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Malcolm X
Malcolm X once said, “If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary”. This quote describes one of the ideologies that he would preach about. This essay will go on to talk about his early childhood and jail experience like how his father died and when he converted to the Nation of Islam, Some of the things he preached about like black empowerment, forming groups like the Organization for Afro-American Unity, and his assassination like who killed him. Malcolm X was the most influential civil rights movement leader during the peak of the movement in the 1950s and after his death, many people were influenced as the civil rights movement continued.
Malcolm X, originally named Malcolm Little, was born in Omaha Nebraska on May 19, 1925. His parents were named Earl Little and Louise Little. Earl was a Baptist pastor while Lousie had several jobs like a secretary. During, Malcolm’s early childhood the family was forced to move from Omaha to Lansing, Michigan because his family received threats from the Ku Klux Klan. The particular reason behind this was because his father was a follower of Marcus Garvey, a Black Nationalist, and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement. Although they thought the movement would get them away from the threats, they would receive the same amount of harassment and threats at their new home. “In 1931, Malcolm’s father was allegedly murdered by a white supremacist group called the Black Legionaries, though the authorities claimed his death was an accident” (History.com). Following the death of his father, Malcolm was put into the foster care system. This was because Louise Little would go on to have a nervous breakdown and would end up being put in a mental hospital. This would go on to cause Malcolm X to go on to drop out of school after the eighth grade and sell drugs. This was surprising because he was always very smart and knowledgeable. He would end up getting arrested.
At the age of 21, Malcolm X would go on to serve six years in prison for larceny and breaking. While in jail, he would hear the teachings from Elijah Muhammad, head of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam was formed “to improve the economic and spiritual conditions of the African American community in the United States” (Bates). After hearing these teachings he would join the group. This awoke something in Malcolm, “Soon after, Malcolm adopted the last name “X” to represent his rejection of his “slave” name” (History.com). Honestly, this jail time would flip Malcolm’s life all the way around, he became engrossed with learning about his new faith. With his newfound obsession with learning more about his faith, he would improve his reading and writing skills by studying an entire dictionary and reading every book the prison would provide.
These books would include philosophy, history, literature, and science (Haley). Malcolm himself would go on to say that he found his life calling while serving his sentence. Malcolm would be released in 1952 and would go on to be one of the most important and influential people in the civil rights movement for the next decade.
Following his release, now known as Malcolm X, he went on to start to heavily preach and give speeches and he was able to gain a following. “Ali says that Malcolm stood out from other black leaders at the time in large part because of his complicated background” (Bates). Initially, Malcolm joined the group known as The Nation of Islam, he would get so popular that within eight years the group itself would go from roughly four hundred members to having forty thousand members. His preachings were the complete opposite of what Americans had been used to seeing because he was trying to empower Black America. “He would focus on black people creating their power, structure, and wealth, and dismissed the then-dominant ideas of integration and racial acceptance” (Bates). Malcolm would also preach about self-defense, trying to ignite the African Americans to finally fight back or to protect themselves from the violence white America had provoked. These ideas were completely different from fellow popular civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. One of the things Malcolm X is most known for is talking about King’s “I Have A Dream Speech” “Whoever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’….while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?” (Bates). One of his most famous speeches is known as Ballots or the Bullets. This speech was given in 1964 while President Lydon Johnson was running These preachings would gain the following from the African American community and even the FBI, as they would do everything in their power to try to stop him.
One of his most famous speeches is known as Ballots or the Bullets. He would deliver the speech two times once on April 3 1964 and April 12, 1964. This speech was following President Lydon Johnson running for reelection in 1964. He saw it as a fight for racial justice. Up to this point, African Americans were not allowed the same rights as white Americans, he believed that civil rights should become human rights. He would also go on to talk about the idea that he had from the jump that African Americans needed to separate themselves from the white communities and become leaders. This speech would be a cry out for the civil rights movement to become forceful because they were not being forceful enough. This speech was considered his most famous speech because it finally showed how far the African Americans were willing to go to get rights as the name ballot or bullets. The bullet was becoming an option as they had grown tired of the treatment they had been receiving for so many years.
Shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm would publically speak and this would cause him to get suspended from The Nation of Islam. “Disenchanted with corruption in the nation of Islam, which suspended him in December 1963 after he claimed that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was “the chickens coming home to roost” (History.com). He would ultimately leave the organization which he had been a part of since he was in jail. Many things could have contributed to him leaving the group like his falling out with Elijah Muhammad, his disagreeing with the teachings of the group, etc. After leaving the group, he would essentially do some soul searching as he would go visit the mecca. This experience is where he went and had a spiritual transformation. After this experience, he would come back to the United States and he would no longer go by Malcolm X, but by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
After coming back to the United States from his trip to Mecca, he found an organization that would contribute to the Afro-American Unity. The ideology behind this organization would “identify racism, and not the white race, as the enemy of justice” (History.com). The main goal was to “… unify 22 million non-Muslim African Americans with the people of the African Continent” (Burnett). Malcolm at this point in his life still wanted African Americans to have economic freedom and independence. This would allow them to promote self-determination, the process by which a country determines its statehood and forms its allegiances and government. He would go on to try to implement this through The Basic Unity Program, which would call for Restoration, Reorientation, Education, Economic Security, and Self-Defense (Burnett). While those five steps were implemented the most important being education as he saw it as the main way to fix the damages of generations of slavery African Americans had faced. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, Following his death his half-sister would try to take the organization over, but she could not fill the leadership role that Malcolm X had left, Many people would leave the group, but they would be empowered and influenced by him. He would contribute to the “Black Power” movement.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was attending a rally for the Organization of Afro-American Unity. A large number of people would attend the rally that would be held in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. They were anticipating one of his famous speeches. Malcolm would go onto the stage to give one of his powerful speeches and would be assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam. The killers would be Mujahid Abdul Halim, Muhammad Abdul Aziz, and Khalil Islam (Bates). Leading up to the assassination, he received death threats and people within the group became upset with Malcolm as many described him as a “Traitor” (Bates).
Malcolm X was the most influential civil rights movement leader during the peak of the movement in the 1950s and after his death, many people were influenced as the civil rights movement continued. Through his powerful speeches, he created groups that were so influential that later empowered African Americans to be influenced by him years later, and Malcolm X was different in general. This would allow him to become the most influential civil rights leader during the movement. Can you think of any ways that he could have contributed to the movement differently?
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