Malcolm X example essay topic

The civil rights movement was a very grueling period in American history, this period promoted social and economic independence for blacks. In order to unite and to better spread the messages of the civil rights movement to other blacks throughout the country many black organizations choose leaders with powerful speaking skills to spread there messages. One of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement was a young Muslim preacher by the name of Malcolm X. Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, the son of Louise and Earl Little of Omaha, Nebraska. Louise Little was a mulatto born in Grenada in the British West Indies. And Earl Little was a Baptist minister and organizer for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. Louise, his second wife, bore six children: Wilfred, Hilda, P hilbert, Malcolm, Yvonne, and Reginald.

Earl Little also had three children by a first wife: Ella, Earl, and Mary. Little had migrated with his family from Philadelphia to the midwest, first to Milwaukee, then Omaha, and finally to East Lansing, Mich. In 1929 the family house was burned down, by white supremacists. After Earl Little died in 1931 in a streetcar accident, Malcolm's mother eventually had a mental breakdown and entered an inside asylum. The siblings were dispersed to other families. Malcolm lived with a foster family before moving to Roxbury, Mass., in 1941 to live with a half sister, Ella Collins.

A few months after his arrival in Roxbury, a predominantly black section of Boston, Malcolm dropped out of school (having completed eight grade) and took a job as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom in Boston's Back Bay section. A career as a hustler seemed a more tempting option, and he was soon selling narcotics. Roxbury proved to be too small for him, and in 1942 he took a job as a railroad dining-car porter, working out of Roxbury and Harlem. Settling in Harlem, he became involved in robbery, prostitution, and narcotics. After a year in Harlem Malcolm was officially initiated into hustler society.

He returned to Boston in 1945 after a falling out with another hustler, and continued a life of crime, forming his own house robbing gang. He was arrested for robbery in February 1946, and was convicted and sentenced to prison for seven years. While in prison, Malcolm became a follower of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of a small, urban cult, the Nation of Islam, with branches in Detroit, Chicago, and New York. Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad corresponded by mail. Malcolm's brother Reginald and half sister Ella, visiting him in prison, urged him to join Muhammad's cult, and while still in prison he did.

He discarded his 'slave name,' Little, and was assigned the new name 'X'. His conversion let him to greater literacy, immersion in the Que " an (Koran), strict adherence to the Nation of Islam's dietary laws, and what was to be a lifelong interest in ideas. After his parole in 1952, Malcolm X undertook organizational work for the Nation of Islam under the guidance of Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm founded mosques in Boston, Philadelphia, Harlem, and elsewhere and was credited with the national expansion of the movement, the membership of which evidently reached approximately 30,000 by 1963.

Malcolm X came to broad public notice as result of a July 13-17, 1959, television special with Mike Wallace called The Hate That Hate Produced, which told the story of Malcolm X's emergence as one of the most important leaders of the Nation of Islam. The program also brought the Nation of Islam to the attention of the American public. Further, Malcolm X's vision was expressed in speeches, a newspaper column (first in Harlem's Amsterdam News and later moved to the Los Angeles Herald Dispatch), and thru radio and television interviews. In addition, he helped found the Black Muslim newspaper Muhammad Speaks. Partly because of tensions within the Black Muslim movement, Malcolm became critical of Elijah Muhammad. He was eventually 'silenced,' for 90 days after commenting on the assassination of Pres.

John F. Kennedy. But before his silence was lifted, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam to form the Muslim Mosque, Inc. (March 1964). He began to articulate a more secular black nationalism, arguing that blacks should control the politics within their own community and, through his speeches, encouraging his followers to use the ballot to effect change. Malcolm X described the next stage of his personal evolution in a speech entitled 'The Bullet or the Ballot,' in which he attempted to stake out a role for himself in the civil rights movement. He with other black nationalists, he added 'black is beautiful' themes to he's rhetoric.

He continued to stress self-reliance, one of the core values of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X went on his obligatory (for orthodox Muslims) pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and there began to consider changing his views toward integration. Afterward he was, if anything, more ambiguous about the outcome of the race struggle in the United States, and he left open the possibility that some whites could contribute to the struggle. After the pilgrimage he adopted the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shab azz. On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was fatally shot while giving a speech in New York City. The reason for the assassination has not yet been definitely established.

Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted in March 1966 of first degree murder: Talmadge Hayes, Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson. Malcolm's views reached many people after his death through his Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). Malcolm X had a major impact on the civil rights movement. Malcolm will always be remembered for spreading a message that was contrary to other black leaders at the time, how his view and opinions were perceived by whites and the media, and by the lasting effect he had on African Americans. The most noticeable trait that separated Malcolm from the other black leaders at the time was his involvement in the Nation of Islam. An organization which taught self-help and personal responsibility.

Which at the time believed that "Christianity was a way for whites to deceive and brainwash Negroes to turn the other cheek, grin, bow, be humble, to sing, to play, and to take whatever that was dished out by the devilish white man". While Martin Luther King captured the spirit of southern blacks, Malcolm became the messiah of the ghettos of Harlem, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. While most black leaders working the civil rights movement to integrate blacks into America, Malcolm preached the opposite. He maintained that Western culture, and the Je do-Christian traditions ton which it was based was inherently racist. Constantly attacking mainstream civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Malcolm declared that nonviolence was the philosophy of the fool. In response to King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Malcolm quipped "While King was having a dream the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare". Malcolm believed that black people must develop their own society and ethical values, including self-help and community based enterprises that the black Muslims supported. Although Malcolm's words were painfully true, he will probably be best remembered by whites and the media for his fiery anti-white man speeches. He expressed thru many of his speeches that the white man down through history, out of his devilish nature had pillaged, murdered, raped, and exploited every race of man not white. Malcolm fell under his heaviest when he made a statement about the assignation of U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

Saying that the president assignation was "The chickens coming home to roost" -a repayment for America's continuing failure to end racial cruelty and hatred. This comment, often taken out of context, was not meant to be disrespectful to the late president (Although Malcolm had little respect or admiration for any white leader). Rather he was trying to make the point that the violent treatment of blacks had now come back to "roost" with violence against a white president. While under he watchful eye of the American public Malcolm tried to share his opinions about how white people cut black people off from all knowledge of their own kind, and cut them off from any knowledge of their own language, religion, and past culture until the black man in America was the earths only race of people who had absolutely no knowledge of his true identify.

At the height of his powers Malcolm X was one of Black Americas most compelling voices. He had enormous influence among black youth and in progressive intellectual circles. He traveled widely in Europe and Africa, modeling his Organization of Afro-American Unity after the Organization of African Unity. He saw the black American struggle partly as an extension of the effort of third world nations for human rights. Although now dead, Malcolm is larger in death than he was alive. Showing that' his words and actions had an immense effect on the lives of countless Americans, black and whites alike.

Inspiring people with his personal journey from petty criminal to world renown spiritual leader. And be also transforming himself from a preacher of racial hatred to an advocate of international brotherhood. Malcolm tried by all means to get blacks to start educating themselves, so that they could be able to see all the crimes that were committed against them by whites. He sparked a flame within blacks using his clever examples and quotes, to get them to see the big picture of what was really going on in America.

Malcolm did a lot to bring the Muslim religion to the attention of the America. The one time Nation of Islam member, who called whites devils, became a Sunni Muslim (orthodox Muslim) embracing all people as brothers. Malcolm X has made a huge contribution to the civil rights movement, even though he went thru a radical transformation during his lifetime. But still through all the adversity he faced in his life, his legacy lives on.

Malcolm will always be remembered in history for having a message different to other black leaders, how he was viewed by whites and the media, and the lasting effect he had on African Americans..