ABSTRACT
To the majority of older white Americans, the noted African-American leaders Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., seem as different from each other as night vs. day. Mainstream culture and many history textbooks still suggest that the moderate Dr. King preached nonviolence and interracial harmony, whereas the militant Malcolm X advocated racial hatred and armed confrontation. Even Malcolm’s infamous slogan, “By Any Means Necessary!,” still evokes among whites disturbing images of Molotov cocktails, armed shoot-outs, and violent urban insurrection. But to the great majority of Black Americans and to millions of whites under thirty, these two Black figures are now largely perceived as being fully complimentary with each other. Both leaders had favored the building of strong Black institutions and healthy communities; both had strongly denounced Black-on-Black violence and drugs within the urban ghetto; both had vigorously opposed America’s war in Vietnam and had embraced the global cause of human rights. In a 1989 “dialogue” between the eldest daughters of these two assassinated Black heroes, Yolanda King and Attallah Shabazz, both women emphasized the fundamental common ground and great admiration the two men shared for each other. Shabazz complained that “playwrights always make Martin so passive and Malcolm so aggressive that those men wouldn’t have lasted a minute in the same room.” King concurred, noting that in one play “my father was this wimp who carried a Bible everywhere he went, including to someone’s house for dinner.” King argued, “That’s not the kind of minister Daddy was! All these ridiculous clichés. . . .” Both agreed that the two giants were united in the pursuit of Black freedom and equality.
