Document A: Malcolm and Martin Meet
Edsitement! “Black Separatism or the Beloved Community? Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Endowment for the Humanities. Home page on-line. Internet; http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplan/black-separatism-or-beloved-community-malcolm-x-and-martin-luther-king-jr; accessed 11.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X at the US Capitol
March 26, 1964
Content Notes:
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It is import to remind students that King and Malcolm X had a good deal of respect for each other,
even though they often disagreed on goals and strategies. This picture was taken during their very
brief and only meeting.
Many historians suggest that both men were moving towards each other’s ideas before they were
assassinated. By 1964, Malcolm X was considering direct political action on many fronts. He had
developed his Organization of Afro-American Unity (O.A.A.U.) in order to mobilize urban black
America, in part, to vote. He even considered running for Congress. This is striking because, until his
break with Elijah Muhammad, Malcom avoided direct political action. His new emphasis on the
power of the ballot box coincided with the focus of more mainstream Civil Rights movement at the
time—voting rights and voter registration.
King, on the other hand, became more concerned with economic issues and the plight of AfricanAmerican city dwellers, particularly in the North. By the time of his assassination in 1968, King had
focused his energy on gaining economic justice for workers in the segregated cities of the North.
Moreover, King began to preach that there would be no economic and racial justice without a
reevaluation of the African-Americans’ role in history. In 1967, King made these power remarks:
[We] must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say to the world, “I am
somebody. . . I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history. . . .Yes, I
was a slave through my [forefathers] and I am not ashamed of that. I’m ashamed of the
people who were so sinful to make me a slave.” Yes, we must stand up and say, “I’m black
and I’m beautiful,” and this self-Affirmation is the black man’s need, made compelling by the
white man’s crimes against him.
Document B
King, Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream.” American Rhetoric. Home page on-line. Internet;
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm; 11 November 2015.
“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these
truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day out in 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. . . .
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin but by their character. . . .
With this faith 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.”
Content Notes:
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King’s speech, deliver on August 28, 1963, was the high point of the March on Washington—an event
attended by over 250,000 people and organized to put pressure on the Kennedy Administration. King
felt that the President was dragging his heels on the Civil Rights legislation that would outlaw all
forms of segregation in the country. Many consider the March on Washington, and especially King’s
speech, as the high point of the Civil Rights movement.
King’s speech is so well known that we often overlook the complex message he delivers. He lays out
his dream—the end of racial and economic injustice—the creation of a country full of citizens who
judge each other based on character. Most important, for the purposes of this DBQ, King argues in
the last line of the document that to achieve these goals will require an integrated effort by reformers.
His goal is one of integration, and the means to that end require integrated cooperation.
For many younger members of the Civil Rights movement, King’s speech did not go far enough.
Members of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) had made plans for a much more
critical speech aimed at the Kennedy Administration. They only changed their minds after a personal
plea was made by A. Philip Randolph, the elder statesman of the movement, who had proposed the
original March on Washington during the 1940s and was finally living out his dream. King’s message
of racial harmony and Christian love was allowed to carry the day.
Document C
X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley. New York: The Ballantine Publishing
Group, 1964.
“I tell sincere white people, ‘Work in conjunction with us—each of use working among our own kind.’ Let
sincere white individuals find all other white people they can who feel as they do—and let them form their
own all-white groups, to work trying to convert other white people who are thinking and acting so racist. Let
sincere whites go and teach non-violence to white people!
We will completely respect our white co-workers. They will deserve credit. We will give them every credit.
We will meanwhile be working among our own kind, in our black communities—showing and teaching black
men in ways that only other black men can—that the black man has got to help himself. Working separately,
the sincere white people and sincere black people actually will be working.”
