- History & Culture
- Race in America
When Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X finally crossed paths at the end of their lives. What might have happened had they met earlier?
Published January 12, 2024
On March 26, 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X met for the first and only time.
The men were two of the most influential Black activists of the 20th century—and had long been pitted against each other in the media. They had both come to the U.S. Senate for the outcome of the vote on the Civil Rights Act.
For King, this was a big moment. In January, he’d been named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.” In October, he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population.” But, most importantly, he’d played a major role in getting the Civil Rights Act on the table.
Malcolm, meanwhile, was at a crossroads. Earlier that month, he’d been forced out of the Nation of Islam, a Black nationalist organization whose membership he’d drastically increased. Free from its restrictions, Malcolm had recently formed Muslim Mosque, Inc. He was at the U.S. Senate to decide his next move.
At King’s press conference, Malcolm sat in the back, listening. When it ended, they exited—and met.
Flashbulbs popped. Film whirred.
After they exchanged greetings, Malcolm told King, “I’m throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights cause.”
Within four years, both men would be assassinated. This iconic photograph captured a moment a long time in the making. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Two rising leaders—and two missed connections
On May 17, 1957, King led a demonstration in Washington, D.C. to demand voting rights for Black Americans in his first national speech, “Give Us the Ballot.” This, coupled with King’s involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, launched him as the leader of the civil rights movement.
(This is the history of Martin Luther King Day.)
Malcolm saw an opportunity.
Weeks earlier, Malcolm had led thousands of New Yorkers to the police station to demand that NOI member Johnson X Hinton be released from jail and returned to the hospital. Hinton had been brutally beaten by police after he’d tried to stop them from beating another Black man. He was imprisoned with a cracked skull, deep cuts in his head, and blood clots in his brain.
The police agreed to Malcolm’s demand. According to the scholar Peniel E. Joseph in his book The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., after Malcolm saw Hinton, he dispersed the protesters with the flick of his hand. A deputy police inspector turned to a reporter and said,