MLK ideology vs Malcolm X ideology?

This blog idea is one that developed mainly out of curiosity of the different views and opinions of the individuals in our class. As we develop a more well rounded understanding of african american history and the fight for civil rights, we often begin to put ourselves in the shoes of civil rights activists fighting for equality to better understand where they were coming from, and what they were trying to achieve. With that being said, I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about what I would have been doing as a civil rights activist during this time of struggle. The more we study the more I have begun to develop an understanding that has led me to think that there were two main ways that the war for equality was fought.

The first I would consider the "MLK" way, where we fight for equality and integration in the american society. Followers of MLK put a heavy emphasis on wanting to create a color blind community that would strive together regardless of race or ethnicity. The second approach would incorporate the ideology presented by Malcolm X. This idea takes an approach that says the corrupt, racist, segregated aspects of american culture are woven in to the very fabric of how american democracy works. The result of this is that there is no way to change it, the core values of the foundation of our system was flawed. Therefore, Malcolm says screw integration. He is not a die hard advocate for integration but rather supported the idea that the black community should create- within itself - a community that is vibrant, educated, and successful all separated from rest of the country. For X, segregation was not necessarily a bad thing.

So the question is, if you were fighting for your rights during the civil rights movement, would you have aligned yourself with the ideas of Malcolm X, or MLK? Would you be willing to play by the rules and push for legal change and equality, despite the countless efforts of activists who have played by the rules, but have still been turned down by the government or people? Or would you run with crowd that says integration is not a necessity, and that although this immoral segregation and discrimination is wrong and unjust, you'd rather build up a community within where rich new culture and happiness can be created?

This idea came to me while reading our first reading assignment "Duty of the Hour" where there were three groups: The talented tenth, the accomodationalists, and the migrants. The first two groups seemed to be more closely aligned with the MLK ideology, whereas the migrants were more prone to act in a Malcolm X type of way. When reading this I began to ask myself which group I would have probably fallen in to (with the absence of social status), and was curious to know what the position of my peers would have been in this case.