Booker T Washington's VS. Malcom X's Civil Rights Ideas

By: Akeel Dixon

VS.

Booker T. Washington (Up from Slavery) and Malcom X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X) are similar on many rights they both are black men and they both fought for civil rights. However the ways in which they fought for civil rights were extremely different and a huge case for why that is comes from their backgrounds respectively. Booker T. Washington's autobiography feels like a message to America on how to come up from slavery while Malcom X's autobiography explains how he adopted his beliefs and why his life ended up the way it did. In this short essay I will decipher both autobiographies and show how they are different or similar, if they even are.

Starting off with Washington's Up From Slavery, I've covered this work in another blog post however most of the details of this work covered in that post were about Washington's slave experience. The goal of this post is to go in depth on everything but specifically the fight for civil rights. When Washington was a kid he was born into slavery with very poor conditions with clothes that were uncomfortable to wear on his body and work that was extremely difficult for a child "During the period that I spent in slavery I was not large enough to be of much service, still I was occupied most of the time in cleaning the yards, carrying water to the men in the fields, or going to the mill to which I used to take the corn, once a week, to be ground. The mill was about three miles from the plantation. This work I always dreaded. The heavy bag of corn would be thrown across the back of the horse, and the corn divided about evenly on each side; but in some way, almost without exception, on these trips, the corn would so shift as to become unbalanced and would fall off the horse, and often I would fall with it. As I was not strong enough to reload the corn upon the horse, I would have to wait, sometimes for many hours, till a chance passer–by came along who would help me out of my trouble. The hours while waiting for some one were usually spent in crying." Washington would eventually be freed through the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) at the age of seven so he was not enveloped by the system of slavery to the point where it had a huge effect on his life. Eventually Washington's family would reunite with his stepfather and he would go to school in Kanawha Valley and he would go on to be an amazing speaker and writer from that experience.Washington's most famous speech was his Atlanta Exposition Address in which he attempted to "...cement the friendship of the races and bring about hearty cooperation between them." Because he was extremely passive on how to unite the white and black race many people were upset with Washington as in his passiveness he also tended to soften the damage caused by slavery according to many black people at the time. The quote from the address that most people look towards was "...To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say: “Cast down your bucket where you are”—cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded." The quote felt very dismissive towards many demographics but most black people were infuriated by this statement as asking them to forget and forgive the oppressive system of slavery created by white people, was a lot to ask for especially at the time and even now. Malcom X's experience is not entirely different from Booker's in a way however his beliefs were very contrary to Booker's.

Malcom X in his autobiography goes from how his life started in poverty to eventually being one of the biggest civil rights leaders. Malcom already starting off poor would have you assume that his life wouldn't turn out great however he actually learned a lot when he was in school and he was very studious. Eventually though his family would get put in shambles when his dad was murdered by the KKK and his mom was put in a mental home against her will (and when she wasn't supposed to be) leading him down a path of crime. Eventually when Malcolm was sentenced to prison he would learn about the Nation of Islam and would write letters to its leader Elijah Muhammad. Malcom had lost most of his reading and writing skills but when Mr. Muhammad wrote him the instructions on how to practice Islam Malcom was motivated and inspired to do so. "The hardest test I ever faced in my life was praying. You understand. My comprehending, believing the teachings of Mr. Muhammad had only required my mind's saying to me, "That's right!" or "I never thought of that." Eventually Malcolm would learn that white people were "the devil" due to the way American system is set up where black people are beneath white people. "Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the world's black, brown, red, and yellow peoples every variety of the sufferings of exploitation. I saw how since the sixteenth century, the so-called "Christian trader" white man began to ply the seas in his lust for Asian and African empires, and plunder, and power. I read, I saw, how the white man never has gone among the non-white peoples bearing the Cross in the true manner and spirit of Christ's teachings -- meek, humble, and Christ-like. I perceived, as I read, how the collective white man had been actually nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests. First, always "religiously," he branded "heathen" and "pagan" labels upon ancient non-white cultures and civilizations. The stage thus set, he then turned upon his non-white victims his weapons of war." This quote shows us that through Malcom's knowledge from books and his own personal life that it makes sense why his idea of civil rights would eventually come to African Nationalism. African Nationalism (which we have been learning in class) is an idea that African Americans should move to Africa or create a society like Africa because a society like that would benefit the black person more than America.

Overall, These two works really counter each other as despite both figures being black men who grew up in poverty they both developed very contrasting viewpoints. Washington would argue for civil rights through a proposal of blacks and white forgiving each other and becoming friends. Malcolm on the other hand argued through most of his life that white people were "the devil" and would never help the black race especially in the American society enveloped by white culture.