Martin and Malcolm: Chapter 4 - Malcolm X's Nightmare (PDF)

## "I Have a Dream" ### Because These Humble Children of God Were Willing to Suffer for Righteousness' Sake - During the period demarcated by the Montgomery bus boycott and the events at Birmingham, King was a "reluctant leader". - Following the events at Birmingham, he concluded that he had a gre...

## "I Have a Dream" ### Because These Humble Children of God Were Willing to Suffer for Righteousness' Sake - During the period demarcated by the Montgomery bus boycott and the events at Birmingham, King was a "reluctant leader". - Following the events at Birmingham, he concluded that he had a great responsibility to become a leader. - King considered a career as a lecturer before Birmingham. - Following the events of Birmingham, the Washington March, and the Nobel Peace Prize, King realized he could not drift any longer and had a moral responsibility to face the struggle. - He held firmly to his belief that America's unfulfilled dream would soon be realized. - King was encouraged by the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, the victory of Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater, and the international recognition the civil rights movement was receiving. - King's successful Selma March, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act on 6 August 1965, was his last great burst of hope. ## "I See a Nightmare" ### Unemployment and Poverty - Unemployment and poverty have forced many of our people into this life of crime. - The real criminal is the government in City Hall, Albany, and Washington. - The real criminal is the white man who poses as a liberal. - They are forcing us into a life of crime. - They are maneuvering our people into poverty, drug addiction, and prostitution. #### Malcolm X, Harlem, New York, 10 August 1963 - What is looked upon as an American dream for white people has long been an American nightmare for black people. #### Malcolm X, New York City, 1 May 1962 ### The Context of Malcolm's Vision - The contrast between what blacks expected to find in the "promised land" of the North and what they actually found there was great. - The frustration and despair they experienced destroyed much of their self-esteem and dignity. - They expected to find the freedom which had eluded them for so many years in the South. - Blacks expected to have the right to live wherever they chose, to work and play with whomever they chose. - Instead they found themselves crammed into small ghetto sections of the cities. - They were paying exorbitant prices for rent, food, and clothing. - Northern whites did not welcome blacks as neighbors or as competitors in the workplace. - This racism often led to mob violence, creating what is known as urban race riots in which most of the victims were black. - As de jure segregation defined black life in the South, de facto segregation was a way of life in the North. - Blacks were confined to the ghetto, with no future to look forward to except an endless repetition of mental and physical pain and suffering. - Everything that was good about America belonged disproportionately to whites and everything that was bad, the things which exploited humanity physically and mentally, fell mostly to blacks. - Some people claimed that for blacks the quality of life in the North was even worse than that in the South, because of the devastating effects of the ghetto upon the personalities of its inhabitants. - Ghetto existence was defined primarily by unemployment and underemployment, dirty streets and overcrowded, rat-infested tenements, pimps and prostitutes, drug pushers and dope addicts, black-on-black crime, and police brutality. - It was difficult to live daily in the squalor and filth of the ghetto and also think of oneself as a human being. - Many found the religion of Jesus weak and unrelated to their needs. - In place of Jesus, black people often talked with the readily available saviors who touched the psychic depths of their identity as black people and thereby rendered their existence worthwhile. - Father Divine, Daddy Grace, and Elder Lightfoot Micheaux were well-known for creating a life of meaning for poverty-stricken blacks in the urban ghetto. - Black nationalist philosophies also were highly visible as alternatives to traditional black Christianity. - In that regard, Marcus Garvey made an immense impact on the black masses. - But during the 1950s and 1960s, no force affected black life as did the ministry of Malcolm X, a ministry devoted to Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam. - As Martin King's dream was developed in the context of black people's fight against segregation in the South, Malcolm X's nightmare was shaped in the context of their fight for dignity and respect in the North. ### Malcolm and Muhammad - Informed observers of the Black Muslims agree that Malcolm X was most responsible for the impact that the sect made upon black American life. - Although Elijah Muhammad was the sole and absolute authority in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was his most effective missionary. - Malcolm's years as "Minister Malcolm," Elijah Muhammad's fiery spokesman, the angry critic of liberal whites and bourgeois blacks, are the subject of this chapter. ### Indictment Of America to Black Audiences - Malcolm was a gifted thinker and leader whose perspective was defined by his uncompromising solidarity with the victims of history. - He saw America as oppressive and insensitive to the basic needs of weak and helpless people, especially the black poor in the ghetto. ### Oppression and Justice - Malcolm freely and happily submitted his total self to the person and teachings of Elijah Muhammad. - Malcolm even submitted when his brother Reginald was sentenced to "isolation" from all other Muslims. - He sought Muhammad's blessings for his marriage to Betty in 1958 and also named the third of six daughters after him. - Signs of differences between the two men appeared in the early 1960s, and Malcolm at the end saw his commitment to the Messenger as a great mistake. - But for most of his years as a Muslim, Malcolm expressed unqualified love and respect for Elijah Muhammad, who rescued him when he was a convict and who trained him in his home "as if I was his son." - He had more faith in him than in anyone else on the earth, and he "worshipped" him. - Malcolm's commitment to Elijah Muhammad should be seen within the larger context of his devotion to the freedom of black people and the religion of Islam. - The Honorable Elijah Muhammad gave Malcolm the ability to respect himself as a black person. - Malcolm's message was: "I have nothing, knew nothing, and was nothing. [I] was addicted to and enslaved by the evils and vices of this white civilization - dope, alcohol, adultery, and even murder."