SOURCE 1: We will not hate you, but we cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children; send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities ... we will still love you.
But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom we will appeal to your heart and conscience so that we will win you in the process.
Source 1: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Stride Toward Freedom, 1958.
SOURCE 2: I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good.
Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people. I've never heard anybody go to the Ku Klux Klan and teach them non-violence... I believe we should protect ourselves by any means necessary when we are attacked by racists.
Source 2: Malcolm X, interview in the Young Socialist, January 18, 1965.
According to these documents, a key difference between the approaches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X is
• King argues for electoral politics and Malcolm X for community organizing
• King advocates for self-defense, while Malcolm X supports nonviolence
King advocates nonviolence and Malcolm X for self-defense
King argues for protests while Malcolm X advocates for letter writing