 During the 1960's, civil rights activist responded to racial inequality in society by delivering speeches and hosting peaceful protest such as the March on Washington. In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, "The World House", he discusses the issues of society on the global scale instead of being focused on just America. He explains how the wealth of the world needs to be spread to benefit all of society and to help it grow. Civil rights activist of the time believed in different ways of finding peace and had views of their own "revolutions". Dr. King, explained how racism is a "corrosive evil" that must be conquered before we can achieve peace. (Baldwin article). Two activist who discussed King's views, or fought for a similar issue, were Malcom X, in his speech The Black Revolution, and Lewis Baldwin, in his analysis of Dr. King's speech found in his book The Voice of Conscience along with his online article. They identified inequality as a global issue and discussed different ways of of approaching and conquering the issue. By looking at Baldwin's modern piece, we see that MLK's solution was more applicable on a global scale compared to Malcolm X's piece, which is the complete opposite of MLK's, as seen through the language he uses to address poverty and power to find a solution to racism.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a more peaceful approach to conquering racism compared to his fellow civil rights activist Malcom X.  King asserted that to achieve social equality, poverty would need to be eradicated. Dr. King also believed that war did not equal peace, and that "we must narrow the gaping chasm between our proclamations of peace and our lowly deeds which precipitate and perpetuate war." (King, 293). By this he emphasizes that fighting is not the answer. King developed a specific plan he believed could be used in order to progressively better the economy so that poverty was no longer an issue. He argued that if the wealthy nations, "would allocate just 2 percent of their gross national product annually for a period of ten or twenty years for the development of the underdeveloped nations, mankind would go a long way toward conquering the ancient enemy, poverty." (King, 291) This specific plan does not require fighting but requires a, "passionate commitment" from all nations who could potential aid in the support of the less fortunate. The plan would require for people to forget their differences and come together to overcome the issue at hand. His ideals stemmed from his religious faith and involvement in his church as noted in Baldwin's book. 

Lewis Baldwin's analysis of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech focuses on how "he makes the case that racism is a "corrosive evil" that must be conquered before we can achieve peace." (Baldwin article). This is the basis of the issues that needed to be solved. The men agreed that nothing had the ability to create peace for the African American community other than getting to the root of the problem and ending racial injustice. Baldwin mentions how "We have been notoriously silent about the more than $700 million of American capital which props up the system of apartheid" (Baldwin article). This statement illustrates how as the American economy is prospering, sections of the world are being chained down to ideals that separate our societies. In both this article and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "The World House", the authors discusses how the economy of the world is enabling the issue of racism. Dr. King states that "There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will." (King, 290). What Dr. King emphasizes, is that we do not realize that the resources we claim to be ours were originally built of the ideas of others civilizations. In totality, the civilizations of the world have the resources to stop the suffering. This is seen in the quote on the global scale when Baldwin references the apartheid in South Africa. The apartheid was worse than what had been experienced in America, and by mentioning this he further emphasizes that racism was not only an issue in America, but an issue internationally. 

King's contributions to the civil rights movement, along with Malcolm X's, stemmed from his religious faith and involvement in his church as noted in Baldwin's book. Baldwin mention's that, "King was not necessary to the civil rights movement itself  the Movement made Martin, not Martin the Movement." (Baldwin, 7). What Baldwin meant by this, was that King was influenced by the Movement at the same time he was a leader. He also say's how King, "was as important to the movement as the movement was to him." (Baldwin, 7). King had pride in what he believed in which was what allowed him to be open about his beliefs and have a large crowd of supporters. His devotion to racial equality was visible in his speeches, actions, and sermons. He, "challenged the Christians of the world to not only eliminate racism, poverty, and war on an international scale but also to engage with each other and those of other religions to shape a positive pluralism." (Baldwin, 9). This idea was the foundation for what King stood for. It shows how he thought with an open mind about the global issue of racism, and preached to a crowd of people with similar ideals which would mean they too would want to create change and achieve social equality. Malcolm X was also influenced greatly by his religious practices, and though he held a similar stance as King on racial inequality, he had a very different view on how they should go about solving the problem.

Malcolm X was a civil rights leader at the same time as Martin Luther King Jr. but came from a different background with different ideals. He was heavily influenced by the Nation of Islam, and was an active member of the Islamic community during the time of his speech. Malcolm X believed that peace could be achieved by revolting in order for his people to earn back land and equality which they rightfully deserved. In Malcolm X's speech he references the "white wolves" and questions how the world will get "the poor black sheep to integrate into a society of bloodthirsty white wolves" (Malcolm X). By characterizing the white population as "bloodthirsty wolves" it shows his feelings of the superiority that they hold over the "poor black sheep". Malcolm X mentioned how no one could deny that, "America's wealth and power stemmed from 310 years of slave labor" (Malcolm X). Martin Luther King also makes this point when he says he sees, "white men building empires on the sweat and suffering of colored people." (King, 288). Both men emphasized on how the African American community was not in any way equal to the white community. Malcom X made an interesting point when he discusses "After four hundred years of slave labor, we have some back pay coming." (Malcolm X). By this he stresses to the African American community that they should not be satisfied with how they are treated, and should expect repayment for everything they had to endure. Without the slaves to do the manual labor on the farms during the formation of the new nation, the American economy would not have prospered the way it did. Malcom X argued that the African American community should be given its piece of wealth. 

Ultimately Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X both agreed on the issue of inequality. They believed that in order to achieve equality work must be done to get rid of the predominately white superiority across the globe, allow African Americans to have the same rights as their white counter parts, and get rid of poverty. By comparing the views of racism from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s perspective and Malcolm X's, we see how two men had planned to motivate their people to find justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that only by having the same societal opportunities would African Americans earn the same rights and their white counterparts. In order to advance as a society, people of all colors must make a global effort and see each other as equals. Dr. King believed that war was not a way to earn peace. He believed "the stability of the large world house which is ours will involve a revolution of values to accompany the scientific and freedom revolutions engulfing the earth." (King, 295). Revolutions involving war were not what Dr. King believed they needed in order to achieve peace. He motivated his people to take on nonviolent ways and said that "the first step in the world-wide war against poverty is passionate commitment." Malcom X's views however differed from those of Dr. King's in that he preached to his people that they should do what is necessary to gain what is rightfully theirs. He believed that the the White people were in debt to the African American community and owed them their equality. These two extremes allowed the people of the world to form their own opinions of how equality should be achieved and gave them two leaders to look up to for guidance during the Civil Rights Movement. Baldwin's modern piece shows us that we need to revisit peaceful protest if we want to make continuous change in society today. Dr. King and Malcolm X were apart of the start to the revolution and now we see that inequality is still an issue and Baldwin shows this by emphasizing on the change made by Dr. King and the civil rights movement.

