Education proved to be a factor which King was determined to work at from a young age. Dr. King entered Morehouse College at the age of fifteen because of his high score on the college entrance examinations. King went on to show his desire and commitment to education by achieving a respectable PhD at the University of Boston, and he was then awarded a degree in Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology in June 5, 1955. The level of education was at a high standard, with achievements to prove for it. With a tough upbringing, it was almost predictable that Malcolm X would not have studied at the same level as MLK. At a young age, Malcolm showed flashes of ability although he was constantly put down by his teacher who felt his ambitions were unreal simply because he was black. In 1938, Malcolm, was expelled from school and sent to a juvenile detention centre, this was possibly the episode which pushed Malcolm X over the edge, and led to him actively turning away from education to a life of crime and drugs in Harlem, New York. The majority of Black people felt it was safe to support a stable character such as King as he was well educated, and a religious person. However, some blacks felt that they would rather support a ruthless approach from Malcolm X, as they believed he would gain them the Equality they wanted so badly, in a more efficient manner than MLK.
King’s actions were supported by his faith in Christianity; King himself was a very religious man as he took upon his dad’s mentality and beliefs, he soon became a Baptist minister and was beginning to put his beliefs into action. The way King approached matters was always backed up by his Christian beliefs i.e. he believed in the Bible teachings ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘love your neighbour’ these teachings made King look upon everybody as equals, disregarding their colour or social background and to not meet violence with violence. Malcolm X was born into a Christian family so began his early life following the Christian faith, after being sent to prison Malcolm went through a number of changes and one was his faith, he turned towards the religion of Islam and, in particular, the Nation of Islam. With America being populated by mostly Christian citizens it was almost guaranteed that King would get more support because of his strong Christian faith. Malcolm X, on the other hand, would not have had as strong a Christian backing as MLK, due to the fact that he converted to Islam, and, with the strong Christian beliefs Black Americans held, they would have been wary of aligning themselves with an Islamic leader. Because of this, Malcolm X’s primary support came from The Nation of Islam.
Martin Luther King’s ideologies were unique and made him special in comparison to other leaders; his goal was to achieve equality throughout America without inflicting any sort of violence and staying inside the law. King used the American law to his own advantage and he thought that the ‘Bill of Rights’ could be used to promote their cause, he also used the Linda Brown case as evidence that violence should not be treated with violence. Martin Luther King and the SCLC’s believed if they could challenge the law they could achieve social equality and make segregation illegal. MLK looked upon political and legal reforms as the most important aspect of ending segregation, and, through peaceful speeches and protests, he made racial, sexual and religious discrimination illegal and civil rights legislation was passed. Although MLK had managed to change the law in this manner, some people argued that MLK had ignored other social and economic problems such as housing for the black citizens and the fact that jobs offered to black people were still at a low standard. This meant that even though Blacks were no longer segregated, white people still looked down on them, and they were still treated as second class citizens, even after MLK had abolished the segregation law, and this was evident in their standard of living.
King used a number of methods to gain equality amongst Americans. These consisted of peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, bus-boycotts, marches, speeches, swim-ins, read-ins, and watch-ins. All these peaceful protests were led by King and his organisation SCLC. The sit-ins in particular were well received, and news of them spread widely and quickly, over 100 cities and 50,000 people in total, mainly students, were involved in these demonstrations. The police often did not show any sympathy towards the protesters, and were prone to arresting black students who were silently sitting down, whilst ignoring white people who were hurling abuse at the protestors. This was shown on television and in the media and these heavy handed displays by the police and white bystanders gained the protestors public sympathy in the Northern states. King was achieving his objective of getting publicity, support and sympathy. The Supreme Court decided that no southern state could impose an unequal seating arrangement on inter-state buses, although, this was tested by a mixed race team of Civil Rights campaigners, on a journey from Washington D.C to New Orleans. The freedom riders were physically assaulted during the journey, and the bus was set aflame.
The sit-ins proved to be a success as black people refused to enter ‘white only counters’ and after organising ‘sit-ins’ these places had to be closed, nevertheless these ‘sit-ins’ often took long time to enforce and were very slow, and some just chose to ignore it. . Legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Bill made more people support King. King won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his work to end racial discrimination through non-violent methods. This showed the public that he was successful and a good person, giving him even more support. One of his main criticisms was that there was not enough emphasis on social and economic changes, for example segregated communities. Most of King’s criticism came from the Northern States of America as he did not pay them enough attention.
Malcolm X’s views and ideologies were different opposed to King, his ideas included rejection of non-violence he also said that Martin Luther King was the ‘tool of the white man’ and that blacks should be proud of their skin colour; he also said that white people should not be involved in the Civil Rights Movement, so he strongly believed in ‘White Supremacy’. He also believed that black people should defend themselves if violence was inflicted upon them. Also, one of his main focuses was on social and economic changes for example improving the quality of life for black people all around America, an area in which Martin Luther King had been criticised. As we can see Malcolm X’s beliefs were totally different to that of MLK this is why the two groups, SCLC and SNCC, had different approaches to gaining more Civil Rights.
Malcolm X had some similar methods as MLK, for example he became minister and gave speeches to black Muslims, and he also used publicity to his advantage and gained more supporters. However there were other methods that were different to King’s. Malcolm X believed that Blacks and Whites shouldn’t mix together and that black people should respond to any sort of violence inflicted on them. Also, he made political statements which said that social circumstances in the ghettos included crime, prostitution, drugs and unemployment which he was going to act upon and try improving. He criticised Martin Luther King for only passing laws and not focusing on the social and economic problems between black and white people for example housing and jobs. The Black Panthers were influenced by the ideas of Malcolm X. The Black Panthers had around 2000 members in the late 1960’s but this did not last long as the group broke down after shootouts between them and the police. However, Malcolm X’s views changed after his pilgrimage, where he found white, brown and black people all worshipping the same god. He left the Nation of Islam (black Muslims) and joined the Sunny Muslims who where better known.
Malcolm X gained lots of support from poorer people as he strived to improve there quality of life. He told people that the Nation of Islam could help them just as it had helped him; this gave him support from all of these people and black Muslims. As the North was more industrial, the social and economic changes such as education, housing and employment related to the area so people recognised Malcolm X’s work and gave him huge support in the poorer areas of the northern states. Malcolm X focused on social and economic changes which King had been criticised for; this meant that King’s critics would support Malcolm X. However, this divided the Civil Rights Movement and black people began to disagree amongst each other weather to support MLK or Malcolm X. Also, Malcolm struggled to get support of white people as they accused him of being racist towards them. Unlike Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was not supported by authorities as he often challenged them with his rejection to non-violence.
In conclusion, I think the main reason why black people disagreed amongst themselves during the 1960’s was because of the leaders stark differences in beliefs. Malcolm X did not welcome any white people to support him and in general showed dislike towards white supremacists, opposed to King who believed ‘everybody was made in the image of god’ and did not judge anybody on there religion or colour. X was often criticised for being a hypocrite as he was trying to achieve something as big as equality, and was racist towards white people himself. I think this is why some black people disagreed amongst themselves weather they should support somebody with a ruthless approach or somebody like King who showed respect to others and went the right ways to try achieve social equality. Despite Malcolm X’s work which helped to improve the standard of living of black people, I think that Martin Luther King and the SCLC had the best approach to gaining more civil rights as they stayed true to their beliefs and were very successful. King’s work inspired many people and really provided the driving force behind the Civil Rights Movement.
