by dennie hayes

Created on: April 28, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

It's comes as no surprise that a lot of people would say that Dr. King was a better civil rights leader for blacks than Malcolm X.

The funny thing is most of the people who believe that Dr. King was a better civil rights leader have never experienced a day of racism or prejudice in their entire lives. So how would they know anything about the Civil Rights Movement or issues concerning the black community?

So of course they're going to say that Dr. King was a better civil rights leader for blacks, because he was a non-violent, pacifist. And chances are if Dr. King was attacked by a bunch of drunken bigots and spit on, he'd probably smile, wipe the spit of his face, and tell them to have a nice day.

The point is, Dr. King was non-threatening and he didn't make a lot of white people nervous.

And Dr. King's message of peace and non-violence was totally different from Malcolm Xs infamous words "By any means necessary" as he stood peaking through the curtains of a nearby window holding an assault rifle.

The black and white footage of black people sitting behind lunch counters in restaurants across America having food hurled at them by racist hecklers and watching them getting punched and kicked around like rag dolls as they sat there barely defending themselves is still vivid in my memory.

But Malcolm X was a Godsend and a totally different entity.

He was the truth. And he was candid about his words that bothered a lot of people even some members of the Nation of Islam who some say played a major role in Malcolm X's assassination.

His thought provoking words struck a cord across black America like a black tidal wave and thousands of black folks get off their asses and suddenly grew a backbone. Unlike some of the clowns today masquerading as black leaders who cheat on their taxes and have extramarital affairs and end up impregnating their mistress.

Malcolm X was definitely a threat to Dr. King's I have a dream rhetoric. No disrespect intended to Dr. King's legacy.

I can vividly remember a particular scene from the motion picture Malcolm X that was directed by Spike Lee where Peter Boyle's character, a racist white police officer (as if that's stretch from the racist character he played in Monster's Ball) said "That's too much power for a one ni*a to have" referring to Denzel Washington who played Malcolm X in the film, as Washington directed his troops of disciplined black soldiers like a general with a simple hand gesture.

White America feared and loathed Malcolm X because he was a throwback to the Nat Turner's, the Huey P. Newton's and the Black Panther Party.

And the images of militant black folks decked in black fatigues and toting machine guns was scary enough to give FBI director and sometimes cross dresser J. Edgar Hoover the chills.

Malcolm X's militancy will always be remembered regardless what the white media continues to write about him.

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