Malcolm X, also known as Malcolm Little, Malik Shabazz, or El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz has made many contributions to changing the world with his beliefs on civil rights and the religion of Islam. His belief that black people were no different than white people and that they shouldn’t treat white people like they are higher, pushed African Americans to fight for their rights. Malcolm X also influenced the Nation Of Islam, converting many African Americans to be part of the Nation Of Islam and later forming the Muslim Mosque Inc. Malcolm X’s want for equality and purity where not confined to America, He traveled the world giving speeches and spreading his beliefs of the world. , Malcolm X was one of the most significant civil rights activists in America, his cause was of such great magnitude and his words, so powerful, that his ideas and beliefs spread across America and into Africa, England, and the Middle East.
About Malcolm X
Malcolm Little, whom we know as Malcolm X, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925. His parents were Earl and Louise Little. His father was a minister who was outspoken in his support for the rights of black people. His public support of blacks often provoked warnings from the Ku Klux Klan, among other white-supremacist groups.“When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded KKK riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska one night. Surrounding the house, brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out. My mother went to the front door to open it. Standing where they could see her pregnant condition, she told them that she was alone with her three children, and that my father was preaching in Milwaukee. The Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town. They told her the “good Christian people” were not going to stand for my father’s “spreading trouble” among the “good” Negroes of Omaha with the “back to Africa” preaching of Marcus Garvey. Still shouting threats, the Klansmen finally spurred their horses and galloped around the house, shattering every window with their gun butts. Then they rode into the night, their torches flaring, as suddenly as they had come”(Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 3)In 1926, after repeated threats from the Ku Klux Klan, the Little family relocated, eventually settling in Lansing, Michigan. In 1931, when Malcolm was 6 years old, his father was reportedly killed after being run over by a streetcar in Lansing. People in the black community believed that whites had killed Earl and dumped his body by the trolley tracks so that it would appear he’d been killed in an accident.Malcolm’s mother, Louise, worked very hard to take care of her 10 children. The strain caused her to slowly lose her mind. When Malcolm was 13 years old, his mother was declared legally insane and he was placed in a foster home – as were all his brothers and sisters.Malcolm attended Mason Junior High School. He was smart and did very well - as good or better than his peers. He was studying and working hard to succeed by doing the right thing. One day at school, Malcolm’s favorite teacher asked him what he wanted to do with his life. Malcolm hadn’t thought much about what he wanted to be when he finished school, but he told the teacher he wanted to be a lawyer.Malcolm expected the teacher to be pleased with his decision. This teacher had always encouraged his pupils to push themselves and explore their limits. Instead of being pleased with Malcolm’s choice of a profession, the teacher seemed upset. He told Malcolm that he liked him, but that being a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a nigger”.During his teenage years, Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his sister, Ella. It was at this time Malcolm decided that what he “wanted to do, more than anything else, was to bring value to his life. He wanted to be looked upon as a person who had the respect of his fellow human beings. By the time he reached Harlem, he was convinced that the respect he wanted would only be found within the black community.”In Harlem, Malcolm got involved with gambling, selling marijuana, and running numbers. Malcolm, now 6’3”, started wearing “sharp clothes,” and went by the name of “Detroit Red” - a street name given to him by friends. ). When he crossed paths with the Mob, he left New York and returned to Boston.While living in Roxbury, Malcolm started robbing houses. For awhile he got away with it. Then he took a stolen watch to a shop to have the crystal repaired. The shop owner had been notified to watch for stolen jewelry, and a description of the watch had been given to him. When Malcolm returned to get the watch, the police arrested him. Malcolm was sentenced to 8 to 10 years of hard labor and was jailed at the Charlestown State Prison.The ancient prison had no running water, and the prisoners were given a “slop bucket” to use. He would urinate and defecate in the bucket and empty it when it was his turn to do so each day. If the stench was bad or there were flies, too bad. There was also no dining room. The inmates ate their meals in their cells This was a bad time for Malcolm.The most important thing about this time in Malcolm’s life was his conversion to the Nation of Islam. Malcolm’s brother, Reginald, wrote to him about this religion, and talked to him about it during his visits to Malcolm in prison. Several of Malcolm’s brothers and sisters had already converted. What appealed to Malcolm was that this religion was dominated by African-Americans. The head of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, wrote Malcolm a letter in which he said that Malcolm was not a criminal. The letter explained “No man in a just system would resort to criminal activity. You are not the criminal. The criminals are the whites who, through their racism, have forced you into the acts you have committed.” Malcolm accepted the Nation of Islam into his heart entirely and without question.
