Various Authors - Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. as Personifications of Double Consciousness lyrics

Arguably the most prominent of their time, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X occupy two halves of a necessary whole; frequently directing aggression laterally as if indignant that the other could not see as he, himself did. Laced with binary contraries, the two have in common the fact that they frequently saw not how they were seen, and vice versa. In a sense, it can be argued that the two, together, occupied one part of a collective double consciousness personifying the struggle and desire of the Civil Rights Movement. However, the two, themselves, each had their own binary/double consciousness: how they portrayed themselves and how they were remembered/portrayed by others in recollection. With this timeline, the less prominent of the two consciousnesses will be highlighted; the perception/recollection of Malcolm X and the self-portrayal— through speeches— of King. Each possesses their own timeline, as each consciousness is autonomous in its collectivity. Martin Luther King, Jr. Remembers 1957: From "Give Us the Ballot" Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. Give us the ballot (Yes), and we will no longer plead to the federal government for pa**age of an anti-lynching law; we will by the power of our vote write the law on the statute books of the South (All right) and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence. Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs (Yeah) into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens. Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill (All right now) and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not sign a “Southern Manifesto” because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice.(Tell 'em about it) Give us the ballot (Yeah), and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy (Yeah), and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who will, who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the Divine. Give us the ballot (Yes), and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court's decision of May seventeenth, 1954. (That's right). 1957: From "The Birth of a New Nation" The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community. The aftermath of nonviolence is redemption. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation. The aftermath of violence are emptiness and bitterness. This is the thing I'm concerned about. Let us fight pa**ionately and unrelentingly for the goals of justice and peace. But let's be sure that our hands are clean in this struggle. Let us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice, but always fight with love, so that when the day comes that the walls of segregation have completely crumbled in Montgomery, that we will be able to live with people as their brothers and sisters. Oh, my friends, our aim must be not to defeat Mr. Engelhardt, not to defeat Mr. Sellers and Mr. Gayle and Mr. Parks. Our aim must be to defeat the evil that's in them. But our aim must be to win the friendship of Mr. Gayle and Mr. Sellers and Mr. Engelhardt. We must come to the point of seeing that our ultimate aim is to live with all men as brothers and sisters under God, and not be their enemies or anything that goes with that type of relationship. 1963: From "Letter from Birmingham Jail" "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly." "...there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth." "Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with." 1964: From King's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even d**h. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. Malcolm X Remembered "A Poem for Black Hearts" by Amiri Baraka For Malcolm's eyes, when they broke the face of some dumb white man, For Malcolm's hands raised to bless us all black and strong in his image of ourselves, For Malcolm's words fire darts, the victor's tireless thrusts, words hung above the world change as it may, he said it, and for this he was k**ed. "Malcolm X" by Gwendolyn Brooks Original. Hence ragged-round, Hence rich-robust. He had the hawk-man's eyes. We gasped. We saw the maleness. The maleness raking out and making guttural the air And pushing us to walls. And in a soft and fundamental hour A sorcery devout and vertical Beguiled the world. He opened us - Who was a key. Who was a man. "For Malcolm, U.S.A." by James Emanuel Thin, black javelin Flying low, Heads up! Hear Malcolm go! Cheekless tiger On the prowl Breathlessly: Hear Malcolm growl. Lighting, lighting Shot the sky, Silently: Did Malcolm die? Brother, brother Hold my hand. Malcolm was My native land. "For Malcolm, A Year After" by Etheridge Knight Compose for Red a proper verse; Adhere to foot and strict iamb; Control the burst of angry words Or they might boil and break the dam. Or they might boil and overflow And drench me, drown me, drive me mad. So swear no oath, so shed no tear, And sing no song blue Baptist sad. Evoke no image, stir no flame, And spin no yarn across the air. Make empty anglo tea lace words— Make them dead white and dry bone bare. Compose a verse for Malcolm man, And make it rime and make it prim. The verse will die—as all men do— but not the memory of him! d**h might come singing sweet like C, Or knocking like the old folk say, The moon and stars may pa** away, But not the anger of that day.