"Up From Slavery" and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" both share first person narratives of black civil rights activists---more importantly, the stories highlight two figures with different approaches to achieving justice. Despite their differing ideologies, both Booker T. Washington and Malcolm X had to adapt to the American system in a major way: by adopting relentless work ethics. Here, I argue that Malcolm X had a more humanitarian, community-driven notion of hard-work, while Booker T. Washington worked hard to promote individuality for other black Americans. These contrasting motives meant Malcolm and Washington had notably different impacts on the Civil Rights scene.
Malcolm X's autobiography distinguishes between his "private" and "public" persona. Publicly, he was not afraid of intimidating white America (which can't be said about Booker T. Washington), and as a result many thinkers of the time were unwilling to debate him (preface). Malcolm X gained notoriety among various communities (both black and white) for his "straight-to-the-point" mentality, which made sense given the circumstances he grew up in. Since his birth, the Ku Klux Klan tried to oust Malcolm X from his hometown of Omaha. Additionally, his father was a staunch support of Marcus Garvey and the "Back to Africa" movement, a system which "stressed becoming independent of the white man" (16). Thus, Malcolm's public hatred for the actions of white people seems to have stemmed from his early life.
In contrast, Booker T. Washington chose to basically ignore the post-abolition racism in America. His story was that of rigid individualism, and he didn't mention his humanity in writing too much; rather, he viewed life as a series of obstacles which must be overcome to achieve "greatness". Success was linked to intellect for Washington, and thus his main goal since childhood---as detailed in "Up From Slavery---was to receive a solid education. He describes what it was like to get freed from a plantation, and the sort of directionless future his family looked upon, but doesn't dwell on the systemic injustice too much. He simply works away, in order to gain increments of small wages that could help make his life better (child labor). This perspective is held by Washington for multiple decades of his life, and he never changed it, even when others tried to make him re-consider his beliefs (like Malcolm X did).
For Washington, the motivation to work hard was obvious: he didn't want to end up uneducated and deformed like coal miners (38-43). Even though white Americans had a much easier life path than him, Booker T. Washington insisted upon focusing on just making the best of what his environment provided to him; if he worked hard enough and focused on himself, no matter how unfair his life was, he'd be bound to find success. For example, to gain admission to a selective boarding school, Washington had to constantly clean the building, purely relying on the fact that some higher-up would be impressed by this and let him enroll. A powerful statement in his autobiography is that "sweeping of [the classroom] was [his] college examination", and I think this best represents Washington's mindset (53). Booker T. Washington never really changed his views to accomodate to his surroundings (like Malcolm X did), rather he worked hard enough so that his surroundings would accept his views.
