Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X: Different Men with Similar Goals

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family moved to Lansing, Michigan, and when Malcolm was six years old, his father was murdered after receiving threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm’s mother suffered a nervous breakdown and her eight children were taken by the welfare department. Malcolm was sent first to a foster home and then to a reform school. After 8th grade, Malcolm moved to Boston where he worked various jobs and eventually became involved in criminal activity. (Howard-Pitney 6-8)
In 1946, he was sentenced to prison for burglary. While in prison, Malcolm became invested in the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the black Muslims also called the Nation of Islam. Malcolm spent his time in jail educating himself and learning more about the black Muslims, who advocated racial separation. When Malcolm was released in 1952, he joined a black Muslim temple in Detroit and became the most prominent spokesperson for the Nation of Islam by the early 1960's. It was then that he took the name of Malcolm X. ...

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and the Whitney Young’s was a deadly dangerous pack of lies. "That's etiquette," he said. "Etiquette means to blend in with society. They are being polite. The average Negro doesn't even let another Negro know what he thinks, he's so mistrusting. I'm black first- my whole objectives are black, my allegiance is black, my whole objectives are black. By me being a Muslim, I'm not interested in American, because America has never been interested in me." (Howard-Pitney 135)
Black blood, claimed Malcolm X, is stronger than white. "A person can have a teaspoon of black in him, and that makes him black. Black can't come from white, but white can come from black. That means black was first. ...

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