Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X, an important black leader of the 1950ЎЇs and 1960ЎЇs, was famous for his activity as a strong defender of Black equality and his aggressive speeches during the civil rights movement. His tireless struggle against discrimination awakened millions of African Americans. Malcolm XЎЇs life embodied many American traditional values, such as independence and determination, pursuit of equality and freedom, and hard work.

Malcolm X, whose original name was Malcolm Little, was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. Both of his parents served as members of a black organization. MalcolmЎЇs strong opinion of violence, such as blacks should be armed to fight with whites, was shaped by the family environment. He saw their house burned down at the hands of the racialist Ku Klux Klan. When he was only six, his father died in a traffic accident, but he believed that whites murdered his father (Lettieri 284-285). Soon after his fatherЎЇs death, his mother could not afford the burden of an eight-child family and finally was sent into the hospital due to a mental disease. In the following years, Malcolm spent the rest of his childhood in ÐŽofoster homesÐŽ± (Dyson 5).

In 1941, he moved to Boston to live with his sister. There his life began to change. The young man was accused and apprehended for stealing (Carson 103). While in jail, he accepted the faith of Black Muslims and then joined the Nation of Islam. It was a group who instilled the belief of ÐŽoall white evilÐŽ± in its disciples. After being freed from prison, Malcolm soon became a leader of the Nation of Islam and aggressively advocated ÐŽoBlack NationalismÐŽ± (Lettieri 286-289). At the height of the civil rights movements his eloquent speech sparked African Americans to fight for equality. Although on February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated in a lecture in New York (Lettieri 291), his opinions indeed affected black people of his time.

MalcolmЎЇs characteristics of independence and determination enabled him to struggle with his destiny and brought some important changes to him. When he studied in high school, he was ÐŽo confident of his own abilitiesÐŽ± (Lincoln 191). He decided to be an attorney in the future. However, there were no people he could rely on. Although he was the only black person in the class and just experienced ÐŽo a series of family shocksÐŽ±, he soon exceeded the other students and became the president of the class (Lettieri 285). After he suffered discrimination in school, he resolutely left school for Boston. There he worked in the lowest class jobs, such as dishwasher. When he lived in prison, he showed great determination in his conversion, which rescued him from ÐŽoself-destructionÐŽ± (Lettieri 287). Then he changed his name to X, traced to his African familyЎЇs name, which had been removed by slaveholders (Lettieri 287). When he served as a minister of the Nation of Islam, he usually worked independently and developed his own philosophy. Malcolm awoke millions of blacksЎЇ feelings by speaking out what they were afraid to say, even though it would bring the hostility of whites to him (Dyson 10).

In 1964 Malcolm showed his independence in the break with the Nation of Islam, since he thought its ÐŽoapolitical postureÐŽ± (Dyson 11) and leadership could not bring the ÐŽoreal liberationÐŽ± (Dyson 11) to Afro-Americans. Then he traveled to Mecca, the holy city of Muslims. There he was influenced by the power of Islam and realized that the radical method could not solve the problem. The realization made him stopped his extreme view of whites-as-devils and came to believe in ÐŽouniversal brotherhoodÐŽ± (Lettieri 290). This determination freed him from the fanaticism of ÐŽoracial hatredÐŽ± (Lettieri 290). Although through speeches he advocated ÐŽoself-relianceÐŽ± and ÐŽoeconomic self-determinationÐŽ± for Afro-Americans (Lettieri 289), Malcolm X pursued the equal rights of all human beings as well.

His experience also illustrated his value of equality and freedom. Since 1896 racial segregation had existed as the law in the continental United States. In the ensuing years, the Supreme Court continuously extended such segregation in a broad range of areas. The black people were separated from whites in public schools, hospitals, restaurants, and buses (Lettieri 287). Malcolm also confronted such discrimination in school. He was deeply discouraged by his favorite teacher who thought he could not be a lawyer due to his race (Lettieri 285). Because

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