Malcolm X’s Role During the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement occurred from 1954 to 1968 and was characterized by the

nonviolent nature of its protests. Martin Luther King Jr. ran numerous nonviolent sit-ins,

boycotts, and protests. King’s actions were a form of civil disobedience meant to help gain the

support of whites and blacks for the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X used this same type of

civil disobedience in order to draw support for his cause, but he had a different motive than King

had. Although the two were both famous speakers during the same time period, X cannot be

considered a participant in the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was an

inclusive movement meant to attract people of all races to the cause for black equality. X

distinguished himself from the Civil Rights Movement through his messages which were meant

specifically for black audiences.

X’s messages during the Civil Rights Movement were about black people, for black

people. He highlighted black power and strength in his speeches and advocated for blacks to

fight for their rights – if necessary, by force. In his speech God’s Judgement of White America, X

speaks about black government officials when he says, “They have been hired by this white

Government (white so-called liberals) to make our people here think that integration into this

doomed white society will solve our problem,” (286). X is speaking directly to black people

about their problems that cannot be fixed by white people. One large goal of the Civil Rights

Movement was full integration. X argues that this is not enough for black people. This position

immediately makes him separate from the Civil Rights Movement because he does not have the

same goals and is not willing to work together with white people. We see this again and again

through his messages.

 X was a proponent of black nationalism which differed from the ideas of equality present

within the Civil Rights Movement. An article written by Abdul Karim Bangura explains X’s

beliefs on equality when it says, “It was equally evident that Malcolm X believed this [the

achievement of equality] had to be done in such a way as to preserve the plurality of cultures and

nationalities and not through the forced homogenization of “integration,” (Bangura, 71).

Integration was not the endgame for X, as it appeared to be for so many Civil Rights activists. X

had also had a more radical approach to equality. X spoke to black people about advancing

themselves, as opposed to white people advancing black people. A book written by Peter

Goldman explains how X, like many Muslims at the time, was mainly concerned with getting

black people to forget about white people and to love themselves (34). X’s targeted audience was

black people because he believed white people couldn’t help black people achieve equality. X

positioned himself as an alternative for blacks to the Civil Rights Movement and stated this in his

speeches.

It could be claimed that X was part of the Civil Rights Movement due to the civil

disobedience aspect highlighted in his speeches. In X’s Message to the Grassroots he says, “You

haven’t got a revolution that doesn’t involve bloodshed,” (X). He is referring to the idea of using

violence to combat violence against blacks. Although this is civil disobedience, this does not line

up with the morals of Civil Rights activists because they were set on using nonviolent forms of

civil disobedience to solve inequality and segregation. X moves beyond what the Civil Rights

Movement attempts to do; he argues for black people to stand on their own and do what they

must to assert their equality, without the support of whites. Robert Terrill shows examples of X’s

argument in his essay when he writes about how X tells black Muslims that whites are evil

because according to the religion, whites were created by an evil scientist, and black people are
the “wisest beings in the universe” (31). This argument shows X’s message directly to the black

audience. His values do not align with those of the Civil Rights Movement. He is concerned

wholly with explaining to black people that whites cannot help them and they must help

themselves. This message is meant for black people who are not involved in accomplishing the

goals of integration and equality within the Civil Rights Movement.

X advocated for black power, which is something the Civil Rights Movement did not do.

An essay by Michelle Condit and John Lucaites explains how X urged his black brothers and

sisters to “use all means necessary to bring about social and political justice and equality for

Black America,” (291). By using the term “Black America” X is taking back America from the

white people who have claimed it. Unlike the activists of the Civil Rights Movement, X does is

not attempting to join white culture. X wants to create a black culture. His messages convey that

he wants blacks to connect to their history and understand their own culture and the Islamic faith

so they can form their own society, superior to that of white America.

X’s goals were far different from the goal of Civil Rights activists of equality within a

white society. X wanted blacks to be established outside of the white society. It could be argued

that X wanted blacks to think of themselves as an entity separate from that which is white. Black

people were so often defined against what they were not – white. X pushed his messages to

blacks so they would define themselves based on their own culture, their own history, their own

religion. He wanted blacks to see themselves as the true first race and to stress the idea that

whites were inferior to them because of this. X did not want equality, but respect. He wanted

blacks to respect themselves and for whites to respect them. This message could only be

conveyed to and understood by blacks, and this method separated X from goals of the Civil

Rights Movement entirely.

 Bibliography

Bangura, Abdul Karim. "Malcolm X and United States Policies Towards Africa: A

Qualitative Analysis of His Black Nationalism and Peace through Power and Coercion

Paradigms." Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 9, no. 4, July 2016, pp. 65-96.

Condit, Celeste Michelle, and John Louis Lucaites. “Malcolm X and the Limits of the

Rhetoric of Revolutionary Dissent.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 23, no. 3, 1993, pp. 291–313.

Goldman, Peter Louis. The Death and Life of Malcolm X. Second edition. ed., University

of Illinois Press, 1979.

Terrill, Robert E. “Protest, Prophecy, and Prudence in the Rhetoric of Malcolm

X.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs, vol. 4, no. 1, 2001, pp. 25–53.

X, Malcolm. “God's Judgement of White America.” 4 Dec. 1963.

X, Malcolm. “Message to the Grassroots.” Northern Negro Grassroots Leadership

Conference. Northern Negro Grassroots Leadership Conference, 13 Nov. 1963, Detroit.