Student Question
What impact did Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X have on "Dred Scott vs. Sanford" and Civil Rights?
Quick answer:
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X did not directly impact the "Dred Scott vs. Sanford" case, as it preceded their lifetimes. However, they influenced the Civil Rights Movement by challenging the legacy of inequality it represented. King focused on achieving true equality and integration, particularly following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which outlawed school segregation. Malcolm X, advocating for black nationalism, sought empowerment without integration, influencing the movement's diversity of approaches.
First of all, please note that these two men lived long after the Dred Scott decision. Therefore they had no impact on the case itself.
In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court said (in part) that African Americans could not be full citizens of the United States. By the time that King and Malcolm X were alive, the 14th Amendment had been ratified and so African Americans were citizens. What these two men did was to work to try to make those citizenship rights apply in reality, not just in principle. King, in particular, was working to try to bring about equal rights for African Americans. He was trying to ensure that they truly would enjoy the equal protection of the laws that was supposed to be given to all citizens.
Therefore, King and, to a lesser degree, Malcolm X were working to truly overturn the idea...
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from the Dred Scott case. They were trying to ensure that African Americans truly had the same rights as whites so they truly could be citizens of the US.
How did Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X influence "Brown vs. Board of Education"?
Martin Luther King, Jr. had more to do with the Brown case than Malcolm X did. Neither man was directly involved in the litigation, but King had more to do with trying to extend the reach of the Browndecision than Malcolm X did.
In Brown, the Court said that segregation in public schools was illegal. This enshrined the idea blacks and whites should be equal and society should be integrated. King's major work was to try to push for that to truly happen. He was trying to make sure that segregation would truly end in all areas of society. That was a large part of what the Civil Rights Movement was about. This goal was realized in 1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of that year.
Malcolm X had less to do with this process. He did not believe in integration. He wanted African Americans to progress and be strong, but he did not want them to do so by integrating with whites. He was in favor of black nationalism. Therefore, he was less involved in extending the logic of Brownthan King was.