Malcolm Little was born to a Louise and Earl little, who was an active member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Due to his father being a activist their family was subjected to tons of harassment from white supremacist groups. Ultimately leading to their house getting burnt down from racist mobs and white firemen not helping. A couple years after that Earl was found dead over streetcar tracks, even though it was ruled an accident his family knew he was murdered. His wife was admitted to a mental institute resulting in their children being put into foster care. Even though a white couple adopted Malcolm and he excelled in school, he dropped out of school and fell into the wrong crowd selling drugs, resulting in his arrest in 1946. With his time in prison he decided to read and educate himself while also getting visitation from his siblings who joined the Nation of Islam, because they believed in securing their freedom and justice. Upon his release from prison he decided to join the Nation of Islam and changed is name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X.
Martin Luther King Junior became a minister to follow not only in his fathers footsteps but in his grandfathers footsteps. His family tried to protect him from the racism but ultimately they could not shield him from it. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott Rosa Parks was riding the bus after a long day of work and was demanded to give up her seat on the bus and she refused. Due to her refusal she was arrested for violating the Montgomery City Code. After that happened the head of the NAACP met with Martin Luther King Junior to become the leader of the boycott because of his well educated background and young personality. After becoming the leader he realized that they had no other choice than to protest. He didn't want to see his children grow up in a community that didn't see them as equals. After that and the victory of the Montgomery City Code lifting the segregated transportation Martin Luther and many other activists created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to help conduct non violent protests to get the civil rights act moving.
Between Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X they both had very different starts into becoming an activist but one thing they both had in common were fathers who believed in having equal rights. While MLK went to college and got an education, Malcolm dropped out and went to prison which led him into reading and educating himself. At one point MLK said that Malcolm did the community a disservice because he was willing to anything including violence to get the point across. Which was a different than MLK who wanted peaceful protests. Even thought they both had different views and ways to go about the civil rights they both made an impact with the communities to come together as one.
Tragically when Malcolm was trying to drastically trying to make an impact on the civil rights movement he was assassinated. On February 21, 1965 Malcolm was going to give a speech. He was shot fifteen times and was rushed to hospital where they announced is death at arrival. In 1968, Martin Luther King Junior was growing tired of the marches and continuous death threats. He decided to attend one more march to spark things back up with the civil rights movement. On April 3rd he gave one last speech to spark the movement and on April 4th he was standing on the balcony of the motel he was staying in and was assassinated. Both of these inspirational men had different methods of moving forward to get equal rights but they both shared the same passion for equality. Their efforts they put it and their assassinations actually helped spark something they both could never imagine. Now people look up to them as inspirational leaders and appreciate all of their hard work to get the country we are in now.
Great organizing of ideas and using the Internet resources, Kay-Linn. Please add an image of each of them, and a couple of their quotes. I'll be checking back on Friday!
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