Content Notes:
 Malcom S’s beliefs about racial separation have deep roots. His father was a follower of one of the
earliest black nationalists, Marcus Garvey. The Nation of Islam took a strict separatist view based on
Elijah Muhammad’s teachings about the white race. Earlier in his life, Malcolm X believed salvation
for black America would come in the form of a black country inside the United States. By the end of
his life, Malcolm was advocating a toned-down form of racial separatism. Still, it is striking to
compare this strategy for change with King’s integrationist message in the “I Have a Dream” speech.
Document D
King, Martin Luther. “25 March 1965: Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March.” The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University. Home page on-line;
Internet; http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/index.html; accessed 11 November 2015.
“We are on the move now. The burning of our churches will not deter us. We are on the move now. The
bombing of our homes will not dissuade us. We are on the move now. . . .
Let us march on segregated schools until every vestige of segregation and inferior education becomes a thing
of the past and Negroes and whites study side by side in the socially healing context of the classroom. . . .”
Content Notes:
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These quotations bring out each man’s vision of what education might look like in America. King
saw segregated schools as a way of locking out black students to the promises of education. He
operated under the assumption that drove most early civil rights reformers, that separate classrooms
and facilities could never be equal.
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It is important to note that king was interested in changing hearts and attitudes as well as laws. That is
why his vision on the classroom as having a “socially healing context” is so important. The schools,
he thought, could provide a meeting ground for cultures that could then learn to live and work together
from early childhood.
Document E
X, Malcom. “Program of the Organization of Afro-American Unity.” Malcolm X.org. Home page on-line.
Internet; http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_oaau.htm; accessed 11 November 2015.
“The Organization of Afro-American Unity will devise original educational methods and procedures which
will liberate the minds of our children from the vicious lies and distortions that are fed to use from the cradle to
keep us mentally enslaved. We encourage Afro-Americans themselves to establish experimental institutes and
education workshops, liberation schools and child- care centers in Afro-American communities.”
Content Notes:
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Malcolm X saw an integrated classroom as potentially dangerous and destructive to black students.
Within the educational system he saw many methods for keeping blacks in a subservient position—
lies about history, unequal funding, and tracking within a school district. The O.A.A. U. platform
states, “Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the means to help our
children and our people rediscover their help out children and out people rediscover the identity and
thereby increase their self-respect.” Malcolm and his followers felt it would be very difficult to
achieve this goal in an integrated environment where white teachers and parents might dominate the
school.
Document F
King, Martin Luther. “Nonviolence: The Only Road to Freedom.” Ebony, 21 October 1961.
“Along with the march as a weapon for change is our nonviolent arsenal must be listed the boycott. Basic to
the philosophy of nonviolence is the refusal to cooperate with evil. There is nothing quite so effective as a
refusal to cooperate economically with the forces and intuitions which perpetuate evil in our communities.
In the past six months simply by refusing to purchase products from companies which do not hire Negroes in a
meaningful numbers and in all job categories, the Ministers of Chicago under SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket
have increased the income of the Negro community by more than two million dollars annually. . . . This is
nonviolence as its peak of power, when it cuts into the profit margin of a business in order to bring about a
more just distribution of jobs and opportunities for Negro wage earners and consumers.”
Content Notes:
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Many of King’s nonviolent protest revolved around economic tactics. He took to hear the saying, “If
you want to hurt a man, hit him in his wallet.” The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the sit-ins, and the
SCLC campaigns in various southern cities were all designed to inflict financial pain on the white
business community. Businesses would then put pressure on the local political authorities to revise
their segregated laws.
As segregated laws began to disappear, King realized that economic disparities were still wide-spread.
He then began more focused efforts to increase wages and access to jobs. The boycott become his
favorite tool. It is still an important tool of modern Civil Rights activists.
It is interesting to note that one result of economic boycotts, as King describes, is increased business
within the black economic community. The basic economic theory behind Black Nationalism is to
buy from one’s own neighbors.
Commented [LR1]:
Document G
Breitman, George. The Last Years of Malcolm X: Evolution of a Revolutionary. United States of America:
Pathfinder Press, 1967.
