MLK
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1929
Son of a preacher
Stable childhood
MALCOLM X
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1925
Father murdered
Foster Child
Drug dealer, crime, prison
MLK
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Morehouse-BA
Boston Univ.-PhD
MALCOLM X
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Informal/prison
Self-Educated
MLK
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Coretta Scott
MALCOLM X
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Betty Shabbazz
MLK
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“I Have a Dream”
“I’ve Been to a
Mountaintop”
“Letter from Birmingham
Jail”
MALCOLM X
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“Ballot or the Bullet”
“Message from the
Grassroots”
MLK
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Baptist
MALCOLM X
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Black Muslim (Nation of
Islam)
MLK
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SCLC
MALCOLM X
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Nation of Islam
Organization for AfroAmerican Unity
MLK
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Non-violence (Gandhi)
Civil disobedience
Integration
MALCOLM X
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Black self-reliance
Militancy
Black separatism
Black supremacy
MLK
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Assassination
Memphis 1968
James Earl Ray
MALCOLM X
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Assassination
NY 1965
Nation of Islam
Martin &
Malcolm
This image shows the only
time Martin Luther King
and Malcolm X ever met,
and was taken before a
press conference at the
U.S. Capitol on 26 March
1964.
For years, the two had
represented opposite sides
of the struggle: King was a
leader of the southern Civil
Rights Movement, while
Malcolm X was recognized
as a voice for urban African
Americans; however, by
1964 they were moving
closer.
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Dr. King on Integration –
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“I have a dream that one
day on the red hills of
Georgia the sons of
former slaves and the
sons of former slave
owners will be able to sit
down together at the
table of brotherhood.”

“A genuine leader is not a
searcher for consensus
but a molder of
consensus.”
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Malcolm X on Integration –
"If I have a cup of coffee that is too
strong for me because it is too black, I
weaken it by pouring cream into it. I
integrate it with cream. If I keep
pouring enough cream in the coffee,
pretty soon the entire flavor of the
coffee is changed; the very nature of
the coffee is changed. If enough cream
is poured in, eventually you don't even
know that I had coffee in this cup. This
is what happened with the March on
Washington. The whites didn't
integrate it; they infiltrated it. Whites
joined it; they engulfed it; they
became so much a part of it, it lost its
original flavor. It ceased to be a black
march; it ceased to be militant; it
ceased to be angry; it ceased to be
impatient. In fact, it ceased to be a
march."
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Dr. King on Malcolm X
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"You know, right before he
was killed he came down to
Selma and said some pretty
passionate things against
me, and that surprised me
because after all it was my
territory there. But
afterwards he took my wife
aside, and said he thought
he could help me more by
attacking me than praising
me. He thought it would
make it easier for me in the
long run."
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Malcolm X on Dr. King
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“He got the peace prize,
we got the problem. ... If
I'm following a general,
and he's leading me into a
battle, and the enemy
tends to give him rewards,
or awards, I get suspicious
of him. Especially if he gets
a peace award before the
war is over.”
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“Dr. King wants the same
thing I want – freedom!”
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Dr. King on Violence and
Power
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“Have we not come to such
an impasse in the modern
world that we must love
our enemies – or else? The
chain reaction of evil – hate
begetting hate, wars
producing more wars –
must be broken, or else we
shall be plunged into the
dark abyss of annihilation.”

Malcolm X on Violence and
Power
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“Who ever heard of angry
revolutionists all harmonizing
"We shall overcome ... Some
Day..." while tripping and
swaying along arm-in-arm with
the very people they were
supposed to be angrily revolting
against? Who ever heard of angry
revolutionists swinging their
bare feet together with their
oppressor in lily-pad park pools,
with gospels and guitars and "I
have a dream" speeches? And the
black masses in America were –
and still are – having a
nightmare.”
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CORE / SNCC campaign to gain voting
rights in Miss.

Who? College students, mostly white,
1/3 females
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What? Helped register voters
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June ‘63: KKK & police murdered 3
civil rights workers (2 white)
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Summer: Racial beatings, murders,
and burning houses took place
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SCLC voting campaign in Selma,
Alabama
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1965: 2,000+ African Americans were
arrested for demonstrations
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Jimmy Lee Jackson: Murdered
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Response? King marches with 600
protesters 50 miles from Selma to
Montgomery
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Violence: Police beat and tear-gas the
marchers
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Pres. Johnson: presented Voting Rights
Act ‘65
LONG HOT
SUMMERS
LONG HOT
SUMMERS
LONG HOT
SUMMERS
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1960’s violence b/w white authority and black civilians
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Aug. 11, ‘65: (5 days after voting act) worst race riot in U.S. history
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What?
 LA police officer pulled over motorist Marquette Frye; suspected of driving
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drunk
While officers questioned them, a crowd of onlookers had begun to form
When Rena Frye, the boys mother showed up, a struggle led to the arrest of
all 3 members of the Frye family
More officers had arrived on the scene and had hit the brothers with their
batons. The crowd had grown and by this point had become angry.
After the police left the scene, the crowd & tension escalated and sparked
the riots, which lasted 6 days.
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Damage? 34 killed, 1,000 wounded, $100 million in property damage
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1967: riots in over 100 cities
WATTS
WATTS
WATTS
WATTS
WATTS
WATTS
WATTS
WATTS
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What? 1967 began with the arrest of a black cab driver named, who allegedly drove
around a double-parked police car
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He was subsequently stopped, interrogated, arrested, and severely beaten by the
officers
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As news of the arrest spread, a crowd began to assemble outside the precinct house
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When the police allowed a few civil rights leaders to visit the prisoner, they demanded
that he be taken to a hospital

Rumor spread that he had died in police custody, when he had been transported to a
local hospital

Soon bricks and bottles were launched at the precinct house
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As the crowd dispersed they began to break into stores
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Eventually violence spread from the predominantly black neighborhoods and the State
Police were mobilized
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Within 48 hours, National Guard troops entered the city, made matters worse
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Results? 6 days of rioting, 23 dead, 725 injured, and 1500 arrested
NEWARK
NEWARK
NEWARK
NEWARK
NEWARK
NEWARK
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Kerner Commission:
 March 1, 1968
 Study the causes of urban violence
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Findings:
 “Our nation is moving towards 2 societies, one black,
one white—separate and unequal”
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Called for:
 Create new jobs
 Construct new housing
 End de facto segregation
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Response
 Johnson ignores recommendations
 Too many whites against it
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Ended de jure segregation (by law)
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Civil Rights Act of:
 1964 – Banned discrimination in employment &
public accommodations
 1968 – Ended discrimination in housing

Increase in:
 Jobs, college enrollment, voting, public
accommodations, wealth, cultural pride,
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Legally confronted issues of:
 Housing/job discrimination, educational
inequality, poverty, racism
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Difficult task to change people’s perspective
and behavior
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Level the playing field
 Proposition of more tax $ going to inner-cities
 Affirmative action
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1990: white flight  reversed progress
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1996-7: 28% of blacks in South and 50% in
North were still attending schools with less
than 10% white population
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How are race relations today??