Assess the short term significance of Malcolm X in reducing racial discrimination.

Malcolm X is remembered by his autobiographer as the 'angriest black man in America'. This essay will argue that the way that Malcolm X was portrayed in the Media in comparison to the less radical Martin Luther King, acted to reduce institutional racial discrimination in 1950 and 60s USA.
Malcolm X was portrayed in the media as an angry and violent individual. In the 1959 TV series, 'The Hate that Hate produced' Malcolm X condemned the crimes of white people throughout history on day time TV. Mike Wallace, who both presented and edited the show used phrases such as 'gospel of hate' which in Malcolm X's own words were designed to 'increase the shock mood'. The audience of this show would have most likely have been white Americans, the average white family income exceeded African- American's by $117,000 in 1963. Also, in a feature for Life magazine in 1960, Malcolm X is shown to hold a rifle looking out of a window supposedly at his enemies. These examples evidence that Malcolm X was presented as an enemy to white people in America at the time. The historian Peter Ling suggests that the media may have endorsed X's controversial nature because he strengthened the less radical voice of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. This claim can be evidenced by the fact that X's obituary in the New York Times in 1965 claimed that his legacy was 'apart from the responsible leaders of the civil rights movement' who had managed to secure the civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965. Also, in the autobiography of Coretta Scott King , Malcolm X is reported to have told her, ' if white people realise what the alternative is, they will be more willing to hear Dr. King.' This suggests that not only was Malcolm X aware of his symbolism as violent and angry, he may have been purposefully constructing it to further the civil rights cause and tackle institutional racial discrimination at this time.