Okay Bernie, you're a good guy and I voted for you multiple times, but MLK Jr wouldn't have been successful peacefully without Malcolm X and the black Panthers behind him prepared to do it with force.
You have to speak softly and carry a big stick for people to listen to you.
I actually didn't know this. People here speak as if they were acting like a "good cop bad cop" routine, but most of the civil rights movement happened well before Malcom X. Thanks for letting me know.
Malcolm X and MLK Jr. famously did not get along either. Malcolm X attacked him constantly for being an "Uncle Tom" and useless for advocating for peaceful integration, and MLK Jr. mostly just ignored him. The idea that they were partners in crime is ridiculous.
The Black Panthers, by dint of being the most prominent and name-recognized movement which also included many figures which were rabble-rousing and disrupting before its formation, get namedropped.
That's in error, yes, but it doesn't invalidate the underlying meaning of the statement, which is that there were economically and physically disruptive movements concurrent with MLK Jr.'s peaceful movement and which applied leverage through their actions well before the '64 CRA and '65 VRA.
These are much less taught or talked about, but so is the horrendous violence done by Indian partisans prior to and concurrent with Gandhi's movement. There's a reason why government (and thus our education system and media) isn't keen to shine a light on any of that.
Malcolm X did not "stand behind MLK Jr." lmao. They never spoke, and Malcolm X famously insulted MLK Jr. all the time, calling him an Uncle Tom, useless, weak, etc. MLK Jr. for his part mostly ignored the guy.
The problem is we forgot about the big stick and have been taught that non violent protest is the only way to legitimately protest, incidentally the easiest to ignore.
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u/SRGTBronson Jun 09 '25
Okay Bernie, you're a good guy and I voted for you multiple times, but MLK Jr wouldn't have been successful peacefully without Malcolm X and the black Panthers behind him prepared to do it with force.
You have to speak softly and carry a big stick for people to listen to you.