by Gary C. Gibson

Created on: December 23, 2009   Last Updated: December 24, 2009

This choice of who was the better political leader; Malcolm X or Martin Luther King is a difficult one. Each were dynamic individuals and very influential during their lifetimes. Both were assassinated before living to old age. Martin Luther King became politically canonized by the U.S. Congress while Malcolm X was shown the exit to history. Not being an expert on either I cannot use the kind of expert analysis that sports broadcasters have about the Brett Favre-Coach Childress controversy. I will relate these political historical ideas such as life has afforded the opportunities for research.

Having read some writings of Dr. King and ridden a bicycle on a million city streets renamed M.L.K. Boulevard, I still have chosen to cast my vote for the X man because of his biography.

I bought that old paperback book of Malcolm X used, and tossed it into a storage area where it remained for years. Then one day years later I took it out and read it. The famous author Alex Haley had published the autobiography of Malcolm X 'as told by' through a series of interviews with the man before his death. Because Malcolm X was an irascible soul, some of the interviews ended early. They were told in an inner city apartment. The interviews describe the world of Malcolm X.

He grew up poor and completed just the third grade in the city. Malcolm X described his time learning the criminal rackets of the inner city and his rise to being a first rate burglar of Boston and New York. He had a blonde Beacon Hill mall, and described the logic of criminals that one steals hundreds of times and gets caught just once. In prison he was converted to Islam like many of the brothers.

The Black Muslims taught the X to read. He read many books and was something of the self educated man. He proselytized for the Black Muslim movement and developed quite a reputation as a 1960's radical. Malcolm X was always associated with the Black Panthers and the most radical of inner civil city rights agitators. He supported as a Muslim the way of confrontation rather than the way of the peace march such as martin L. King supported in the south.

When Malcolm X went before the world war two era draft board he was denied service because he had said that he wanted to join so he could go to Alabama and shoot white people. That was good draft evading logic for the era. His candor is appreciated.Malcolm X said that his plan for Washington D.C. was to block it with protestors and shut down the city. The L.B.J. government

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