On March 26, 1964, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. met for the first and only time in Washington, D.C. Less than a year later, Malcolm was dead, the victim of an assassin’s bullet, ending any possibility of a permanent thaw between two of America’s most influential Black leaders.
The two had very different approaches to the Civil Rights Movement
Both men were born in the 1920s, sons of politically active preacher fathers. King grew up in a stable, relatively comfortable middle-class home in Georgia. His father was an NAACP organizer and leader, and King credited the loving atmosphere of his youth for his belief in non-violent, civil disobedience as the means to attack racial prejudice in America.
Malcolm (born Malcolm Little), experienced poverty and violence at a young age. His father, a supporter of Marcus Garvey, died when Malcolm was a child, at the hands of what his family believed to be white nationalists. His mother was institutionalized several years later. Although highly intelligent, Malcolm dropped out of school and eventually drifted towards a life of crime. Arrested at the age of 21, he was introduced to the Nation of Islam while in prison. The group was also influenced by Garvey’s theories, and following his conversion and release from prison, Malcolm became one of the most prominent disciples of Elijah Muhammad, the group’s leader.
