"Travel broadens one’s scope," he explained. "Anytime you do any traveling, your scope will be broadened. It doesn't mean you change, you broaden." 196

But for King, the ideal of the Great Society fell short of the scale of social change the nation required. Its historic passing set the stage for King’s transformation into a political revolutionary whose critique of American democracy found him converging with Malcolm X. 208

"It is not a problem of civil rights, but a problem of human rights." 210 Malcolm X

220 Malcolm X’s socialism

221-222 Malcolm X’s feminism

"Whatever I do, whatever I did, whatever I've said, was all done in sincerity," he explained. "That's the way | want to be remembered because that’s the way it is." 223

Two days later, during a speech at the London School of Economics, Malcolm sought to redefine Americas domestic ciyij rights struggle as an international human rights movement. He spoke passionately about the consequences of racial demonizgtion of black people in America, which enabled the creation of "a police-state system" that made it "permissible in the minds of even the well-meaning white public" for law enfor cement to "brutally suppress" political dissent and personal dignity. they use the press to set up this police state," Malcolm argued, "and they the press to make the white public accept whatever they do to the dark-skinned public." The logic of this kind of racial injustice stretched across the Atlantic, observed Malcolm. They do that here in London right now with the constant reference to the West Indian population having a high rate of crime or having a tendency toward dirtiness," he explained." 226

Martin had studied Malcolms speeches and interviews enough to cite The Hate That Hate Produced as the television documentary that introduced Malcolm to the world and to detail autobiographical stories with ease. Malcolm's personal sincerity and political integrity impressed King, 233

Lacking the resources and time to transform civil rights struggles into a human rights movement, Malcolm left a legacy of revolutionary politics that, shortly after his death, would galvanize Black Power activists. But his greatest impact may have been on Martin Luther King Jr. 234

Bloody Sunday galvanized voting-rights efforts in Selma, turning King’s latest mobilization campaign into an international news story. ABC News broadcast footage of the afternoon of violence on Highway 80 later that evening, preempting a screening of Judgment at Nuremberg, an award-winning film depicting the aftermath of racial genocide in Europe. 237 synchronicity

246-247 Malcolm X’s influence on MLK

Malcolm X became the Black Power movement’s avatar and intellectual North Star, a mesmerizing martyr who, depending on one’s perspective, supported radical political self-determination, independent black politics, Third World socialism, an Africacentered cultural renaissance, or some combination of all this and more. Carmichael projected Malcolm's inimitable combination of strength and vulnerability, passion for racial justice, and hunger to internationalize the black freedom struggle. He also embraced Malcolm's critique of racial oppression’ structural nature. While Malcolm’s autobiography had made the political uniquely personal, Carmichael’s book Blech Power introduced the term "institutional racism" 261

262-263

King’s radicalization in the eighteen months after Malcolm X’s assassination found him on the precipice of losing his faith in the vision of a black freedom struggle tied to civic democracy that had sustained him over the previous decade. He found a renewed purpose and amplified sense of mission by connecting the broad sweep of the struggle for black dignity with the individual humanity of the dispossessed from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, whose lives, he argued, not only mattered but deserved a place of honor in the nation. King searched, with increasing fervor, to illustrate the universality of race, democracy, and citizenship through the particular lens of a black freedom movement that he remained convinced held the key not only to racial justice, but to an end to wat, poverty, and violence in America and beyond. 266

268-275

286-290

293-294

King would not recognize himself in the uncomplicated, largely timid figure that much of the nation and the world celebrate today. The radical King, who gathered an army of the poor to descend upon the nation’s capital in defiance of critics, is airbrushed from history. The risk-taking King, who defied a sitting president to protest war, is missing from our popular memory. The revolutionary King, who marched shoulder to shoulder with garbage workers, locked arms with Black Power militants, and lived in Chicago ghettos in an effort to stimulate social change, is forgotten. The King who proclaimed that Americas greatness remained "the right to protest for right" has all but vanished, replaced by generic platitudes about freedom and justice. 309

Politicians from both major political parties crafted milquetoast versions of King suitable for mass consumption—easily digestible platitudes that ultimately ignored his political radicalism. 310

311-312

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. found common ground and a measure of unacknowledged political convergence through their respective advocacy of black dignity and black citizenship. Their lone joint appearance at the US Senate building illustrates their shared belief in the capacity for mass movements to transform democratic institutions. They both came to define America as an empire whose political economy seemed to thrive on racial violence, exploitation of the poor, and war. King’s academic study and global travels armed him with an intellectual understanding of world affairs that grew more radical over time. Vietnam turned him into the nation’s sharpest and most vocal critic of American imperialism. Like a man possessed, King raged against the triple evils of militarism, racism, and materialism in a style that shocked critics and might have made Malcolm proud. By the end of their lives, both Malcolm and Martin had sought to leverage international opinion, global political and intellectual networks, and the world stage in an increasingly convergent struggle for black dignity and citizenship. 313

King, like Malcolm, charged America with political crimes from church pulpits across the nation—allegations that pushed him off the list of the nation’s most admired citizens, ratcheted up FBI plots to destroy him, and ended his relationship with the president. 314

Framing them as simplistic dueling opposites obscures the ways in which each served as the alter ego of the other. By the end of his life, Malcolm viewed himself as working in tandem with King, even when he disagreed with the civil rights leader’s tactics. And Malcolms swashbuckling internationalism, which included public criticism of the Vietnam War, offered a framework for King’s radical peace efforts three years later.’
Malcolm and Martin publicly debated and privately wrestled over large questions about radical black dignity and citizenship. Malcolm's scalding critique of American democracy asked why blacks needed to protest for the citizenship rights constitutionally guaranteed after slavery. "Whenever a Negro fights for ‘democracy," he reminded the world, "he’s fighting for something he has not got never had and never will have." 315

Through demonstrations, protests, and policy agendas, social justice activists have forcefully argued that Americas criminal justice system, persistently segregated and underfunded public schools, and discriminatory finance and housing practices represent a gateway to a sprawling system of racial inequality and economic injustice that has grown, not diminished, since the 1960s.
There is no way to understand the history, struggle, and debate over race and democracy in contemporary America without understanding Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.'s relationship to each other, to their own era, and, most crucially, to our time. 316

America has innovated new forms of racial oppression in criminal justice, public schools, residential segregation, and poverty that scar much of the black community. What Michelle Alexander has dubbed the "new Jim Crow"—the continuation of a racial caste system through the justice system's disparate treatment of black prisoners—touches virtually every facet of black American life.’ Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. matter now more than ever. 317