The beliefs of the Nation of Islam included the following:
- Members had to be non-whites (whites were the enemy)Membership was encouraged no matter what your social status or level of sin
- That whites were attacking blacks physically and psychologically
- That whites wanted to keep blacks in an inferior position
- That blacks would be kept financially inferior by depending on whites for income
- That whites were undermining black self assurance
- That whites encouraged blacks to hate themselves by depriving them of knowledge of their own history
Islam promoted:
- Blacks to become educated
- The rights of blacks to defend themselves
- Economic development of the black community
When Malcolm thought about what had happened to him in his life - that he was in prison instead of being a lawyer - he thought maybe the principles of the Nation of Islam were right.In August, 1952, Malcolm was released from prison. He went to Detroit to live with his brother, Wilfred, whose family had also become Muslims. Malcolm liked the discipline of the Muslim way of life and the effect this had on the members of the Temple (a place of worship) he joined. He started a movement to bring more young, black men like himself into the Temple to hear the message of Islam.
After a time, when Malcolm had listened enough of the teachings, he was invited to become a member of the Nation of Islam. Part of this process was to “drop one’s slave name, and the right to assume the last name of X” The “X” referred to the person’s lost African name – a heritage that had been stolen from him. This is how Malcolm Little became Malcolm X.
Malcolm was made a minister and sent to Boston to establish a temple, which he did successfully using his old contacts. From there he went to Philadelphia, where he quickly established Temple 12. His success led to an appointment as minister of Temple 7 in Harlem.
Malcolm worked hard preaching for black people to take control of their lives by rejecting mental and spiritual enslavement by whites. He was opposed by middle class blacks who thought that Malcolm’s message would incite anger against them in the white community. The middle class blacks didn’t like the way Malcolm was rocking the boat.
In 1958, Malcolm met and married a young Muslim woman, Betty X. Together they had 4 daughters.
By 1959, Malcolm had risen to become a very prominent minister in the Nation of Islam. He traveled the world speaking about the struggles of black Americans.As the main spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm had his hands full trying to explain the angry blacks shown on national television in a 1959 broadcast called “The Hate that Hate Produced”. The program disturbed people in America, and they started paying more attention to the members of the Nation of Islam.As the movement grew in size, Malcolm was called on to define the goals and principles of the movement. His message of separation, and his demands for immediate equality using any means necessary, put him in conflict with other blacks (like the followers of Martin Luther King) in the Civil Rights movement, who were promoting more peaceful solutions to equality. It also put him in conflict with whites who were involved in promoting the rights of blacks, since Malcolm preached that ALL whites were enemies.By 1960, Malcolm was perceived as a revolutionary. In 1963, with many blacks very angry at the slow process of obtaining their rights, a march on Washington was planned. President Kennedy first tried to stop the march, but when he saw that it would happen no matter what, he steered it so that Martin Luther King would be the leader.Even though the march was a success, the violence against blacks continued. More blacks turned to Malcolm X as their leader. A split emerged in the Nation of Islam between followers of Elijah Muhammad and followers of Malcolm X. The followers of Elijah Muhammad thought Malcolm X was a threat to the Nation of Islam and this led to his assassination.Malcolm further isolated himself by making comments about the assassination of President Kennedy in which he seemed to take pleasure in the death of the president. For these comments he was silenced by Elijah Mohammad. In 1964 he announced his split from the Nation of Islam. He founded his own organization - the Muslim Mosque, Incorporated. It was to be a political organization dedicated to helping African-Americans.After the split, Malcolm went on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca. He traveled the world, and during this time clarified his own beliefs. He decided to look on people as individuals. He stopped looking on all whites as enemies.He returned to the United States and took a new name – El Hajj Malik el Shabazz. He went out publicly saying he would work with groups headed by whites as long as they were sincere about helping blacks. This position angered some of his former comrades in the Nation of Islam.By 1965, the word on the street was that Malcolm was a dead man. His house in Queens was firebombed. He kept a loaded rifle in his home for self defense. Despite the threats, Malcolm scheduled a speech. It was during this speech that he was fatally shot. He was 39 years old.Although 3 men from the Nation of Islam were tried and convicted for the crime, there is still speculation about who was really behind the shooting.