Malcolm X, 1925-65, militant black leader in the U.S., also known as
El-hajj Malik El-Shabazz, B. Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska.
He was one of the most influential black American leaders of the 1950's
and 1960's. A little while after Malcolm's dad died, his mother was committed to
a mental Hospital. He spent the
rest of his childhood in different foster homes.
Malcolm got a job as a shoeshine boy in the Roseland state ballroom.
This was he saw blacks who look like they had it all without caring about
the whites. They were wearing the best clothes, dating the pretty women and
playing cards and having fun. He
got attracted to this lifestyle until he was arrested for burglary and sent to
prison in 1964.
His brothers, who were in the Black Muslim faith, came to visit him in
prison, and urge him to join the faith. So
in 1952, when he was released he got his life together and transformed himself
from a petty criminal into an outspoken and dynamic leader whose message of
militant Black Nationalism appealed to large numbers of blacks in the Black
Muslim religion.
Malcolm X was the nation of Islam's most effective Minster. He preached
that backs should separate from whites and to win freedom "By any means
Necessary." After a while, he did not have interest in the Black Muslim
faith because this group tends to separate themselves from political activity.
This is why he broke away from the group in 1964.
Malcolm X rejected King's nonviolent approach (which called for lots of
turning the other cheek) and called for the separation of blacks from mainstream
society. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he saw religious black and white
Muslims together in harmony, he adopted a less confrontational approach.
The clips here are illustrative of Malcolm's earlier speeches, which are often
characterized by provocative rhetoric and violent imagery.
Concerning
Nonviolence
-- A direct
response to King
A
prediction
-- the result of continued injustice
"...the
black masses... are in open revolt"
"the
common enemy is the white man."
Current
conditions in the ghetto
A
parable -- House and Field Negroes
In 1963, Elijah suspended Malcolm after a speech in
which Malcolm suggested that President Kennedy's assassination was a matter of
the “chickens coming home to roost.” He then formed a rival organization of
his own, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. In 1964, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he
announced his conversion to orthodox Islam and his new belief that there could
be brotherhood between black and white. In his Organization of Afro-American
Unity, formed after his return, the tone was still that of militant Black
Nationalism but no longer of separation. In February 1965, he was shot and
killed in a public auditorium in New York City. His assassins were vaguely
identified as Black Muslims. Three people were convicted on the charges of
murder.