Overview

Comparing the lives and goals of two icons of Black resistance One man dreamed of a country united in true racial equality. Another saw this as a nightmare that served only the interest of wealthy white people. Both were sons of Baptist ministers. Both grew up to be icons of the civil rights movement. Integration versus separatism. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X have come to symbolize the two primary strands of Black political thought during the civil rights movement, much as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had more than a half-century earlier. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. points out in his foreword, the parallels and divergences between the two men remain striking. Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson compares and contrasts these two giants in her fascinating dual biography. She offers a concise account of their lives, accomplishments, and challenges. In a crisp, fascinating narrative, she reveals the interconnectedness of their goals, their visions, and their legacies. Most provocative, she suggests what might have been, as their philosophies began to converge, were it not for a pair of assassins' bullets.

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9780813081236

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Reviews

""Both concise and informative . . . . Recommended.""--Choice  ""A highly readable account of the lives of two of the most dynamic figures in the civil rights movement.""--The Historian  ""A useful primer for anyone interested in reviewing the basic frameworks of the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. . . . A thoughtful, nuanced, well-researched work of great value.""--Journal of American History  ""While highlighting their different politico-religious perspectives, social visions, and styles of leadership, Waldschmidt-Nelson reminds us that these leaders learned from and influenced each other and that they can only be understood in relation to one another. . . . The prose is lively and exciting, and the content is clear.""--Journal of Southern History  ""A lucid and readable introduction to the role of two key twentieth-century actors in the struggle for Black equality in the USA, seen through their respective biographies, themselves shaped by American social and political conditions.""--Ethnic and Racial Studies  ""Well written, concise, smartly organized, and highly readable.""--Journal of African American History

Author Information

Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson is associate professor of American history and culture at the University of Munich in Germany.

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