Examine the beliefs of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Comment on the differences between them.

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Examine the beliefs of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Comment on the differences between them.

By April 1968, two of the worlds most remembered civil rights leaders, who fought for a difference in black America, had been assassinated. Despite their different beliefs and their different ways of promoting this message, they both had the same goal in mind; to promote black respect and pride. The visionary and angry voices of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X together transformed theological thinking in the African-American community.

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that all blacks and whites should be treated equally as it was written in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In his most renowned speech, ‘I Have a Dream’, King proclaimed that the constitution ‘…was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”’. He said that America could not be exact to this vision and to the very basis of the origin of the country until this basic right applied to all, equally and to carry out the promise and the dream of genuine democracy. In the search to complete this he committed himself to the dignity of all human beings, even to those who considered themselves to be against him, one of his enemies, he believed that even they had dignity as human beings worthy of his respect, notwithstanding their difference of opinions and their acts to fulfil these opinions. King took his strength in the belief of equality from his faith in God and his Christian beliefs, “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian Scythian, slave and free but Christ is in us all”. He constantly accentuated the point that his followers should love everyone even their enemies and those they should pray for those who persecute them. He also believed in non-violent protests such as ‘sit-in’s’, freedom marches, speeches against injustice and silent protests, he believed that it was never right to use violence because this does not express the love of God, it just expressed hatred. Even after his home was bombed, his family received threats against their lives, and he himself was even stabbed, he still did not respond by using violence. King learnt about this idea of non-violence while studying Gandhi at college and became impressed with the strength that this man had for not retaliating with violence when it was put on him.

Gandhi was an important leader in India; to rid the British from his country, Gandhi had his followers protest non-violently for their departure. Whilst on a visit to India, where King spoke to some of Gandhi’s followers, King became more and more sure that the way of non-violence was the way to go to ensure his wishes of freedom came about. The words of Gandhi that inspired King in his struggle for freedom without violence were, “Soul-Force is infinitely superior to body-force. If people, in order to secure redress of wrongs, resorted to Soul-Force, much of the present suffering would be avoided. There is no such thing as failure in the use of this kind of force. `Resist not evil' means that evil is not to be repelled by evil but by good." His view of non-violence was a revolutionary initiative as he moved to change what was the current situation while refusing to recognise legal prejudice. King followed Jesus’ example in the Garden of Gethsemane when his disciples tried to protect him from the soldiers that came to put him on trial in front of the High Priest, he told them “all who live by the sword die by the sword”. Even when the soldiers arrested him, he did not struggle and defy them he even asked God to forgive them, “Father, forgive them; for they do no know what they are doing.”

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Another man King looked up to was an American theologian and writer, Henry David Thoreau who believed in passive resistance or civil disobedience, which he believed was the way to gain respect and rights. In his book entitled “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau understood that if a person believes in something that is restricted legally, they should follow their hearts, break that law that is restricting them and they shouldn’t give in. Thoreau believed that “under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison”, through his personal experience of spending a night in ...

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