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No one has communicated the idea of the American dream with greater moral and oratorical power, with greater political and religious imagination, than Martin Luther King, Jr. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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The book is, for the most part, organised by comparing the two leader's philosophies on an alternate, chapter by chapter basis. Each chapter focuses on how one of the leaders saw a certain topic (ie, integration or American society) and then comparing it with the other. As the book progresses King and Malcolm's views are increasingly merged - as they were in reality.
Cone does not offer any groundbreaking insights when studying Martin and Malcolm as individuals; there is not much here written on each figure that cannot be found somewhere else. What makes the work important is the way he has intertwined and related their views together, showing that King and Malcolm's careers should not be studied in isolation, as they usually are, but that they are both crucial to understanding the plight of African Americans in the twentieth century, and today.
Cone discusses the rhetorical strategies of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcolm X as they applied to their particular audiences: King to the South and Malcolm X to the North. Cone argues that Martin King's strategy of non-violent protest, while effective in the extremely segregated and anti-integrationist South, was not effective in the North (particularly in cities like Chicago and Detroit) because the discourse and policy of "integration" was already superficially accepted by Northeners. The "liberal" North found King's rhetoric to be more or less agreeable even as the structures of discrimination continued to subject black people to a brutal double-standard. Thus Malcolm X's policy of Black Nationalism (separatist rather than integrationist) that allowed for violence epitomized by the slogan "by any means necessary" was more successful in the North because it more effectively confronted personal and systematic racism. Long story short: two different rhetors with different rhetorics because of different situations, different audiences, with different immediate goals. Interestingly, near the close of both men's lives--Malcolm X killed in 1965 and Martin King in 1968--Malcolm began to sound a little more like Martin; and Martin began to speak even more forcefully, not unlike Malcolm had been known to do previously.
I had the great luxury of hearing Dr Cone present a lecture based on the book back in 1992. Twelve years later, my assesment of the book remains constant: Outstanding.
The philosophies of Malcolm and Martin, often portrayed as polar opposites in the media, are grounded in certain similarities. Both based their viewpoints on their religious traditions, believed that God was on the side of the poor and oppressed, and both held a passionate belief in the dignity of black lives. Both philosophies were formed in spite of the fact that they lived in a age when the institutions that ruled America either neglected the dignity of blacks, or ignored civil rights issues altogether.
The lives of Malcolm and Martin were quite different, however. Martin was raised in a upper middle class family in Atlanta, the descendant of slaves whose father and grandfather both became prominant preachers. He life afforded him a great education -- at Morehouse, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University. His family was close knit.
Malcolm, by contrast, saw his father murdered by white supremicists and his mother abused by the social service agencies, which eventually institutionalized her. Malcolm ended up in the foster care system and eventually went to prison for petty crime. There, he came to value the importance of education, and read voraciously. Introduced by his brother to the Nation of Islam, he had a powerful conversion experience in prison. After his release, he became second in command to Elijah Mohammed, the religion's leader.
Both Martin and Malcolm spent their time working to improve the quality of black lives. Martin took on institutional power through civil rights legislation, and Malcolm worked in the urban ghettos, attempting to galvanize blacks to reject Christianity and move towards strengthening their lives through non-integration. Although Martin and Malcolm differed in their visions, they were more alike than not.
"Martin & Malcolm & America" is a great read. Highly recommended.
If I had one critique of this book, it is that Cone relies too heavily on the Autobiography of Malcolm X for his Malcolm information. Almost all of his Malcolm info is quoted directly from that book, and like most autobiographies, Malcolm wrote/dictated with a bit of license. Having read the autobiography twice, it got a bit annoying at times to reread Malcolm's own words about himself. Malcolm was a far more complex (and more interesting) character than he portrayed himself to be, and that part was left out. (For more info, I'd recommend "Malcolm : The Life of the Man Who Changed Black America.")
All in all, though, this is a book that should be on your bookshelf. Highly recommended.
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