A Comparative and Contrasting Essay on 20th Century Black Political Leaders:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X This essay will discuss Martin Luther King’s integration and assimilation in addition to Malcolm X’s separatism and Black Nationalism. Through Manning Marable’s assessment I will demonstrate that the ideological belief of Martin Luther King’s integration is a favourable representative of 20th century Black politics. The Civil Rights Movement symbolized the challenge and opposition to the racial injustices and segregation which had been engrained in American society for hundreds of years. Events that took place in the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, sit-ins, speeches and
The community out of which you take you dollar becomes poorer and poorer (Gates & McKay, 1997, p.91) . Instead of spending their money elsewhere, black communities should come together and open a black operated store, schools, and institutions so they cannot be excluded from it. Malcolm X did not view himself as an American but as an African due to all of the social degradation black people faced. “I'm not an American... I'm one of the 22 million black victims of Americanism... I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy... nothing but disguised hypocrisy.... We see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism. We don't see any American dream. We’ve experienced the American nightmare” (Gates & McKay, 1997, p.96) . Malcolm X is absolutely correct in saying that black people are not American if they are not being treated within the measures that are in accordance with the constitution. Earlier on in the semester we learned about the forms of racism. Dr. Davis gave a prime example of the covert racism that went on in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
It was exemplified through Social Security and minimum wages which had excluded agricultural and domestic workers. Indicating that three quarters of the black population lived in the south where their employment was concentrated in agricultural and domestic services; denying them access to social security and minimum wage benefits. It was due to of