MLK v. Malcolm X & the Black Power Movement

Birth & Early Life

MLK 1929 Son of a preacher Stable childhood

MALCOLM X

1925 Father murdered Foster Child Drug dealer, crime,

prison

Education

MLK

Morehouse-BA Boston Univ.-PhD

MALCOLM X

Informal/prison Self-Educated

Family

MLK

Coretta Scott

MALCOLM X

Betty Shabbazz

Major Speeches/DocumentsMLK

“I Have a Dream” “I’ve Been to a

Mountaintop” “Letter from

Birmingham Jail”

MALCOLM X

“Ballot or the Bullet” “Message from the

Grassroots”

Religion

MLK

Baptist

MALCOLM X

Black Muslim (Nation of Islam)

Religious/Political OrganizationsMLK

SCLC

MALCOLM X

Nation of Islam Organization for Afro-

American Unity

Summary of Beliefs/AccomplishmentsMLK Non-violence (Gandhi) Civil disobedience Integration

MALCOLM X

Black self-reliance Militancy Black separatism Black supremacy

Death

MLK

Assassination Memphis 1968 James Earl Ray

MALCOLM X

Assassination NY 1965 Nation of Islam

Martin & MalcolmThis image shows the only time Martin Luther King and Malcolm X ever met, and was taken before a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on 26 March 1964.

For years, the two had represented opposite sides of the struggle: King was a leader of the southern Civil Rights Movement, while Malcolm X was recognized as a voice for urban African Americans; however, by 1964 they were moving closer.

Quote Analysis

Quotes

Dr. King on Integration –

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”

Quotes Malcolm X on Integration – "If I have a cup of coffee that is

too strong for me because it is too black, I weaken it by pouring cream into it. I integrate it with cream. If I keep pouring enough cream in the coffee, pretty soon the entire flavor of the coffee is changed; the very nature of the coffee is changed. If enough cream is poured in, eventually you don't even know that I had coffee in this cup. This is what happened with the March on Washington. The whites didn't integrate it; they infiltrated it. Whites joined it; they engulfed it; they became so much a part of it, it lost its original flavor. It ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be impatient. In fact, it ceased to be a march."

Quotes Dr. King on Malcolm X "You know, right

before he was killed he came down to Selma and said some pretty passionate things against me, and that surprised me because after all it was my territory there. But afterwards he took my wife aside, and said he thought he could help me more by attacking me than praising me. He thought it would make it easier for me in the long run."

Quotes Malcolm X on Dr. King

“He got the peace prize, we got the problem. ... If I'm following a general, and he's leading me into a battle, and the enemy tends to give him rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him. Especially if he gets a peace award before the war is over.”

“Dr. King wants the same thing I want – freedom!”

Quotes Dr. King on Violence

and Power

“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

Quotes

Malcolm X on Violence and Power

“Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing "We shall overcome ... Some Day..." while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against? Who ever heard of angry revolutionists swinging their bare feet together with their oppressor in lily-pad park pools, with gospels and guitars and "I have a dream" speeches? And the black masses in America were – and still are – having a nightmare.”

Racial Violence…

Freedom Summer CORE / SNCC campaign to gain

voting rights in Miss.

Who? College students, mostly white, 1/3 females

What? Helped register voters

June ‘63: KKK & police murdered 3 civil rights workers (2 white)

Summer: Racial beatings, murders, and burning houses took place

Selma Campaign SCLC voting campaign in Selma,

Alabama

1965: 2,000+ African Americans were arrested for demonstrations

Jimmy Lee Jackson: Murdered

Response? King marches with 600 protesters 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery

Violence: Police beat and tear-gas the marchers

Pres. Johnson: presented Voting Rights Act ‘65

LONG HOT SUMMERS

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LONG HOT SUMMERS

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LONG HOT SUMMERS

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Watts Riots, L.A. 1960’s violence b/w white authority and black civilians

Aug. 11, ‘65: (5 days after voting act) worst race riot in U.S. history

What? LA police officer pulled over motorist Marquette Frye; suspected of driving

drunk While officers questioned them, a crowd of onlookers had begun to form When Rena Frye, the boys mother showed up, a struggle led to the arrest of

all 3 members of the Frye family More officers had arrived on the scene and had hit the brothers with their

batons. The crowd had grown and by this point had become angry. After the police left the scene, the crowd & tension escalated and sparked the

riots, which lasted 6 days.

Damage? 34 killed, 1,000 wounded, $100 million in property damage

1967: riots in over 100 cities

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Newark, NY Riots What? 1967 began with the arrest of a black cab driver named, who allegedly drove

around a double-parked police car He was subsequently stopped, interrogated, arrested, and severely beaten by the

officers As news of the arrest spread, a crowd began to assemble outside the precinct house When the police allowed a few civil rights leaders to visit the prisoner, they demanded

that he be taken to a hospital

Rumor spread that he had died in police custody, when he had been transported to a local hospital

Soon bricks and bottles were launched at the precinct house As the crowd dispersed they began to break into stores Eventually violence spread from the predominantly black neighborhoods and the State

Police were mobilized Within 48 hours, National Guard troops entered the city, made matters worse Results? 6 days of rioting, 23 dead, 725 injured, and 1500 arrested

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Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement Kerner Commission:

March 1, 1968 Study the causes of urban violence

Findings: “Our nation is moving towards 2 societies, one black,

one white—separate and unequal”

Called for: Create new jobs Construct new housing End de facto segregation

Response Johnson ignores recommendations Too many whites against it

What did we gain?

Ended de jure segregation (by law)

Civil Rights Act of: 1964 – Banned discrimination in employment

& public accommodations 1968 – Ended discrimination in housing

Increase in: Jobs, college enrollment, voting, public

accommodations, wealth, cultural pride,

Unfinished Work

Legally confronted issues of: Housing/job discrimination, educational

inequality, poverty, racism

Difficult task to change people’s perspective and behavior

Level the playing field Proposition of more tax $ going to inner-cities Affirmative action

Unfinished work

1990: white flight reversed progress

1996-7: 28% of blacks in South and 50% in North were still attending schools with less than 10% white population

How are race relations today??