Civil Rights Leaders

Paper Summary:

This paper provides a brief biography of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and discusses their different agendas regarding civil rights. It shows how their personal backgrounds influenced the kind of leaders they became and which leadership skills they developed.

From the Paper:

"Whenever one thinks of Civil Rights in America, one thinks of Martin Luther King. He towers above his contemporaries. His rhetoric lives on, and his "I have a dream" has become a both a cornerstone and a measuring rod of the American civil rights movement. He has become one of the cultural icons of the twentieth century. It is very easy to believe that if he had not lived, then the world would be very different today.

However, it is dangerous to see history as something composed only by great men. Quite often, history is composed by average men who choose to stand up for above average goals, desires, and principles. There were many other prominent black leaders at that time, of which Ella Baker was a prime example. Nathan Irvin Huggins has written about this very issue: "Yet it is foolish to imagine that the individual actors were interchangeable parts and that, without the particular personality of Martin Luther King, someone else would have served as well" "

More papers on Civil Rights Leaders:

• Comparison Essay # 71846 : "Civil Rights Leaders"
• Analytical Essay # 311 : "A. Philip Randolph: A Radical Civil Rights Leader"
• Analytical Essay # 126271 : "Malcolm X and Civil Rights"

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