“[W]e have to learn how to own and operate the businesses of our community and develop them into some
type of industry that will enable us to create employment for the people of our community so that they won’t
have to constantly be involved in picketing and boycotting other people in other communities in order to get a
job.
Also, in line with this economic philosophy of Black Nationalism, in order for us to control the economy of
our own community, we have to learn the importance of spending our money in the community where we live.
. . . [W]hen you take money out of the neighborhood in which you live. . . the neighborhood in which you
spend your money becomes wealthier and wealthier, and the neighborhood out of which you take your
becomes poorer and poorer.
[W]e haven’t learned the importance of owning and operating businesses. . . so even when we try and spend
our money in the neighborhood where we live, we’re spending it with someone who puts in in a basket and
takes it out as soon as the sun goes down.
So the economic philosophy of black nationalism puts the burden upon the black man of learning how to
control his own economy.”
Content Notes:
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Malcom X’s economic philosophy is a direct result of his core belief that to change, people must take
control of their own destiny—empower themselves and not rely on outside forces for help. He was
very concerned that if black Americans simply demanded more jobs and higher pay at white-owned
businesses, then the structure of the economy would not change enough.
Some Black Nationalist thinkers have pondered creating a separate “nation within a nation: of selfsufficient people who would trade with each other. By the end of his life, Malcolm saw the
impracticality of the separate nation idea.
Malcolm did envision, however, a worldwide network of people of African descent supporting one
another economically and politically. One way to combat inequality and racism at home was to link
up with those aboard. This new type of Pan-Africanism being promoted by many emerging African
leaders was driving force in much of Malcolm X’s last speeches. Interestingly, this idea brought
Malcolm X back to his roots—his father was a Pan-Africanist follower of Marcus Garvey in the
1920s.
Document H
King, Martin Luther. “4 July 1965: The American Dream. Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education
Institute, Stanford University. Home page on-line; Internet;
http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_the_american_dream/;
accessed 11 November 2015.
“[W]e will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your
physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust
laws. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children; send your
hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities and drag us out on some wayside road, beating us and
leaving communities and drag us out on some wayside road, beating us and leaving us for half dead, and we
will still love you. But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom
we will appeal to your heart and conscience so that we will win you in the process.”
Content Notes:
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At the heart of the nonviolent Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s was the belief that through
patient protest and suffering, a cruel society would be forced to confront its own wickedness. By
1958, King had won a major battle in Montgomery and was building support for a national movement
for racial equality. His book Stride Toward Freedom no only detailed his part in the Montgomery Bus
Boycott of 1955, but also laid out his philosophy of nonviolence in great detail.
King’s view won many followers and would win more. Still, many in the movement questioned
King’s advocacy of blacks’ loving their white enemies. Kenneth Clark, a scholar in the movement,
stated in 1961, “It is questionable whether the masses of an oppressed group can in fact ‘love’ their
oppressor. The natural reaction to injustice, oppression, and humiliation are bitterness and
resentment.” To require people to love their oppressors would place” . . . an intolerable psychological
burden upon these victims.”
Document I
X, Malcom X. “(1964) Malcolm X’s Speech at the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American
Unity.” Blackpast.org. Homepage on-line. Internet; http://www.blackpast.org/1964-malcolm-x-sspeech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity; accessed 11 November 2015.
“You can go and talk that old pretty talk to him, he doesn’t even hear you. He says yes, yes, yes. You know
you can’t communicate if one man is speaking French and the other one is speaking German. . . . Well, in this
country you’re dealing with a man who has a language. And if you want to know what his language is, study
his history. His language is blood, his language is brutality. . . .
And if you can’t talk that talk, he doesn’t even hear you. You can come talking that old sweet talk, or that old
peace talk, or that old nonviolent talk—that man doesn’t hear that kind of talk. He’ll pat you on your back and
tell you you’re a good boy and give you a peace prize. How are you going to get a peace prize when the war’s
not over yet? I’m for peace, but the only way you’re going to preserve peace is be prepared for war.”
