by James Harvey

Created on: February 12, 2009   Last Updated: July 19, 2009

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X-two controversial figures who made a powerful impact in America during the turbulent 1960's. Though the two men had two conflicting views and often 'butted heads together', as it were, their messages have had a profound effect on the thinking of millions in the more than four decades after their untimely, violent demises. In fact some say what these two men believed and propounded has had even more meaning today in our present times-also troubled-then it did when they were actually alive.

Martin and Malcolm, came,as we might say today, from opposite sides of the tracks. King, born in 1929 from a middle-class family background, Malcolm, then known as Malcolm Little, born nearly four years earlier from a common or typical blue-collar family background. Martin attended college, Malcolm dropped out of school by the Seventh Grade. Whereas Martin would aspire to greatness in the commonly accepted way, Malcolm would take a different path.

When Martin King was in his third year of college in 1947, Malcolm Little was in his first year in jail. Martin was college-bred, but Malcolm was self-taught. Once behind bars, he developed an insatiable desire for knowledge and read all kinds of books voraciously. By the time he was 25, Malcolm could skillfully debate with college professors and intellectuals, even though he didn't even have a high school diploma.

Both men came to prominence during a very prolific time for Black Americans: The 1950's. Negroes, as African Americans were called then, were beginning to become more and more assertive and agressive in attaining their civil rights. Martin Luther King came to public attention following the Rosa Parks Incident of 1955, which made him an instant household name. Malcolm X-as Malcolm Little now chose to call himself-was also rapidly becoming a public figure. Prior to the mid-1950's, the Nation of Islam, or The Black Muslims were a relatively obscure, little-known group. But with Malcolm's powerful oratorical skills and dynamic personality, The Black Muslims' numbers rapidly soared in just a short period of time. Malcolm particularly came into the public spotlight following the Thomas X Incident of 1957 in which a young Black Muslim by the above name was viciously and savagely attacked and shot by New York City Police Officers following and altercation with them that turned nasty.

By 1960, both Martin and Malcolm were headline news. Martin on his position on nonviolence, while Malcolm

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