Who was more influential in preaching Americans, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr.? ?

Question

if so, how? Give me examples.

Answer 1

In defense of Might there were black leaders during King's life such as:

Edward William Brooke, III

In 1966, Edward William Brooke was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and re-elected in 1972. He was the first African American Senator born in Washington, DC and the first African American Senator to serve since the Reconstruction era. He graduated from Howard University in 1941 and from Boston University Law School in 1948. Brooke moved to Massachusetts and became the first African American to win a statewide office in Massachusetts when he was elected attorney general in 1962. He was re-elected in 1964. Brooke was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 23, 2004 by President George W. Bush.

Hiram Rhodes Revels

(1822 – 1901)

Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi was the first black United States senator serving from 1870-1871 as a Republican. The only other African American to serve as United States Senators in the nineteenth century was Blanche K. Bruce also a Republicans from Mississippi. Revels completed the unfinished term of Jefferson Davis who was the former president of the confederacy. In the Senate, Revels supported civil rights for blacks. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina attending Knox College, he became a minister of the African Methodist Episcope Church. After completing his term in the United States Senate, Revels was named president of Alcorn University (now known as Alcorn State University).

Blanche Bruce

(1841 - 1898)

Blanche Bruce was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1881. He was the first African American to serve a full term in the United States Senate. He was born in slavery near Farmville, Virginia . At the beginning of the Civil War, he taught school in Hannibal, Missouri and later attended Oberlin College in Ohio. After the Civil War, he became a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, a sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar County from 1872 to1875. He was appointed register of the treasury by President James Garfield in 1881 and was appointed to that position again in 1897. He served as the recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia from 1891to1893.

To answer your question King was more influential to Americans. Malocom X was seen as an agitator and did not influence the large numbers that King did.

Answer 2

The King, next to Reagan he is the best political speaker of all time.

Answer 3

I believe Malcolm X has been more influential because he saw American society as it actually existed, and as it still exists.  For example, the 1992 riots were nationwide and the Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for them.  White liberals still are unable to accept that Malcolm X was more at the forefront of civil rights than any other African-American--including Martin Luther King.  Malcolm X knew what the nature of human beings was, but had the courage to confront those who opposed him.  Martin Luther King had a vision of what he wanted the US to become, which is all well and good, but perhaps too idealistic given the nature of human beings.

When it comes down to it, it depends on the invidual to change things--not a group.  The individual is the smallest minority.

It's incredible how people don't give Malcolm X the influence that he deserves and Martin Luther King the influence he doesn't deserve.  I would encourage people to read Malcolm X.

Answer 4

MLK was probably more persuasive to a wider audience.  His message touched/es people of all races and socio-economic backgrounds. Perhaps through no doing or fault of the 2 gentlemen, King continues to be more influential today just because he gets more space in the textbook (at least for 20 years or so - that may have changed by now).

I wouldn't underestimate the millions of silent doers that either man inspired. Pity we can't just appreciate them without putting them in a contest.

Answer 5

Neither of them were preachers.  They were nothing but unelected politicians out for their own glory.

Answer 6

Had Malcolm X lived longer, he might have had a much different legacy than of being a strident anti-white firebrand.  After his haj, he became much more conciliatory, which is why he might have been murdered.  

Otherwise, King definitely had more influence and a better message.  I don't like mixing politics and religion, but in the case of black churches, it is often the same thing.