The words and images of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X — part 7 of 7

Malcolm X talking with students at Tuskegee University in February 1965. Photo from “The Final Speeches of Malcolm X” (Pathfinder Press).

Malcolm X

I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. I have been forced to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

Martin Luther King Jr.

We were all involved in the death of John Kennedy. We tolerated hate; we tolerated the sick stimulation of violence in all walks of life; and we tolerated the differential application of law, which said that man’s life was sacred only if we agreed with his views.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with Senator John F. Kennedy, in 1960. While King was in the Birmingham county jail, Kennedy called Coretta King expressing his concerns for Dr. King’s health and safety. Many historians believe that this call of sympathy swayed enough black voters to carry Kennedy to a win over Richard Nixon in their bitterly contested 1960 campaign. Photo from “What Manner of Man” (Johnson Publishing Co.).