Malcolm X Dbq

Shortly after the end of World War II, America was faced with a new, domestic issue: The Civil Rights Movement. Although the movement began much earlier than this, it wasn’t brought to America’s priority until the war ended. The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education case sparked the attention of many Americans to the struggle for school integration. This court decision then started an entire civil rights crusade that would change social life in America forever. Such a significant cause needed very strong and dedicated leaders, and no one else best fit those positions than Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. While both leaders strove to reach the same goal of racial equality, the two had very different methods in which they endeavored …show more content…
Malcolm X explicitly believed that African Americans and white people should continue to remain segregated while obtaining a more equal status to one another. He told the public “work in conjunction with us-each of us working among our own kind” and then further explained that “working separately, the sincere white people and sincere black people actually will be working together.” (Document C). In comparison, Martin Luther King Jr. persistently homilized parity and integration. He encouraged the races to work together to achieve these civil goals. According to some of his famous words, “we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” (Document B). Based off of this logic, Malcolm X was not only holding America back, but he was actually pushing America further away from the solution. At the time when integration of schools was already set into motion, he was proposing the establishment of all-black institutes within the black communities to provide African American children with a fair education (Document