Malcolm X Speaks 4/9

 After reading Malcolm X Speaks, my perspective of the Civil Rights Movement was broaden in terms of seeing other activists ideas. This was my first time reading any of Malcolm X speeches as Malcolm X wasn’t discussed when I was in high school. The major difference between X and King is that X had steps and physical plans behind his rhetorics. King the gift of persuasion  while X had an ideology. Seen in X’s speech “A Declaration of Independence”, he discusses the idea of “black nationalism”. “The political philosophy of black nationalism means: we must control the politics and the politicians of our community. They must no longer take orders from outside forces. We will organize, and sweep out of office all Negro politicians who are puppets for the outside forces.” (Breitman 21) The collection of Malcolm X’s speeches reads almost like a manifesto, in my opinion. He creates and defines terminology that apply to his thought process and his plans. He maps out steps for how to acquire equality and the counterparts to take when you run into obstacles. After reading a few speeches of X and King, I find myself siding more with X’s reasoning.

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