Malcolm X is one of the most controversial civil rights leaders of the civil rights era. In understanding Malcolm, it is important to separate the myth from reality. Malcolm X had a few ideological shifts in his short life.

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To Prepare for this discussion, read or review the following……
• Julian Bond “Civil Rights and Now”: Civil Rights: Now and Then
• National Geographic “2020 is not 1968” 2020 is not 1968
• Black Lives Matter website Read the mission statement (Links to an external site.) and herstory (Links to an external site.) of Black Lives Matter to see how the organization advocates for change from an intersectional foundation: https://blacklivesmatter.com/
• Malcolm X is one of the most controversial civil rights leaders of the civil rights era. In understanding Malcolm, it is important to separate the myth from reality. Malcolm X had a few ideological shifts in his short life. At the beginning of his civil rights fight, he sought black separatism and a more revolutionary path. However, later in his life, he advocated for integration yet equality and perseverance of Black culture- a tone that angered both Black assimilationists as well as Black separatists. He was a passionate, intelligent, and aggressive speaker, capturing the rage of the the injustice of the 1950s and 60s, as this speech shows. Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet” (audio) Malcolm X (Transcript of “The Ballot or the Bullet” (Links to an external site.)): https://youtu.be/8zLQLUpNGsc • (My personal favorite American). James Baldwin provides a speech to a mostly white audience on the injustice against Black people James Baldwin “Pin Drop Speech” (audio) https://youtu.be/NUBh9GqFU3A • In his last recorded speech, pay careful attention to MLK’s words. Unlike Malcolm X, who adopted a softer approach to equality later in life, MLK began to adopt a more revolutionary (for him) approach than his earlier speeches. MLK began to focus on income inequality and advocating not only measures to protect and uplift lower income Black Americans, but also more radical means of achieving them Martin Luther King “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” (audio) https://youtu.be/DKWCxKq0i1k • BLM advocate and Women’s March organizer, Tamika Mallory provides a passionate speech outlining modern-day civil rights injustices against Black people. This speech was given after the George Floyd murder: Tamika Mallory’s speech after George Floyd’s murder https://youtu.be/m7-2qnaCQr4 • Lil Baby wrote this song after the George Floyd murder. He captures his emotions on police brutality and how it conflicts with his logical thoughts. Lil Baby “The Bigger Picture” https://youtu.be/o8JzVPz94Oc When you have finished reading the previous articles and videos, Post, a brief response to the following questions in which you….
For this post, please respond in a minimum of 250 words. Make sure to cite (using MLA or APA in-text citation) when you reference an idea from the sources that you read or watched. You must refer to at least 3 of the readings in your response.
For this blog post, please consider what you heard in the speeches from the 1960s civil rights era with what you listened to and read dealing with civil rights in 2020.
What were the civil rights leaders of the 1950s-1960s advocating and fighting for? What are the civil rights leaders of today advocating and fighting for? What issues were unresolved in the 1960s civil rights movement that continues to cause inequality between white and black people?