The freedom of America would have never become what it is today without the help of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. These civil right leaders existed during a time of extreme discrimination against minorities. They fought against discrimination using their power of influence on the rest of the population. By influencing the minorities of America, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. led them into pursuing their dreams of becoming a free-American, treated as if they were majorities. Their persuasive speeches and arguments played a part in the civil rights movement. While both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the injustice at the time, Malcolm X approached this topic through his violently written speech whereas Martin Luther King Jr. approached this topic through his peaceful-making speech.
In Malcolm X’s speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet”, he speaks to the audience about the injustice in America. He starts off in an angry tone, angry at the “white politicians” (357). He claims that the politicians come “…with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises…” (357) and that they come “in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes” (357). The politicians come every 4 years, when the election arrives, which, he says, is the only time the politicians ever cared about the black folks. The audience realizes the lack of respect the “white politicians” (357) give to them and become angry. Next, he tells the audience that they have the power to fight against the white people and says, “If you can be brave enough over there [in Korea facing 800 million Chinese], you can be brave right here” (357). The reason of this quote is because America sends black soldiers to Korea. If the black fighters are brave enough to fight in Korea against “800 million Chinese” (357), the black fighters are brave enough to fight for their own equality in America. The beginning of the speech already puts the audience in rage with the acknowledgment of their own power. Malcolm X continues on his speech stating his own beliefs and how he is included in this injustice system. He basically says that he is not an American unless he is treated like an American. He believes that he is, “one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism” (357). Americanism, in his point of view, is being able to treat everyone equally except black people. When he describes the black people as victims, he is making it sound like the black people are the good ones and Americans are the bad ones. Malcolm X, then, starts to put unreasonable comments into his speech by saying, “…you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last” (358)… This is not supposed to happen, if the black people vote for Democrats, the Democrats should fight for the black people. People start to realize this injustice as he talks about how America “…got rich because you made it rich” (359). The black people gave their blood for America with nothing in return. In general, the country treats the African-Americans as “Africans who are in America” (361) because they take from them but does not treat them fairly. By now, the audience is furious with the country on how they are badly treated. Finally, Malcolm X calls the people into action to “Let the world know how bloody his [Uncle Sam] hands are” (361). Uncle Sam is losing “his mind, his intelligence” (361) and therefore he is frightened. He is weak and therefore the black community “got to fight until we [black community] overcome” (362)… These words mean that America is finally weak; that black people can fight against America for their equality. His final call for action ends with “In 1964, it’s the ballot or the bullet” (363). Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” enrages the audience which helps lead to the fight against the injustice of America.
The other civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., writes a letter during his time in the Birmingham Jail. Martin Luther King, Jr. starts the letter by calling for help. He says, “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here…Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid” (347). The audience, in response, would pay attention to this letter because the black community cannot ignore a black person in trouble. Next, Martin Luther King, Jr. writes about injustice and how, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (347) and “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly” (347). He feels that he was arrested and put in jail because of injustice and since there is injustice, it affects everyone. These quotes, effectively, calls upon those who are victims of injustice and also, those who aren’t victims because everyone is affected. The letter moves on to tell us why we need to talk about this issue on injustice not later, but now. An effective way of putting this in words is, “…justice too long delayed is justice denied” (348). Also, in this letter, Martin Luther King, Jr. describes the history of segregation about how he sees “vicious mobs lynch your mothers and father at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim” (348)… or how he feels:
…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children… (348)
These few examples have been happening to a lot, if not all, the black people in the community. They share the same experiences which lets them feel the pain that Martin Luther King, Jr. feels. Because of this, they should be willing to do whatever Martin Luther King, Jr. tells them to do to get away from this pain. Martin Luther King, Jr., then, talks about just and unjust laws. He explains that, “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law” (349). He continues by saying, “…segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful” (349). Basically, he had just said that segregation is an unjust law which is wrong and awful; that segregation should not be a part of America’s laws. And why should we not have unjust laws in America? Martin Luther King, Jr. says, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’” (349). This example definitely puts great effect on why segregation should not be America. What Hitler did was unspeakable and to have America repeat this example is horrific. The message in this letter is to use nonviolence to negotiate the injustice in America. His reason of nonviolence comes from God and therefore, it is “right” to use nonviolence. He also says that, “… to use immoral means to attain moral ends” (352) is wrong and “…it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends” (352). Martin Luther King, Jr. is speaking to the majority of the population who is for this segregation. He explains, to them, how the black community is wrong to use violence to fight against this injustice but it is also wrong to put him in jail (using moral means) because he is trying to negotiate against segregation, the immoral end. In the conclusion of the letter, Martin Luther King, Jr. tells the black community that they should have courage to fight for freedom through nonviolence. They should be like those heroes who sat in the front of the segregated buses or those courageous young high school students who sat nonviolently at lunch, “willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake” (353). Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is an effective letter that gets people to think about what is happening in America and how it is wrong.
Both of these civil right leaders spoke a lot about the injustice in America. They are comparable in the sense that they both spoke against segregation to the audience. They both oppose the lack of respect (or moral) that the white community puts against the black community, which comes from the white community’s treatments toward the black community. Both leaders gave examples of bad treatments in their speech. Lastly, both these speeches call upon the black people in the community to fight for their equality. The two speeches contrast mainly because Malcolm X tells the audience, indirectly, to use violence when they fight for their equality while Martin Luther King, Jr. tells the audience, directly, to use nonviolence when they negotiate for their equality. Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” says violence in the title with “the bullet.” Throughout the speech, he puts anger and hatred into the audience which leads them to fight America. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” says to negotiate with the white community. His speech directs to both the blacks and the whites where the message to the blacks would be to use nonviolence against the whites and the message to the whites would be to allow negotiation with the blacks. These two speeches share the same general idea (of having to fight against segregation) and contrast in the way the idea is to be put forth (using violence or nonviolence).
In general, I believe that both of these civil rights leaders have their reasons for using violence or nonviolence within their speech to fight for their civil rights. First of all, Malcolm X is a tall man, standing 6 feet 3 inches, while Martin Luther King, Jr. was a shorter man, standing at 5 feet 6 inches. Bigger people tend to want to fight more than smaller people. Also, Malcolm X was from the North, where freedom was never always there and definitely, the treatments from the whites to the blacks was a lot worse (i.e. slavery) while Martin Luther King, Jr. was from the south, where the community is already using less violence against the blacks (compared to the north) and therefore the blacks should not use violence against the whites. These reasons may be why Martin Luther King, Jr. does not use violence which, in turn, leads him to be the preferred civil rights leader in America, to have won the Nobel Prize and to be talked and taught about ever since. However, although they had different methods of fighting against segregation, they were both courageous civil rights leaders who led the black community until they were assassinated.
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