“Malcolm was an enormously gifted man, a thinker, a man to whom the idea of revolution was not only possible, but necessary. He believed…that the ultimate goal of a black leader was to make revolution irresistible.”And, in Malcolm’s own words:"You’ll find very few people who feel like I feel and live long enough to get old.I’ll tell you what I mean and why I say that. When I say by any means necessaryI mean it with all my heart, and my mind, and my soul. But a black man shouldgive his life to be free, but he should also be willing to take the life of those whowant to take his. It’s reciprocal. And when you think like that, you don’t livelong…"
Malcolm X & The Civil Rights Movement
Malcolm X was very important to the Civil Rights Movement because of his ability to deliver his ideas in powerful speeches. While M.L.K. was spreading his idea of peaceful protesting in order to reach equality with white people and to never fight back, Malcolm X was saying the exact opposite. Malcolm felt that Black people in America should do what ever it took to receive the same rights as white people. In his powerful speeches, he told African Americans to fight back when attacked by white people. In one of his speeches he said, “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery”. He felt that just because Black people were different, didn’t mean that they should just lay down and take the abuse from white people. He felt that black people shouldn’t conform to the ways of white people. They shouldn’t change their appearance, they should embrace who they are. His method of obtaining equality was very different from those of Martin Luther King Jr. He believed that equal rights wouldn’t be handed to African Americans, but that they would have to take them, and if necessary, fight for them. The Nation of Islam, and its black supremacy based ideas that were tied into the religion of Islam, played a huge role in putting him in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement . Being in the Nation Of Islam, he perfected his public speaking skills, which helped him in giving speeches. Malcolm X was such a reputable civil rights activist that many wanted him to give speeches all over the country and he was known for his speeches given at both Oxford and Harvard University. In 1965 Malcolm X returned from Africa and formed the Organization Of Afro-American Unity. I was an organization based off of the Organization of African Unity. The organization was formed to open communications and improve relations between the black people in America and the black people in Africa. The focus was the human rights of Black people all over the world.
Malcolm X & His Influence Outside Of America
Malcolm X didn’t just express his ideas in America, He met leaders from all over the world and traveled to countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In his early years out of prison, in 1960, he met Fidel Castro. Castro liked him so much that they met privately. He also met with political leaders from Egypt, Guinea, and Zambia. Shortly after he converted to the religion of Muslim, he went on a Hajj. Malcolm X had traveled to Africa twice and after his second time, he had met with many African leaders. Malcolm also traveled to Paris and England where he gave speeches. He also took part in a debate held at the Oxford Union, about politics, where he showcased his great intelligence and firmly supported his. Malcolm X was so influential that his name and his cause were known world wide.
Conclusion
To have played such a huge influential role in the civil rights movement, and to have brought Islam into the lives of so many African Americans, Malcolm X has made a difference. He has made a difference that can be seen in the world today. If he were alive today he would be pleased with the progress made by African Americans. He would be amazed to see black and white people coexisting as equals with the same rights, living as if there was never a difference between the two to begin with. Although he would be pleased he would still say that there was more work to be done.
Haley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X .
Ballantine Books , 1987.
-FIRST CENTURY BOOKS . 14 Jan 2009
"Malcolm X." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 14 Jan 2009
Moncur, Michael. "Malcolm X Quotes." QuotationsPage.com . 14 Jan 2009
Myers, Walter Dean. Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary . Polaris,
1998.
Rummel, Jack. Malcolm X: Militant Black Leader. New York, NY:
Chelsea House Publications , 2004.
"The Official Web Site Of Malcolm X: About Malcolm X."
The Official Web Site Of Malcolm X. November 24, 2003. CMG
Worldwide. 14 Jan 2009
Pictures:
http://www.malcolmxonline.com/images/malcolm_home.jpg
http://www.mugshots.com/IMAGES/Mugshot__Malcolm%20X.jpg
http://www.selvesandothers.org/IMG/jpg/malcolmX_300.jpg
http://www.beingandnothingness.net/Quotes/Pictures/MalcolmX01.jpg
