Martin Luther King and his work

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Shanklin -

A Dream vs. A Nightmare

In the United States during the 1950’s and 1960s, the black and white races were in a major struggle over racial inequality. This was a very disturbing realm of racial discrimination that all started down in the Southern states of America. States like Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, to name a few. Many civil rights issues also developed during this time period. During this time, two of the most well known leaders of this civil rights movement were Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Even though both men were fighting for the same end results, their methods, philosophies, and principles were different. Their main differences reflected on their willingness to use or not to use violence as a method to achieve their goals.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born Michael Luther King in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. He was one of three children born to Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Alberta King, a former schoolteacher.  Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a housewife, who stayed busy with the family’s eight children. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and devoted follower of the Black Nationalist leader, Marcus Garvey.

King was brought up in a comfortable middle-class family where education was extremely important. His parents made certain that Martin and his siblings were as safe and happy as they could be. He was a really smart student and even skipped two grades before entering an Ivy League college at a young age of 15. With an A average he became his graduating classes’ valedictorian. Most would say Martin was raised in an almost perfect environment, where dreams and love were sincerely generated.  

In 1955 down in Montgomery, Alabama, King's rise to national fame began. Rosa Parks, had been arrested for refusing to obey a city law that required African Americans to sit or stand at the back of public buses. The African American citizens of the city organized a bus boycott in protest and asked King to serve as their leader. Thousands boycotted the buses for more than a year, and despite segregationist violence against them, King grounded their protests on his deeply held belief in nonviolence. He helped lead boycotts and argued that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to provide integrated seating on public buses. 

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On the other hand, Malcolm was raised in an underprivileged household of violence. Fear and anger deeply planted many seeds of bitterness within him. The Klu Klux Klan put Malcolm’s family through a lot of turmoil. The two of the most devastating attacks was the burning of his house and the murder of his father. He suffered not only from abuse of whites, but also from domestic abuse. His father beat his mother and both parents abused their children. After his mother had a mental breakdown, the children were placed in foster homes. Malcolm's resentment escalated from the negative effects ...

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