and Malcolm X were both fighting the same war for the same people. Their methods were different but both achieved, in time, what they were trying to bring across. Never did they back down from their beliefs or compromised them. They were the embodiment of integrity. King and Malcolm gave their lives trying to right the wrong, standing up for injustice. They battled for the right of black people, as human beings, to be acknowledged and treated like human beings and not less than human, second-class citizens. In truth, they were not civil rights leaders. When one fights for rights of people, one is a human rights leader. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were human rights leaders. The major difference between the two were that King used non-violence to break the walls of oppression and Malcolm X wanted to gain "freedom - by any means necessary." (Breitman, George, ed. Malcolm X Speaks, p. 135).
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on Tuesday, January 15, 1929 to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in a middle-class family and was greatly influenced by his father. The prominent minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church at Atlanta's Auburn Avenue, took an active role in the fight for equal rights. King experienced racism and segregation during his childhood but never his own poverty. He was a good scholar, studying at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania and Boston University. At Crozer, he decided to study ministry. He took note of Mahatma Ghandi's non-violent strategy of social change during university. King married and on completion of his studies at Boston University, became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where he was popular because of his skills.
King established Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and actively joined National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and the Alabama Council on Human Relations.