The Life of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His real name was Malcolm Little, but he chose the X to signify that he didn't belong to any slave master. He knew that slave masters used to make their slaves have their last name because slaves were considered property. His mother, Louise Little, was a housewife busy with eight kids, including Malcolm. His father, Earl Little, was a Baptist minister. In 1931, Malcolm X's father was murdered by the Klu-Klux-Klan. Two years earlier, their house in Lansing, Michigan was burned down and even before that, the family had received death threats because of Earl Little's activism with civil rights. Malcolm's mother suffered an emotional breakdown years after the death of his father, and was committed to a mental institute. Malcolm and his siblings were later split up between many different orphanages and foster homes.
In 1946, Malcolm and a close friend, Malcolm Jarvis, were arrested and convicted of burglary. Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While in prison, he furthered his education. His brother, Reginald, would visit often and talk about the Muslim religion. Reginald had recently converted to a Muslim. It was in prison that he learned about the religious group called N.O.I (Nation of Islam). Malcolm began to study some of the teachings of the N.O.I leader, Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad preached that white people were trying to stop African American people from being successful in any way - whether political, economical, etc. After Malcolm X was paroled in 1952, he joined N.O.I, moved up the ranks, and became an eloquent and well-spoken minister and national spokesman for them. "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything." Besides being a spokesperson for N.O.I, he also encouraged African Americans to fight back "By any means necessary." Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Junior got along, but had different viewpoints on how to stop segregation. They basically agreed to disagree. They were both amazing leaders, working towards the same goal, just in two different ways- one with violence and one with nonviolence. "I don't favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I'm also a realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people." He also is quoted, "I don't mean go out and get violent; but at the same time you should never be nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence. I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not responsible for what I do." Malcolm X just spoke for violence, but he never organized any violent protests.
In 1964, Malcolm X made a trip to Mecca and changed his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. Later in his life, he also visited Jerusalem and met other Muslims. He changed his views and became non-violent. Later that year, Malcolm X left N.O.I. after a trip to Mecca where he realized he should stop being racist and should move in another political direction. The biggest reason though, he said was, "They're afraid that I will tell the real reason that they've been - that I'm out of the Black Muslim movement, which I never told, I kept to myself. But the real reason is that Elijah Muhammad, the head of the movement, is the father of eight children, by six different teenage girls, six different girls who were his private, personal secretaries." On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot and killed by members of N.O.I as he was about to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. While he was speaking, three men rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 times. Malcolm X was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. |
"Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world." |