"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." This was said by Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement in 1964 while he was giving a speech about the times of challenge and controversy (MLK Quote). Many great people made huge impacts during this time; for example, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and lastly Malcolm X. All speakers had very different tactics on getting their point across. Three speeches that stood out are: Martin Luther King's, The World House; Stokely Carmichael's, Black Power; and Malcolm X's, The Ballot or The Bullet. 

Martin Luther King was an icon during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. He made huge steps and bounds, changing society as everyone knows it today. His speech, The World House, was all about war, racism, and poverty; and how todays society needs to change so that people can move on and the US can succeed. Part I of the speech was fall about war and how to be morally correct, people need to avoid war to become successful and create world peace. King thought that the world was "in a universe doomed to extinction by war." He truly thought that the 

world would come to an end if humans did not try to end war. He glorifies the fact that the inventions of his time are so advanced and that the inventions have an "enormous significance 

for out future." (The Carolina Reader) He likes the idea that one day these inventions will get so great that we can one day humans can get to the moon or have jets that get from New York to London in two and a half hours. "Medical science will greatly prolong the lives of men by finding a cure for cancer " He speaks about how this will create a new world for humans and it will lead to peace between all nations and society. He eventually gets to the point where he states that if humans continue "without this spiritual and moral reawakening we shall destroy ourselves in the misuse of our own instruments" (The Carolina Reader). To reach a peaceful nation, Martin Luther King Jr. is completely correct when he says that without people being spiritually and morally correct, we cannot succeed peace. What his main point is around all of the examples in part I is that man needs peace. To gain this "peace," humans have to get rid of war, use the new inventions for good, and lastly be morally correct. 

Part II is about how humans need to get rid of racism. King calls racism the "hound of hell which dogs the tracks of our civilization" (The Carolina Reader). He says how racism is not just an American problem, it also is a very large problem in South Africa with apartheid still partially in place during this time. He says if we do not fix this problem then humans will see the "sins of our fathers" will catch up to younger generations. This meaning that if humans don't take control of this problem now then it will be passed down to future generations and the problem may never be fixed. King states that "Racism can well be that corrosive evil that will bring down the curtain on Western civilization" (The Carolina Reader). 

Part II goes on and on about how racism is destroying society, how it can lead to the downfall of countries. Part III focuses manly on how wealth and poverty can affect a society. "We must with affirmative action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice" (The Carolina Reader). He means that people need to help the poor and attempt to get rid of the poverty so that society can flourish. Martin Luther King Jr. thought that fixing the problem of war, racism, and poverty would fix society and he gives many reasons why he thinks it will change. His ideas were different from other ideas like Carmichael and Malcolm X.  

Stokely Carmichael was a freedom speaker, but his main point required the whites to take charge of the movement. In the beginning of his speech he makes it very clear that "No man can give anybody his freedom. A man is born free" (Voice). What he meant by saying this, is that a man is born with natural rights, and once of those natural rights is his freedom. Freedom is a right that should not be taken away from any human being, and who has the right to take away someone's freedom. No man is better than another, so why should a white man be able to take the freedom away from a black man at this point in time. Because of this, Carmichael thought that organizing "whites  to move around the question of economic exploitation and political disfranchisement" (Voice). At this point in time, whites had a significant bigger say in the political aspect of things. He thought that if he could pull together a group of whites to organize a revolution to change society during that time. He thought that if he got the whites to revolt then the government would notice and attempt to change things since whites were also involved in the revolt for civil rights for the African American community. The organization of the "Black Panthers" scared many white people because it was a group that promoted violence. Carmichael thought that the Black Panther group was a good idea but just had poor execution. He thought that the Black Panthers struck fear in the white mans eye; and by doing this, the white man feels threatened and will possibly act in a violent way towards the Black Panthers. Carmichael was similar to Martin Luther King Jr. in the way that he promoted non violence but Carmichael wanted to whites to lead the revolt instead of it being only the blacks. 

Malcolm X is significantly different from Martin Luther King Jr. but somewhat similar to Carmichael in the aspect that they both believe in the organization of people to make a difference. Malcolm X promoted that the "hands of the white man" were very politically oppressive, that the economic exploitation was because of the white man. He says later that he is not "anti-white," he just thinks that the whites are fully responsible for the oppression, economic exploitation, and the degrading of the black race. He thought that if the blacks didn't act against the whites that thing wouldn't change. Now Malcolm X was similar to Carmichael where he did believe in organization, the only difference is that his organization was based behind violence. During the speech he speaks about its either "the ballot or the bullet." He meant that that African American race can either try and stand behind a podium and talk to the people to lead a revolt or they can pick up their arms and violently revolt against the whites. He gave examples on how the ballot was not always successful because things haven't changed and the blacks are still getting oppressed. He states that when he says "ballot" he means freedom form the oppression of the white man. He thought that African American was worse than being called African. Because being an African American meant that you were a negro and that you were less than an African. During this time negro had a bad connotation because when someone heard negro they thought of how people displayed them. They were displayed as alcoholics, drug addicts, and lesser humans because they had different skin than white people. Malcolm X thought that the only way to get past this view of African Americans, was to remove all of the evil and bad things that had been going on during this time period. The last thing that Malcolm X wanted was for "Lyndon B. Johnson  let him go into the Senate next week and declare himself" (Malcolm X). He needed a higher powering individual to take charge of this situation, he said this is a huge part of the changing of society. Malcolm X was a great speaker and was very influential to the society and culture during this time period. His violent acts eventually caught up to him in the end because he was assassinated for everything that he had done. 

During the civil rights movement there were many different tactics on how to change society. Carmichael and Martin Luther King Jr. took the more pacifist route and thought that talking and organized revolts would lead to change. While Malcolm X thought that violent organized revolts would lead to the success of black people and it would help them move past this time period. All tactics had their own impact on society and all these men made a huge difference during the Civil Rights Movement. 

