King defended Black people to white people, conveying that Black people desired inclusion in the body politic and citizenship, not Black supremacy or revenge. Likewise, he defended white people to Black people, emphasizing the presence of many good white individuals who fought alongside the movement and contributed to the pursuit of Black citizenship.
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Peniel Joseph, the historian, suggests that Malcolm X served as the prosecuting attorney for Black America, accusing white America of crimes against Black humanity that stretched back to racial slavery. In contrast, King acted as the defense attorney for Black America, but he defended both sides of the color line.
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In a speech in 1963, King responded to Malcolm X's labeling him an Uncle Tom by asserting that nonviolence was a weapon of strength. He viewed nonviolence as a powerful and courageous approach, capable of transforming America against its will.
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For his part, Malcolm X publicly denounced Martin Luther King many times, calling the preacher a modern-day Uncle Tom stating that “B y teaching them to love their enemy, or pray for those who use them spitefully, today Martin Luther King is just a 20th century or modern Uncle Tom, or a religious Uncle Tom, who is doing the same thing today, to keep Negroes defenseless in the face of an attack.”
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In response to Malcolm X's critique of nonviolent civil disobedience, King maintained that nonviolence was both a moral and political strategy. He believed Black people should not succumb to the idea of becoming oppressors themselves. Given that Black people were a minority in the United States, engaging in an armed conflict would result in overwhelming force being used against them.
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While King had armed guards during the Montgomery bus boycott after his home was firebombed, he usually did not have his own people armed. Nevertheless, there were civil rights activists in the Deep South who, although not directly associated with his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, protected him and other demonstrators against racial terror.
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On the other hand, King's stance on non-violent protest versus self-defense was nuanced. Although he championed nonviolence, King had people around him, particularly during demonstrations, who carried arms to protect him and other peaceful civil rights activists from racial terror. These individuals were not armed in the same manner as the Black Panthers would later be, but they aimed to ensure the safety of demonstrators.
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Malcolm X's "by any means necessary" approach to protest aimed to empower Black people to defend themselves against police brutality. He argued that Black people had the right to self-defense. Furthermore, he pointed to anti-colonial revolutions across Africa and the Third World in the 1950s and '60s to support the notion that utilizing self-defense was essential for true revolution against racial terror.
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His idea of separatism involved Black people fostering self-love and confidence, organizing and building parallel institutions. Due to the pervasive disease of racism in America, racial integration into American democracy was impossible.
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Malcolm X believed that if white people truly desired black Americans to be citizens, there would have been no need for protests, experiences of police violence, or brutality. Children wouldn't have had to face integration challenges at Little Rock High School, and young people wouldn't have had to endure arrests and brutality at lunch counters.
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One of the main criticisms against Malcolm X was his perceived advocacy for racial separatism. However, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam did not espouse segregation but rather separatism. In debates with figures like Bayard Rustin, Jim Farmer, James Baldwin, Louis Lomax, and others, Malcolm X argued that racial separatism was necessary because white people did not want Black people to be equal citizens with dignity.
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In time, Malcolm X would become less confrontational with King and his philosophies, due in part to his growing estrangement with the Nation of Islam. Tensions grew when Malcolm X and the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammed, differed on the Nation’s response to a shooting of a Nation member by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1962; Malcolm X demanded action while Muhammed advocated caution and patience.
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