American west or civil rights? A level CW

Hi,
I'm still thinking of a topic for my a level coursework. I would like to do it either on the american west or on malcolm x and martin luther king. I have struggled to find a question that would have enough debate. Can anyone suggest a question?

Thanks
Mark

Reply 1

-CBee-

Maybe 'To what extent was Black Power more effective at improving the lives of African Americans than non-violence?'. Although if you want to specifically concentrate on Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, you could do something more along the lines of 'To what extent did Martin Luther King and Malcolm X disagree over the way to improve African Americans' lives?'. I remember having read somewhere that their ideologies weren't always opposed- for example, although it was Malcolm X and Black Power called for outright violent resistance, Martin Luther King still needed violence for his approach to work- just from the white authorities rather than the protestors (as in Birmingham).