As the civil rights movement progressed, both Martin and Malcolm experienced transformations in the emphasis of their ideologies. The first phase of Martin’s thinking is seen from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 to the passing of the Voting Rights Bill in August 1965. During this period, his focus was on social justice, and attacking the unjust system of segregation. Justice became the means of a larger goal of achieving love, or a harmonious brotherhood between whites and blacks. In the same token, love, as expressed through nonviolent protest, became the means of achieving desegregation, or justice. In this stage, Martin had hope in America, its people and government.
Martin formed five objectives for the black man during this phase. The first was self-respect, of which he said, “Let no force, let no power, let no individual, let no social system, cause you to feel that you are inferior.” He was concerned that the effects of slavery and segregation had caused many blacks to lose their sense of dignity, and called for blacks to affirm their spiritual likeness to God. His second objective was for the black community to have high moral standards, due to its corruption from criminal and amoral behavior. His third objective was wholehearted work, of which he said not to “use our oppression as an excuse for mediocrity and laziness.” His fourth objective was leadership, which called for strong and intelligent members of the black community to step up to the role of leadership and help unify the black masses. The last objective, of which he was most passionate, was nonviolence. As learned from Mahatma Gandhi, Martin preached that hatred only led to bitterness and bloodshed, and that the moral and spiritual power of love would redeem the oppressor and the oppressed from injustice. He saw the means of change to be civil disobedience, boycotts, and legislation.
The first phase of Malcolm’s ideology was from the 1950s until his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. During this stage, Malcolm’s idea of justice differed from that held by Martin. Rather than define it through the Christian ideal to love one’s enemy, Malcolm defined it by the Muslim concept of “an eye for an eye.” He believed that justice would prevail when God, Allah, punished the white man for his evil deeds against the black man. Like Martin, Malcolm developed five objectives. His first was unity, which called for the black community to come together with love and respect for each other. He believed that self-hate was the number one problem in the black community. His second objective was self-knowledge. Malcolm was pained by the black man’s cultural ignorance, and claimed that without knowledge of the self one cannot think for one’s self. His third objective was self-love. He believed that the downfall of the black community was its aspiration to be like whites. If the black man loved himself he would not be tempted by drugs, prostitution, and crime, all of which he said the white man perpetuated. His fourth objective was self-defense, of which he said, “Any Negro who teaches Negroes to turn the other cheek in the face of attack is disarming that Negro of his God-given right, of his moral right, of his natural right, of his intelligent right to defend himself.” His final objective was separation. He viewed integration as blacks begging whites to become part of their institutions, and said, “No one respects or appreciates a beggar.” To Malcolm, there could be no unity based on equality between blacks and whites until there was first unity within the black community.
Dominating both Martin’s dream of America and Malcolm’s nightmare of America were two distinctive religious traditions in the black community. One was Christianity, which blacks reshaped in light of their struggle for dignity in American society. The other was Islam, which blacks also redefined to express their hostility towards the white oppressors of American society. Martin based his idea of the American dream on the assumption that America was a Christian nation, which had failed to fulfill its religious identity as the Kingdom of God, as well as its moral vision of freedom and justice. As a Black Muslim, Malcolm based part of his idea of the American nightmare on the myth of Yacob, which claimed that “an evil black scientist created the evil white race six thousand years ago because they were destined to rule the world for that period of time.” He believed that America was doomed because “the God of justice” would destroy it for its sins.
Linking the two denominations of Martin and Malcolm was faith, which had been created in the black struggle for dignity. Despite the many differences between their religious traditions, Martin’s faith was much closer to Malcolm’s than it was to that of white Christians, and likewise Malcolm’s faith was closer to Martin’s than it was to that of Muslims in the Middle East, Africa, or Asia. This was the result of the same black experience of suffering and struggle in America that had defined their faith commitments. Therefore, each of their theologies can be seen as different religious and intellectual responses of blacks to their environment as they searched for meaning in a nation they did not create.
