European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 17, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A a i. A. V a Kings legacy faces challenges of Malcolm crowd by Robert Watts the associated press growing up in suburban Atlanta Kenyatta Deniya says Young people were taught about one Black figure who Tow ered above All the rest Martin Luther King or. But when he entered his Sophomore year in High school Deniya began hearing about another Black Man. He remembers listening to a song by the rap group Public enemy and saying to himself Quot who is this Malcolm a. Now in his second year at Georgia state upriver sity Deniya recently led a series of sit ins As president of the Black student Alliance. The 20-year-old says he still respects King. But Malcolm a he insists is the voice of the Young generation. Quot Malcolm can relate More to the Community now a Deniya said. A the youth Are less willing to actually Bow Down and let somebody hit them Over the head. We come with More of the philosophy of a you hit me ill hit you  a nearly 25 years after Kings assassination and 10 years after president Reagan signed legislation creating mondays King Holiday the civil rights Leader is settling into mainstream american history. Forty nine states observe the King Holiday new Hampshire being the exception. Children across the nation study King in school. But on the streets of inner cities and on College campuses Malcolm a the outspoken Black Muslim Leader is the icon invoked by Young Blacks. Young people who Hadnot heard of Malcolm x a few years ago Are wearing Quot a a hats and clothing which multiplied with the release of Spike Lee s recent movie. But the move away from King began Long before the film came out. Donald Bakeer a High school English teacher in South Central , saw a change beginning in the mid-1980s. Since the late �?T70s, Bakeer had delivered a rendition of King s �?~-1 have a dream Quot speech at a school Assembly every year to commemorate the stain leaders birthday. About eight years ago he noticed the speech no longer resonated among the students who would fidget and talk throughout. A they just could not relate to Martin Luther Kings struggle Quot Bakeer said. A it became something that was in the Distant past to them. He became an old Peoples  the image of King As a docile Man who was somehow less courageous than Malcolm x rankles his associates. Malcolm x did no to participate in civil rights demonstrations Ini the South a fact obviously in the mind of the Rev. Joseph Lowery of Atlanta a Veteran of the movement who Heads the King founded Southern Christian leadership conference a it was relatively easy to be bad in Harlem a but try Selma a Lowery said. A try the country roads of Mississippi. Try the jails in  mainstream acceptance seems to have taken the Edge off Kings place in history. A King has become a National Symbol. And you can to become a National Symbol and speak for those who Are left out a said James Cone a professor of theology at Union theological Seminary in new York and author of Martin and Malcolm and America a Boole that compares the two men. In South Central los Angeles the site of the 1992 Spring riots a total commitment to nonviolence strikes Many Young people especially males As impractical said 17-year-old Deric Tucker. A if somebody does something to you and you done to do anything Back that makes things worse a Tucker said. Quot because they know they can do this to them or that to them and that s worst in the Long run and you la end up  Many of his friends Are instantly attracted to the phrase used by Malcolm a by any Means necessary a Tucker said. He said Young Blacks in South Central use that phrase to mean a a you la do anything to get what you  in Atlanta where King is buried and where the Martin Luther King or. Center for nonviolent social. Change draws about 3 million visitors a year teenagers who know Little else about King react strongly to his stance against violence. Walking Home in his Black and Gray los Angeles raiders jacket on a recent afternoon 17-Ycar-old Mario Berry said he did no to know a lot about King. But he said a the speech he made about done to do nothing to the Whites when they hit you that was wrong. You should defend  some scholars and activists say Young people Are misinformed about King and fail to appreciate How Radical it was to Challenge segregation in the South in the 1950s and �?T60s. They say Kings image has been defined exclusively by that August 1963 �?�1 have a dream speech which included a vision of brotherhood in which Black and White children sit Down together in Harmony. David Garrow the author of bearing the Cross a pulitzer prize winning biography of King said King became More Radical after 1965, when he began turning his attention to poverty and despair in Urban ghettos of the North a in most King Malcolm comparisons King gets a essentially trapped within the image of 1963 and the i have a dream speech Quot said Garrow. A the King of 1966 to 1968 is a distinctly More outspoken hardened realist about american society a Lowery said people who criticize King and the civil rights movement As passive Are misinformed a i never told anyone that if the klan came to my House to attack my family that i would take my family out in my arms to give them to the klan to beat them up i never said that nor did Martin say that a Lowery said. The civil rights movement and King a not Mai Colm x a were responsible for getting the country to pass the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965, Lowery said and both Are responsible for the 7,500 Blacks who hold elected office now. Up Kings legacy is Felt differently by Deniya. The College student recalls driving in his car after the los Angeles riots and listening to Atlanta radio stations a quoting King on nonviolence. A a lot of youth Are just tired of being drilled by or. King because people try to use or. King As a pacifier a he said. A a lot of youth look Back on or King s methods and they Tjonn to think they failed. But they think they re outdated a january 17,1993 sunday a a Page 1