History indicates that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were prolific civil rights figures who had contrasting views on Black life. History would not be totally accurate. The two men had different approaches to getting results, but many times they were similar or even identical in philosophy — and shared some similarities large and small.
Black Pride
They spoke often of Black empowerment over whites’ schemes that would get Blacks to hate themselves and lead to feelings of inferiority.
Pastor Fathers
King’s father was Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He also was the head of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. Malcolm X’s father, Earl Little, was a Baptist preacher, too, and was active in the Universal Negro Improvement Association and supported Black nationalist Marcus Garvey.