As stated earlier, both Martin’s and Malcolm’s ideologies underwent two phases. Martin’s emphasis began to change after the signing of the Voting Rights Bill on August 6, 1965. Five days later, Martin was profoundly affected by a riot in the Watts ghetto in Los Angeles, which had left 34 people dead, 4,000 arrested, and whole blocks of buildings burned to the ground. Upon visiting the scene, Martin received a hostile response to his message of nonviolence and began to realize that the economic issues surrounding class relations comprised a greater problem for blacks than racism. In a speech at the Chicago Freedom Festival in January 1966, he called attention to the ghettos, saying they left blacks dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated and humiliated. Another influential factor in his changing emphasis towards poverty was the Vietnam War, of which he was angered that Americans would deprive their own poor to pay for an unjust war. At the same time, the growth of the Black Power movement undoubtedly affected Martin, and he began to move towards a species of separatism in the sense that he encouraged a powerful affirmation of black self-esteem and self-determination in the realms of politics, economics, and religious institutions.
Martin’s new assessments of racism, black empowerment, and the war caused a shift in his emphasis and meaning regarding the themes of love, justice, and hope. No longer was love the focus of his work, but instead hope. His hope, however, was no longer in the American people and government, but in God alone. During the second phase of King’s development his American dream became an American nightmare, like that of Malcolm X. He began to call America a morally “sick society.”
Similarly, Malcolm experienced a shift in ideologies after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. He realized that the teachings of Elijah Muhammad were not true to orthodox Islam, and he left the Nation of Islam and established the Muslim Mosque, Inc. in March 1964, and then the Organization of Afro-American Unity that same year. In Mecca he witnessed a genuine kinship among men of all races, and recognized that whites were not inherently racists. However, he saw absolute submission to Allah as the only means by which to accomplish such racial harmony. From his travels throughout Europe and Africa, Malcolm also became aware of a worldwide oppression of blacks by western whites. He began to include in his speeches the larger universal problem of human rights. Malcolm’s emphasis became more on social doctrine, current events, and politics, rather than religion, because of its inclination for creating divisions. As Malcolm moved away from the Nation of Islam and began to plan his own course during this last year of his life, he made a conscious effort to move towards the politics of Martin and the civil rights movement. Although he still rejected integration and advocated separation, he realized that they shared a common goal and could greater help the black community by working together. In his speech entitled, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” he attempted to develop a political vision that combined his black nationalist, Muslim past, with the current civil rights movement led by Martin.
As the two major black leaders of the civil rights movement, Martin and Malcolm complemented each other. They were both fighting for the cause of black freedom, and they both demanded for the black community “respect as human beings.” Their two different approaches of integration and separation, along with nonviolence and self-defense, were due largely to geography. Martin appealed to a segregated, Christian South, whose primary concern was integration, while Malcolm appealed to a non-Christian, integrated North, who became more concerned with black empowerment. Towards the end of their lives, however, both moved away from the extremes of their original positions and began to accept aspects of each other’s perspective. Malcolm supported efforts of major civil rights organizations, like voter registration. He also spoke in favor of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and admired Fannie Lou Hamer, the Mississippi grassroots civil rights leader. In a speech to three thousand students at Tuskegee Institute, he expressed his support for Martin (who was in jail) and other blacks fighting for voter registration.
Martin’s movement towards Malcolm was just as extreme. Although he was fearful of tainting his nonviolent integrationist image, and never publicly commended Malcolm, he considered him an ally and respected his passion and dedication to the black freedom struggle. In private, among close friends, Martin reportedly said, “I just saw Malcolm on television. I can’t deny it. When he starts talking about all that’s been done to us, I get a twinge of hate, of identification with him.” Equally significant was Martin’s adoption of such phrases as “blackness” and “domestic colonialism,” words coined by Malcolm. Martin even concluded that “temporary segregation” was probably the only way to overcome powerlessness in the black community. Also, Martin began to admit, like Malcolm, that there were only a small number of whites that were genuinely committed to equality. Due to their profound respect and effect on each other, James Baldwin claimed that “by the time each met his death, there was practically no difference between them.”
Although Martin and Malcolm complemented each other, they also corrected each other. Martin still challenged Malcolm’s abusive and vindictive language against whites, and believed that his philosophy of self-defense was foolish. Likewise, Malcolm remained militant and challenged Martin’s idea of nonviolence. Realistically, a genuine coalition between the two men could never have existed because of their loyalty to self-defense and nonviolence, both of which were derived from their different religious faiths. Neither was willing to compromise on these issues.
Together, Martin and Malcolm lifted the black community out from the pits of depravity and shame. They each symbolized a necessary component in the civil rights movement. The legacies they left behind continue to inspire those in the struggle for racial justice.
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