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Malcolm X, Black Power and civil rights, 1963 to 75

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Not everyone believed in King's non-violent methods. From the mid-1960s, Malcolm X and the Black Power movement offered a different message.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X was a leader of the Nation of Islam. He criticised integration and non-violence, and urged Black pride and self-defence.
He left the Nation of Islam in 1964, and was assassinated in February 1965.

Black Power

Stokely Carmichael made 'Black Power' famous in 1966 and moved SNCC away from non-violence.
The Black Panthers (1966), founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, carried guns to patrol against police brutality and ran free breakfast programmes.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists on the podium.

Civil rights, 1965 to 75

Riots: the Watts district of Los Angeles exploded in 1965; more riots followed in Northern cities. The Kerner Report (1968) blamed white racism and poverty.
King in the North: his 1966 Chicago campaign achieved little.
4 April 1968: King was assassinated in Memphis.
Progress: the Civil Rights Act (1968) banned discrimination in housing. More Black Americans were elected to office, but poverty and inequality remained.
Worked example

Give one way Malcolm X's ideas differed from King's.

  1. King wanted integration achieved through non-violent protest.
  2. Malcolm X rejected integration and argued Black people had the right to defend themselves.

Answer: Malcolm X accepted self-defence and rejected integration; King insisted on non-violence and integration.

Key idea

Malcolm X (Nation of Islam) urged Black pride and self-defence; killed 1965. Black Power: Carmichael and SNCC (1966), the Black Panthers (Newton and Seale), the 1968 Olympic protest. Watts riots (1965), Kerner Report (1968), King's Chicago campaign (1966), King's assassination (1968), Civil Rights Act (1968).

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