March 26, 1964, 60 years ago: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the opposing poles of the Civil Rights Movement, meet face-to-face for the first time. It will turn out to be the only time.
They both had the goal of making life better for black Americans. They disagreed as to the means. Martin preferred nonviolent resistance. Malcolm wanted a tougher stance. He called Martin "a 20th Century Uncle Tom." Martin said of Malcolm's ideas, "Fiery, demagogic oratory in the Black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as he has done, can reap nothing but grief."
Nevertheless, in July 1963, Malcolm invited Martin to join a rally in Harlem. He called for a period of racial unity to fight white oppression, writing, "If capitalistic Kennedy and communistic Khrushchev can find something in common on which to form a United Front despite their tremendous ideological differences, it is a disgrace for Negro leaders not to be able to submerge our 'minor' differences in order to seek a common solution to a common problem posed by a Common Enemy." But Martin never responded to the invitation, and didn't show up.
On one occasion, Malcolm called Martin a "chump," and called other civil rights leaders "stooges of the white establishment." He called the August 28, 1963 March On Washington, ending at the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King's finest moment, "the farce on Washington," and "a demonstration run by whites in front of a statue of a President who has been dead for a hundred years, and who didn't like us when he was alive."
On March 26, 1964, both men were on Capitol Hill in Washington, watching a U.S. Senate hearing regarding legislation aimed at ending segregation in public places and racial discrimination in employment. The bill had been proposed by President John F. Kennedy following intense lobbying by King and others, and, following JFK's assassination, was being shepherded through Congress by President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite harsh opposition by many Southern elected officials.
As Martin was wrapping up a press conference, he was approached by Malcolm, and the two shook hands and exchanged greetings. As cameras clicked away, Malcolm expressed his desire to become more active, saying, "I'm throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights struggle." Then, just as quickly as it began, the brief meeting between the two legends was over.
The Kennedy civil rights bill passed Congress, and Johnson signed it into law as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2. Johnson invited King to the signing ceremony, and gave him one of the signing pens. He did not invite Malcolm X, and it's unlikely that Malcolm would have accepted, anyway. There is no record of him ever having visited the White House.
By that point, Malcolm had returned from an extensive visit to North Africa and the Middle East, including a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Having seen Muslims of every race and color, from all over the world, the trip fundamentally shifted his thinking on the issue of race in America. While not entirely denouncing his earlier positions, he adopted a more conciliatory approach, writing, "I was no less angry than I had been, but, at the same time, the true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision."
Malcolm X was assassinated in New York on February 21, 1965. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Each man was 39 years old at the time of his death. In the years to come, their widows, and then their children, would build strong friendships that uplifted the cause of civil rights.