studied alot about the Civil Rights Movement and the War in Vietnam. I was wondering who do you think out of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King who was the best civil rights speaker?

[jtur88]

Best in what respect? Most persuasive and charismatic? Or delivering the most relevant and progressive message to meet the needs of the times?

[Future Trooper]

Sorry for not including that.


For the most relevent and progressive message appropriate for the time.

[MICoastieMom]

I don't think you can compare them. They each had their own style and their own approach. Each was coming from a different philosophical place and advocated different tactics. It is like comparing Florence Nightengale and Mother Theresa for being the better nurse.

[Secret Samadhi]

I can't choose.

[jtur88]

I'll have to pass on this one, because I haven't studied either of them enough to have a handle on that. I figured the rest of the world would study them plenty without my help, and I felt threatened by the PC factor that would be attendant in the gathering of information about either of them, not to mention the open discourse thereof. The amount of objective reliable information would be too thin a layer down at the bottom somewhere.

[Irishtom29]

I think this is easy, King. He simply accomplished more, WAY more.

X was a leader in a small group and a talented writer who was noted by a small group of people, mostly intellectuals and who had little concrete accomplishment. King on the other hand was one of the most effective and the most well known leader of the mass Civil Rights movement and a man with a record of concrete accomplishment.

As for Civil Rights leaders younger and edgier than King I think Stokely Carmichael, Jesse Jackson and John Lewis were more accomplished than Malcolm X, indeed Jackson and Lewis are still involved in progressive politics.

[jtur88]

One of the greatest people I've ever seen perform live, was to sit in for a few hours in the New Orleans federal court house and listen to William Kunstler arguing in defense of H. Rap Brown. A memorable experience.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by gdude

We are finishing out the chapter of the 1960's and you know we studied alot about the Civil Rights Movement and the War in Vietnam. I was wondering who do you think out of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King who was the best civil rights speaker?

It's almost impossible to answer this question because Malcolm X was beginning to change some of his views at the time of his assassination. He was getting away from his earlier, anti-white rhetoric and moving towards the kind of equality that King had always been talking about.

If you haven't read The Diary of Malcolm X (which was quite controversial when it was originally published), I'm sure it's still in print somewhere.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

It's almost impossible to answer this question because Malcolm X was beginning to change some of his views at the time of his assassination. He was getting away from his earlier, anti-white rhetoric and moving towards the kind of equality that King had always been talking about.

If you haven't read The Diary of Malcolm X (which was quite controversial when it was originally published), I'm sure it's still in print somewhere.

Malcolm's renouncing his former anti-white racism had a great deal to do with his being killed on the orders of Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan.

I've even read that there is enough evidence to indict Farrakhan on conspiracy to commit murder charges with regards to Malcolm's death.

Wouldn't say Malcolm's beliefs were exactly moving towards King's. King was interested in helping humanity as a whole, while Malcolm was exclusively concerned with blacks. It's hard to reconcile some of Malcolm's beliefs with King's, e.g. Malcolm's hatred of liberals and the Great Society, his 2nd Amendment advocacy, distrust of attaining civil rights through legislation as opposed to economic development of the African-American community, etc. were very different from King's message. Both Malcolm and Dr. King came from different roots as to how to solve blacks' problems ; Dr. King stemmed from W.E.B. DuBois, who emphasized equal rights and integration as the best way to advance blacks in America, while Malcolm's views stemmed from those of Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey, who emphasized economic development of African-America and the building up of black entrepeneurship from the bottom up as a bigger priority than the attainment of full civil and political rights. If Malcolm had lived he probably would have founded black conservatism, if anything....no big surprise Clarence Thomas has a portrait of Malcolm hanging in his chambers.