MALCOLM X
G'day folks,
African-American leader and prominent figure in the Nation
of Islam, Malcolm X articulated concepts of race pride and black nationalism in
the 1950s and '60s.
Synopsis
Born on
May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X was a prominent black nationalist
leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and
'60s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400
members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by
1960. Articulate, passionate and a naturally gifted and inspirational orator,
Malcolm X exhorted blacks to cast off the shackles of racism "by any means
necessary," including violence. The fiery civil rights leader broke with
the group shortly before his assassination on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon
Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a speech.
Early Life
Malcolm X
was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm was the
fourth of eight children born to Louise, a homemaker, and Earl Little, a
preacher who was also an active member of the local chapter of the Universal
Negro Improvement Association and avid supporter of black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Due to Earl Little's civil rights
activism, the family was subjected to frequent harassment from white
supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and one of its splinter
factions, the Black Legion. In fact, Malcolm X had his first encounter with racism
before he was even born.
"When
my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, 'a party of hooded Ku Klux
Klan riders galloped up to our home,'" Malcolm later remembered.
"Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come
out." The harassment continued when Malcolm X was four years old, and
local Klan members smashed all of the family's windows. To protect his
family, Earl Little moved them from Omaha to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1926
and then to Lansing, Michigan in 1928.
However,
the racism the family encountered in Lansing proved even greater than in Omaha.
Shortly after the Littles moved in, in 1929, a racist mob set their house on
fire, and the town's all-white emergency responders refused to do anything.
"The white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house
burned to the ground," Malcolm X later remembered. Earl Little moved the
family to East Lansing where he built a news home.
Two years
later, in 1931, Earl Little's dead body was discovered lying across the
municipal streetcar tracks. Although Malcolm X's family believed his
father was murdered by white supremacists from whom he had received
frequent death threats, the police officially ruled Earl Little's death a a
streetcar accident, thereby voiding the large life insurance policy he had
purchased in order to provide for his family in the event of his death. Malcolm
X's mother never recovered from the shock and grief over her husband's death.
In 1937, she was committed to a mental institution where she remained for the
next 26 years. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in
foster homes.
In 1938,
Malcolm X was kicked out of school and sent to a juvenile detention home in
Mason, Michigan. The white couple who ran the home treated him well, but he
wrote in his autobiography that he was treated more like a "pink
poodle" or a "pet canary" than a human being. He attended Mason
High School where he was one of only a few black students. He excelled
academically and was well liked by his classmates, who elected him class
president.
A turning
point in Malcolm X's childhood came in 1939, when his English teacher asked him
what he wanted to be when he grew up and he answered that he wanted to be a
lawyer. His teacher responded, "One of life's first needs is for us to be
realistic. . .you need to think of something you can be. . .why don't you plan
on carpentry?" Having thus been told in no uncertain terms that there was
no point in a black child pursuing education, Malcolm X dropped out of school
the following year, at the age of 15.
After
quitting school, Malcolm X moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister,
Ella, about whom he later recalled, "She was the first really proud black
woman I had ever seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin.
This was unheard of among Negroes in those days." Ella landed Malcolm a
job shining shoes at the Roseland Ballroom. However, out on his own on the
streets of Boston, Malcolm X became acquainted with the city's criminal underground,
soon turning to selling drugs.
He got another job as kitchen help on the Yankee
Clipper train between New York and Boston and fell further into a life of drugs
and crime. Sporting flamboyant pinstriped zoot suits, he frequented nightclubs
and dance halls and turned more fully to crime to finance his lavish lifestyle.
This phase of Malcolm X's life came to a screeching halt in 1946, when he was
arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to ten years in jail.
To pass
the time during his incarceration, Malcolm X read constantly, devouring books
from the prison library in an attempt make up for the years of education he had
missed by dropping out of high school. Also while in prison, he was visited by
several siblings who had joined to the Nation of Islam, a small sect of black
Muslims who embraced the ideology of black nationalism—the idea that in order
to secure freedom, justice and equality, black Americans needed to establish
their own state entirely separate from white Americans. Malcolm X converted to the
Nation of Islam while in prison, and upon his release in 1952 he abandoned his
surname "Little," which he considered a relic of slavery, in favor of
the surname "X"—a tribute to the unknown name of his African
ancestors.
