How did Malcolm x and the black panthers affect the goals of the civil rights movement?

Answer 1

Malcolm X and the Black Panthers affected the goals of the Civil Rights Movement in a major way. Malcolm X led the Black Panthers and propagated the idea that they needed to be aggressive about seeking out equality.

Answer 2

One of the objectives of the Civil Rights Movement was to shed light on and address unfair discriminatory practices. Malcolm X (if nothing else) shed light on many deplorable conditions faced by people of African descent. When Malcolm X was featured in a year long television special with Mike Helen Mae Wallace in 1959 he most certainly shed light on unfair discriminatory practices. While it is not possible to accurately measure his impact, it is fair to say that he impacted the Civil Rights movement by helping to expose discriminatory practices which ultimately led to significant changes in what the legal system declared unlawful.

For example, a number of laws were put into place that had a significant impact on the lives and civil rights something of Black power people. For instance, from 1959-1965, sixteen states passed fair housing laws that prohibited racial, religious, and national origin discrimination in various sectors of the private housing market. In 1954 the US Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, nullifying the earlier judicial doctrine of "separate yet equal." In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the US Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act prohibited literacy tests and poll taxes which had been used to prevent blacks from voting.

In closing, not only did Malcolm X impact the Civil Rights Movement by helping to implement laws, he also made America look at how existing laws were routinely ignored. For instance, in numerous speeches, Malcolm X reminded the nation that there were laws that prohibited lynching, raping and killing, yet as he pointed out such laws were rarely enforced such as was the 1955 murder of Emmett Till (14 years of age), along with his cousin Curtis Jones (17 years of age) and not to mention the countless others victims of various lynchings throughout the South.