Malcolm X Was Born Malcolm Little

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Malcolm X

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Introduction

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on 19th may 1925 in Omaha in Nebraska. His parents were Louise Little, a homemaker and Earl Little, a preacher. He was a great crusader against racial discrimination by fighting for rights of blacks. His life from birth to assassination revolved around many cases of racial discrimination and violence. His father Earl was a Christian preacher and a supporter of Marcus Garvey who was a Black Nationalist leader. Because of his support for black people’s rights and activism, he faced together with his family a lot of harassment from groups like Ku Klux Klan who were white supremacists. The harassment increased, and he decided to move with his family from Omaha to East Lansing, but the harassment did not stop. In 1931, however, after several death threats, his dead body was discovered on the towns trolley trucks. It was believed that he was killed by black legionnaires who were white supremacists. The police, however, officially declared the cause of his death to be suicide, exclusion under the insurance policy which he had so as to avoid his family from being compensated. His death caused so much grief to his wife Louise that she was committed to a mental hospital for twenty-six years (X, Malcolm, Alex Haley, and Gary Younge, 45-49).

Malcolm X attended West junior school, a school where all the other students were white except him. He was a darling of the other students and even elected a class leader even though he felt that they did not treat them well. He also encountered discrimination from his teacher when he said he wanted to be a lawyer when he grows up. The teacher told him that a black person cannot achieve that, and so he should be more realistic and should think of becoming a carpenter. This discouraged him and made him drop out of school the next year.

Malcolm then moved to Boston where he stayed with his half sister. He started small jobs, and while there he engaged with criminal gangs and turned to crime and cocaine. He was later arrested and sentenced for burglary. While, in prison, he started reading to cover up for what he missed when he left school prematurely. He also converted to Islam while in prison and the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad teachings stressed how white men have written history leaving out the blacks to the detriment of the blacks. He said that the whites worked to ensure that the blacks never get economically empowered. This made Muhammad’s teaching be liked by the blacks (Benson, Michael, and Martha Cosgrove. 32-36).

Malcolm X was released from prison in 1952. This is when he abandoned his name Little, a practice that was common with many blacks who felt some of their surnames had a slavery connotation and took up "X" in tribute to his African ancestors. He went to Detroit and continued working with the head of Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad. He became a leader and a preacher of Nation of Islam and helped convert many African Americans to the organization and established new temples. He helped the membership of the Nation of Islam from about four hundred only by the time he joined to more than forty thousand eight years later in 1960.

Malcolm married Betty Sanders in 1958 and had children with her. He had maintained celibacy before marrying her as per the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. He was greatly shocked in 1963 when he learned that Muhammad had not heed the teachings he was given. He was involved in many extra marital affairs and had even fathered children with some of those women. This brought a conflict between the two as Malcolm X refused to defend and cover up the affairs of Elijah as Malcolm X felt it was a big letdown. Around the same time, Malcolm made comments after John F Kennedy was assassinated which Muhammad felt insensitive. This made Muhammad suspend Malcolm for a period of ninety days from Nation of Islam. Malcolm X felt that there was more to it than just the comment against John F Kennedy and so he resigned from the House of Islam and formed his own organization and named it Organization of Afro-American Unity to fight for people’s rights and another, Muslim mosque Inc which was a religious one (Ovenden, 95).

Later on, he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On his way, he went through North Africa and Middle East. Enroute through Africa, he learnt about Pan-Africanism and socialism, which showed him how he should fight for the rights of the black Americans, in line with the global anti colonial struggle ideas. During the Hajj in Mecca, he converted to traditional Islam and changed his name for a second time, now being referred to as El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz.

After visiting Mecca, he returned to the United States to continue fighting for human rights for all. This time, however, he had abandoned his calls for separation of the whites from the blacks and was now preaching for brotherhood and peaceful revolution. His popularity began to grow, and so members of the nation of Islam where he once belonged before parting ways with Muhammad, felt that he was becoming more popular than Elijah Muhammad. As the tension between him and nation of Islam increased, so did the threats to his life. The nation of Islam also sued and succeeded in claiming Malcolm X’s residence in Queens. Just before a hearing date to extend the postponement date of vacating the house, the house was burned down but no one was charged for the crime. He was assassinated on 21st February 1965, by being shot several times as he was about to address people in Manhattan. The three gunmen who were involved and who were later charged with the crime of assassinating Malcolm X were all members of Nation of Islam, the organization where he initially belonged to but where there had developed disagreements. He was buried at Ferncliff cemetery after a well attended burial ceremony which was even broadcast on a local television station (Ovenden, 107-112).

After the assassination of Malcolm X, the reactions to his death were varied. Most people did not recognize his recently changed approach of handling the fight for the rights, which was less separatist but which was now preaching brotherhood. They continued to relate him with his old ways of separation. There were others, however, like Martin Luther King Jr who felt that even if they had a different view points on how to handle the tribulations facing the blacks, he was passionate about his fight against discrimination that was very rampant.

On who was responsible for his death, a conclusion has never been arrived at. Elijah Muhammad denied that Nation of Islam were responsible. This is even after three of the group members were sued and jailed for the offence. Local drug dealers were also accused of being the ones who assassinated Malcolm. There is also another theory put forward regarding his death. It is said that government agents such as the FBI or the CIA could have been responsible. This was because the National Secretary of the Nation of Islam, John Ali was an FBI undercover agent and was trying to bring disharmony between Malcolm X and the leader of Nation of Islam. This was a strategy used by the FBI to infiltrate and disrupt civil right activists groups at the time (X, Malcolm, et al, 45-49).

Malcolm X did not write any publication while alive but made many speeches with some having been recorded. His autobiography as published in 1965 depicts him as one of the greatest influencers of political and spiritual fighters of the human rights for all. He is a hero who spent much of his life fighting for the privileges of the black people who were being discriminated against by the whites. His method was not always favorite to all others, nor did it agree with the methods applied by some other activists fighting for the same course. Some were trying to use a pacifying and integration message while Malcolm X wanted separation of the blacks from the whites who were being denied their human rights. He believed that that black people were the original inhabitants of the world while the whites are devils. He also felt that Islam was the religion of the black people and claimed that Christianity was a white man’s religion. He, however, remains an icon in the history of fighting for human rights and will always be remembered for that.