A Crossroads Resource

Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

Question/Problem 3: In what ways did the Civil Rights movement change the lives of African Americans?


Malcolm X: An Alternate Dream

Directions: In his autobiography, Malcolm X described his observations of American society. Read the following excerpt and write a single sentence summary of his view of the relations between the races in America.

Is white America really sorry for her crimes against the black people? Does white America have the capacity to repent--and to atone? Does the capacity to repent, to atone, exist in a majority, in one-half, in even one-third of American white society? Many black men, the victims-- in fact most black men-- would like to be able to forgive, to forget, the crimes.

But most American white people seem not to have it in them to make any serious atonement-- to do justice to the black man.

Indeed, how can white society atone for enslaving, for raping, for unmanning, for otherwise brutalizing millions of human beings, for centuries? What atonement would the God of Justice demand for the robbery of the black people's labor, their lives, their true identities, their culture, their history-- and even their human dignity?

A desegregated cup of coffee, a theater, public toilets-- the whole range of hypocritical 'integration'-- these are not atonement.

From Malcolm X with the assistance of Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1964), p. 370.


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