The Constitution, until recently, did not apply to blacks; blacks feel they deserve payments from 310 years of slavery, destruction to their minds and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King's dilemma in the United States was of a different kind. He was torn between his identity as a Black man of African descent and his identity as an American. He urged Americans to judge based on the content of the character not by skin color and also believed in non-violent protests. Martin Luther King Jr’s main perspective during the fight on racism was equality.
Jefferson owned slaves and Franklin, for most of his life, adamantly believed that African Americans were lesser. b.) But, quite unlike the mainstream ideals of their time, both men held strong ideals of equality. Franklin did at the end of his life reverse his ideas about African Americans, and dedicated many of his later years to equality for blacks. Jefferson also believed slavery to be an atrocious blot on the face of America.
Mlk or Malcolm X The two most prominent figures during the civil rights acts of the 1960’s, were Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. These two men were pertinacious in fighting for racial equality for African Americans and all colored people; they both sought to tackle their common problem through the teachings, and doctrines they had been taught. Unfortunately, they had different strategies in achieving the social and economic equality they dreamed of, MLK preached nonviolent civil disobedience and the complete integration of society while Malcolm X fought to keep society segregated, but did not want the whites controlling anything the blacks did. MLk’s teaching was most effective and surpassed Malcolm X in achieving the desired goals because it was more accepted by society and it happened in a nonthreatening manner. MLK advocated for civil disobedience and positive tensions within a community to create a basis for negotiation.
Some of these groups and people included ‘Malcolm X’, Rosa Parks, and ‘The Black Panthers’. Malcolm X saw King’s campaign as trying to persuade the African American citizens to forget the days of slavery, and forget what the white men had done to their people. His stance was passive/aggressive and wanted equality by any means, including violence. Malcolm X was assassinated by a white supremacist during a speech and died of bullet wounds. Also, ‘The Black Panthers’ were a very violent group and saw King’s campaign as time consuming and feared it being forgotten in the process.
As “elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he was often seen as a rival to the NAACP. (Royson)” Martin Luther later became part of the NAACP. It was an organization that would help colored people earn their civil rights. His protests were anti-violent, because he believed there was no win through a physical war. The only way to win was with the help of God, because he created man as equal.
Martin Luther King and Malcom X In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s their was ongoing controversy and protests relating to racial segregation and civil rights. Two black men who greatly contributed to the civil rights movement, and were known as the stars were, Martin Luther King and Malcom X. They both wanted rights for the black population but had different beliefs and different ways to go about achieving their goals. Many things contributed to their beliefs on racial segregation and civil rights such as childhood memories, education or religious reasons. Martin Luther King was raised in a middle class home where his parents knew the value of a good education.
The malicious acts committed by Malcolm X reflect the idea that people ignore truth to conform to society. Known for having strong opinions, Malcolm X seems to be an unlikely victim of blind conformity. However, as shown in his essay, “My First Conk”, Malcolm X was victimized by this need to conform. Changing to look or behave like another because it is more desired by the public is due to a disregarding of self-claimed morals and values, an over emphasis of the media and outside opinions, and an insecurity. In “My First Conk”, Malcolm X assured that black people were being brainwashed to believe that they actually were inferior to white people, thus they conked their hair; which was a hair straightener gel made from lye popular among African-American men from the 1920s to the 1960s.
African Americans were segregated from the whites and also Women had no rights because Men were seen as the alpha male. The obstacles of the two would probably fit into the race and gender of how America was back in the twentieth century. African Americans were always hard to be put in society in the 1900’s because of slavery. Even though slavery had ended in the 1950’s, they were still not accepted into society. The northern parts of the United States accepted African Americans, and many try to escape to the north to try to get employed and leave the racial segregation in the south.
In the book “Racial Equality in America” John Franklin, the author, speaks on the many problems of racial Equivalence. While he voices the many points of inequality in America, he expresses heavy concern on two main points. The first being inequality in education and inequality in the law. In the book John states “Black children, however, were denied such an opportunity because it was assumed that they were incapable of benefiting from such an experience and because white society had defined for them an inferior role in which education was really not necessary anyway. Thus, they were officially denied every opportunity for an education in the slave states, while in the free states they were largely excluded from the schools for whites and were given only that training deemed suitable for their inferior status.
His family tried their best to mold him into a better man in order to survive the later years to come. Wright had to realize the harsh realities of the consequences of being a black man in the early 1900s. In that time, many blacks were tortured for the simple fact that they were not white. Black people experienced much violence. Jim Crow Laws promoted the idea that blacks were naturally mediocre to blacks in all important ways, including intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior.