King’s and Malcolm X’s

Goal

• Write a reading response about the different strategies advocated by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in the Civil Rights Movement

Instructions

at least 750 words . . .

1. First, compare and contrast King’s and Malcolm X’s attitudes towards violence—both violence committed by the police and violence by civilians (whether white or Black)—as expressed in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”Links to an external site. and “The Ballot or the Bullet” (Links to an external site.) respectively.
2. Then summarize August H. Nimtz’s central thesis in “Violence and/or Nonviolence in the Success of the Civil Rights Movement: The Malcolm X-Martin Luther King, Jr. Nexus” about the role of both nonviolence and violence in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and discuss the kinds of evidence used by Nimtz to support his thesis.
3. Finally, based on your knowledge of King’s letter and Malcolm X’s speech as well as of the history of the Civil Rights Movement, do you find Nimtz’s argument to be persuasive? Why or why not?

• You may use parts or all of your discussion post in your response.
• For full credit, please support your claims with . . .
  • At least three direct quotations:
    • One or more from both primary texts:
      1. Malcolm X’s speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” (Links to an external site.) and
      2. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”Links to an external site.
    • One or more from the secondary text: August H. Nimtz’s “Violence and/or Nonviolence in the Success of the Civil Rights Movement: The Malcolm X-Martin Luther King, Jr. Nexus”
  • Analysis/interpretation of these quotations