Martin Luther King Jr. Met Malcolm X Just Once (1964)

Their History

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met only once. On March 26, 1964, the two black leaders were on Capitol Hill, attending Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

King was stepping out of a news conference, when Malcolm X, dressed in an elegant black overcoat and wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses, greeted him.

“Well, Malcolm, good to see you,” King said.

“Good to see you,” Malcolm X replied.

The exchange would last only a minute, but the photo remains a haunting reminder of what was lost. They would never meet again before each was assassinated, first Malcolm X and then King.

Although the two men held what appeared to be diametrically opposing views on the struggle for equal rights, scholars say by the end of their lives their ideologies were evolving. King was becoming more militant in his views of economic justice for black people and more vocal in his criticism of the Vietnam War. Malcolm X, who had broken with the Nation of Islam, had dramatically changed his views on race during his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/14/martin-luther-king-jr-met-malcolm-x-just-once-the-photo-still-haunts-us-with-what-was-lost/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.785a08af0708

A Moment of Reflection

I'd like to recognize and remember two great figures in American Black History: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Though differing in methodology, they both strove for respect and rights for African-Americans.

Jessica gave me her DVD of "A Different World", on which, one of the episode features a fascinating college school assignment. Pairs of students were asked to carry on a dialogue between Malcolm and Dr. King using only historic quotes. I thought it was so inspiring and educational that I decided to dedicate a post to it. I edited the episode down into two clips and pasted them together. The first clip introduces the assignment, the second clip features a pair of student, one of which was in the process of being expelled for bringing a gun to class as protection.

QUIZ: Who Said What?

It would have been too easy to fill this section with non-violent, law-abiding quotes from Dr. King and Muslim, Extremist quotes from Malcolm X. Instead, I've provided six more subtle quotes for you to review. To win, just imagine who it sounds like, then guess the opposite and you'll probably be right; or not :)

1. "We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves."

2. "Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."

3. "Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."

4. "The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."

5. "I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color."

6. "Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery." [o.k., That one wasn't as subtle.]

Reliable Online Resources

• What did Martin Luther King Jr. do to earn The Nobel Peace Prize in 1964?
• [Un]Official websites for Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
• University Research site for Malcolm X.
• If you "know stuff" about Malcolm X and want to contribute to the writing of a exhaustive biography about him, contact "The Malcolm X Project" at Columbia University.

Assassinations

- Who Killed Malcolm X? Malcolm X was assassinated 44 years ago yesterday (Feb. 21, 1964) at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan. Although the Nation of Isalm was suspected of being behind Malcolm's murder, his three killers, who were convicted of the murder, denied being part of the Nation of Islam or knowing each other despite the fact that they were Black Musilms and later revealed to be members. Several researchers, today, have sought to discover how much law enforcement agencies knew about the Nation's murderous intent toward Malcolm and how remiss these organizations may have been in failing to prevent an eminently predictable killing. (NYT)

So who is responsible for his death? His own Islamic organization, who did not subscribe to Malcolm's violent agenda. (I'm not aware of the true relationship between the Nation's leader and Malcolm, but I do know that Malcolm was sidelined by the Nation for 90 days after making hateful remarks to the press regarding President Kennedy's assassination.)

- Who killed MLK? James Earl Ray, a pled guilty to the murder under the pressure of federal agents, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. But did Ray really kill MLK? Now, 40 years later, the man who knew him best, Ray's Brother, John, steps forward with compelling evidence that Ray was set up by a Government conspiracy. John claims that Ray confided in him days before the assassination in telling his brother that he feared he was being set up to take the fall in an undisclosed operation. John further claimed that Ray had been inducted into the CIA and subjected to mind control experiments; two years before the assassination, he was under the influence of several government-related hypnotists seemingly working to make him an obedient patsy.

So who is suspected NOW of taking down Reverend King? It's THE MAN!

Answers

1. Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.
3. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963.
4. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.
5. Malcolm X, after his journey, perhaps in interview 18 Jan. 1965, in By any means, p. 158
6. Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, 1965


“A salaam aleikum (Peace be unto you)” my Brothers.
[Now you say, “Wa aleikum salaam (And unto you, peace).”.]