Since America’s foundation, African Americans have been badly mistreated and oppressed. From slavery to Jim Crow and onward African Americans have been regarded as second-class citizens. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream in which black citizens and white citizens could live together in peace. However, not everyone agreed with King’s ideas of peace. For leaders such as Malcolm X, the black population in America had suffered far too long to move to a peaceful world. Malcolm X even went as far as saying he didn’t even see himself as an American. (BB, 120) At first, I didn’t understand how he could say that but after some thought, I have come to realize that my own circumstances do not allow me to understand that feeling because I have never seen oppression of this nature personally. For Malcolm X and the people who back him, oppression is so apparent. How could anyone who lives in oppression feel that they are apart of the state that is oppressing them? Malcolm X wanted a voice for black Americans. The primary reason for his movement was to give African Americans representation. Malcolm X on the service seems to be a negative and angry, but he was able to transform the black freedom struggle from what it was to a new movement in which African Americans would have a voice at all cost.