Comparative Essay - "The Ballot or The Bullet" & "I Have a Dream"

Malcolm X’s public speech “Ballot or the bullet” and Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream”, both share similarities in their speeches’ audience and purpose, while some contrasting elements both show the two civil rights advocate’s ideology of fighting for equality. King and X’s speech both target the oppressed black communities of America prior to the civil rights movement, in an effort to provoke a call to action from the reader. King uses the phrase “It’s time today for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that up.” and “And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice”. Personal pronouns such as “we” and “us” are undoubtedly directed to the black communities. As the context of these speeches are revolved around empowering black Americans to fight for equality, also it can be said that King and X are both African American, hence personal pronouns would be referencing their communities. Additionally, both speeches have a similar purpose, to persuade the black communities to fight for what they deserve, using their love for their community. Though towards the end of King’s speech, he starts to direct it towards both black and white communities. King targets these communities in his iconic phrase “Little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers”. By him targeting the white community as well as the black community it shows his ideology for equality. King strived for a route to equality peacefully and strayed away from any forms of violence. On the contrary Malcolm X had only targeted black Americans in his speech and had no intent of keeping the fight for equality peaceful. As seen in this phrase “The black community throughout America today more explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians can ever invent.” Malcolm X during this time in his life, was targeting only black Americans in almost a black supremacist ideology through his speech. Unlike King, X believed that violence was necessary if it meant the black communities would break oppression. Even though the two iconic faces of the civil rights movement both had contrasting views on the methods of fighting for this equality, Malcolm X and Martin Luther both had the same audience and the same goal; to empower the blacks of America to fight for a racially equal America.