Nation of Islam
Now a
free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked with the
leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, to expand the movement's
following among black Americans nationwide. Malcolm X became the minister of
Temple No. 7 in Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston, while also founding new
temples in Harford and Philadelphia. In 1960, he established a national
newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, in order to further promote the message of
the Nation of Islam.
Articulate,
passionate and a naturally gifted and inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted
blacks to cast off the shackles of racism "by any means necessary,"
including violence. "You don't have a peaceful revolution," he said.
"You don't have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a
nonviolent revolution." Such militant proposals—a violent revolution to
establish an independent black nation—won Malcolm X large numbers of followers
as well as many fierce critics. Due primarily to the efforts of Malcolm X, the
Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from
prison in 1952, to 40,000 members by 1960.
By the
early 1960s, Malcolm X had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of
the Civil Rights Movement, presenting an alternative to Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s vision of a racially integrated society achieved by peaceful means. Dr.
King was highly critical of what he viewed as Malcolm X's destructive
demagoguery. "I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great
disservice," King once said.
Philosophical
differences with King were one thing; a rupture with Elijah Muhammad proved
much more traumatic. In 1963, Malcolm X became deeply disillusioned when he
learned that his hero and mentor had violated many of his own teachings, most
flagrantly by carrying on many extramarital affairs; Muhammad had, in fact,
fathered several children out of wedlock. Malcolm's feelings of betrayal,
combined with Muhammad's anger over Malcolm's insensitive comments regarding
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, led Malcolm X to leave the
Nation of Islam in 1964.
That same
year, Malcolm X embarked on an extended trip through North Africa and the
Middle East. The journey proved to be both a political and spiritual turning
point in his life. He learned to place the American Civil Rights Movement within
the context of a global anti-colonial struggle, embracing socialism and
pan-Africanism. Malcolm X also made the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage
to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during which he converted to traditional Islam and
again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
After his
epiphany at Mecca, Malcolm X returned to the United States less angry and more
optimistic about the prospects for peaceful resolution to America's race
problems. "The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize
that anger can blind human vision," he said. "America is the first
country ... that can actually have a bloodless revolution." Tragically,
just as Malcolm X appeared to be embarking on an ideological transformation
with the potential to dramatically alter the course of the Civil Rights
Movement, he was assassinated.
Death and Legacy
On the
evening of February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where
Malcolm X was about to deliver a speech, three gunmen rushed the stage and shot
him 15 times at point blank range. Malcolm X was pronounced dead on arrival at
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital shortly thereafter. He was 39 years old. The
three men convicted of the assassination of Malcolm X were all members of the
Nation of Islam: Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.
In the
immediate aftermath of Malcolm X's death, commentators largely ignored his
recent spiritual and political transformation and criticized him as a violent
rabble-rouser. However, Malcolm X's legacy as a civil rights hero was cemented
by the posthumous publication in 1965 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As
Told to Alex Haley. At once a harrowing chronicle of American racism, an
unsparing self-criticism and an inspiring spiritual journey, the book,
transcribed by the acclaimed author of Roots, instantly recast Malcolm X as one
of the great political and spiritual leaders of modern times. Named by TIME
magazine one of 10 "required reading" non-fiction books of all-time, The
Autobiography of Malcolm X has truly enshrined Malcolm X as a hero to
subsequent generations of radicals and activists.
Perhaps
Malcolm X's greatest contribution to society was underscoring the value of a
truly free populace by demonstrating the great lengths to which human beings
will go to secure their freedom. "Power in defense of freedom is greater
than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression," he stated. "Because
power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action,
uncompromising action."
In 1958,
Malcolm X married Betty Sanders, a fellow member of the Nation of Islam. The
couple had six children together, all daughters: Attallah (b. 1958), Qubilah
(b. 1960), Ilyasah (b. 1963), Gamilah (b. 1964) and twins Malaak and Malikah
(b. 1965). Sanders later became known as Betty Shabazz, and she became a
prominent civil rights and human rights activist in her own right in the
aftermath of her husband's death.
In May
2013, Malcolm X's grandson, Malcolm Shabazz—son of the civil rights leader's
second daughter with wife Betty Shabazz, Qubilah Shabazz—was beaten to death in
Mexico City, near the Plaza Garibaldi. He was 28 years old. According to a
report by the Los Angeles Times, police believe Malcolm Shabazz's death
was the result of a "robbery gone wrong."
Clancy's comment: Another interesting and influential man in history who died early.
I'm ...
No comments:
Post a Comment