Content:
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This quote was made the same year Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Many historians have commented on the difference between Malcolm S’s rhetoric and his actions
concerning armed self-defense. He never in the last years of his life acted in a violent fashion.
Ossie Davis, who knew Malcolm X and eulogized him at his funder, said, “. . . [Malcolm] delighted
in twisting the white man’s tail, and in making Uncle Toms, compromisers, and accommodationists . .
. ashamed of the . . . smiling hypocrisy we practice merely to exist in a world whose values we both
envy and despise.” Was Malcolm merely twisting the nonviolent movement’s tail or was this a
serious critique?
Document J
King, Martin Luther. “MLK Speech at SCLC Staff Retreat: 14 November 1966.” The King Center. Home
page on-line. Internet; http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/mlk-speech-sclc-staff-retreat;
accessed 11 November 2015.
“[V]iolence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder. Violence may murder the liar, but it
doesn’t murder lie; it doesn’t establish truth. Violence may even murder the dishonest man, but it doesn’t
murder dishonesty. Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn’t murder hate. It may
increase hate. It is always a descending spiral leading nowhere. This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It
multiples evil and violence in the universe. It doesn’t solve problems.”
Content Notes:
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1966 was an extremely difficult year for King and the nonviolent movement. Riots in over 40 cities
erupted throughout the country. Stokely Carmichael became the new head of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Carmichael’s focus on Black Power challenged the integrationist
vision held by many in the movement. Also, in 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seal founded the
Black Panthers in Oakland, California.
King was convinced that the turmoil in the country and the world, in particular the Vietnam War, was
further proof that his nonviolent message was correct. Violence creates violence.
Students often are ware of King’s efforts to end segregation in the South. However, may do not know
about his efforts in the North during the last few years of his life. King led major campaigns in cities
like Chicago. He fought for better housing, better jobs, improved education, and the end of the racism
that isolated Northern city dwellers from the riches of the cities.
Document K
X, Malcolm. Interview in The Young Socialist. 18 January 1965.
“I don’t favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well
and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I’m also a realist. The only people in
this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people. I’ve never heard anybody go to the Ku Klux
Klan and teach them nonviolence. . . . Nonviolence is only preached to black Americans and I don’t go along
with anyone who wants to teach our people nonviolence until someone at the same time I teaching our enemy
to be nonviolent. I believe we should protect ourselves by any means necessary when we are attacked by
racists.”
Content Notes:
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Malcolm X always argued that a person has the right to defend oneself from attack. Many white
Americans interpreted this phrase as a threat. Malcolm X knew the power of his words and repeated
this phrase often up to the day he was killed. However, when Malcolm argued for the right of selfdefense, he was even more interested in the goal of creating a movement of racial pride than in scaring
white America. Ossie Davis explains how Malcolm X affected him in this way: “I knew the man
personally, and however, much I might have disagreed with him. . . I never doubted that Malcolm X . .
. was the rarest thing in the world among us Negroes: a true man.”
Document L
King, Martin Luther. “On Black Nationalists and Malcolm X 1965.” In Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X,
and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents, edited by
David Howard-Pitney. United States of America: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.
“Even the extremist leaders who preach revolution are invariably unwilling to lead what they know would
certainly end in bloody, chaotic and total defeat; for in the event of a violent revolution, we would be sorely
outnumbered. And when it was all over, the Negro would face the same unchanged conditions, the same
squalor and deprivation—the only difference being that his bitterness would be even more intense, his
disenchantment even more abject. Thus, in purely practical as well as moral terms, the American Negro has no
alternative to nonviolence.”
Content Notes:
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Alex Haley, who interviewed King in 1965, was just finishing co-writing The Autobiography of
Malcolm X.
King was responding to a growing radicalism, especially among the young people in the movement,
who were questioning the long-term strategy of nonviolence.
It is very important that students see that King was not just a naïve believer that “love conquers all.”
He was a brilliant and relentless strategist whose goal was racial justice and freedom.