Malcolm X whose real name was Malcolm Little was mainly as a black American minister mostly remembered for his unending fight for equal treatment in the United States in the 1960s. As a Muslim minister, he would charge the white supremacists very harshly for any conduct suggesting racial discrimination.
Malcolm Little was born in the year 1925 in Omaha to Earl Little and Louise Norton as the fourth child in a family of seven children. His father was a black and his mother of Swedish origin thus could be easily confused for a white. Malcolm inherited his light skin color from his mother. In the year 1929, his family was forced to relocate after their home was burnt. His father accused the white supremacies of the act and only a few months later, he was run over by a car. His death was attributed to the same white supremacy group.
After his father’s death at such a tender age, Malcolm and his fellow siblings were left under the care of their mother who tried to provide for the family. It is at this time that Malcolm learnt of the racial discrimination that existed in America at that time. His family was regularly harassed by the White supremacy group which believed that the blacks were no equal beings to them (Karim, 16). In fact, they even deprived his family their rightful benefits after his father’s death in the year 1929. Only one of his life assurance policies was approved and processed. The major assurance policy was rejected. The police even went to a point of even claiming that Earl’s death was just an accident whereas the circumstances surrounding his death indicated that the accident was well planned since there was no case to seek just for the bereaved family.
Malcolm grew witnessing all these and at the age of thirteen years, his mother went insane and had to be admitted in a mental hospital. This left the family with nobody to look after it. The siblings were taken to orphanages where they spent their life without any parent. Without any other word about their mother, Malcolm spent his later life as an orphan only to secure his mother’s release from the mental hospital twenty four years later.
In some of his quiet moments and self evaluations, he found that his father was very fond of him among his siblings. This was due to his light skin (wikipedia.org). Contrary to this his mother appeared excessively harsh on him for the same reason. He didn’t know his skin color could later have unforgettable implications on his life.
In his junior high school, he was one of the best students but one of his teachers told him that his aspiration of becoming a lawyer was an unrealistic dream for a black student. This was very humiliating to him for he viewed this as an insinuation that there is nothing good for the blacks in America. He dropped out of school and in the year 1943, he enrolled from military service. After being in service for only a few months, his white seniors dismissed him from service claiming that he was mentally insane thus unfit for military service. This was after they made fun of him by saying that he would steal guns for the blacks and use them to kill the whites.
After dismissal from military service, he gathered some other black youths and they began robbery targeting the wealthy white families. This offence made him to be sent to prison in the year 1945. In prison, he joined a Muslim movement and due to his intelligence, it took him a short duration to be chosen as the leader.
Upon his release in the year 1952, he was a completely changed man and his second name changed from little to X which he was told was a Muslim representation of an African name that he himself never knew.
Achievements of Malcolm X
After his release, he visited Elijah Muhammad in Chicago where he (Malcolm) was appointed to act as an assistant minister in June 1953. Soon afterwards, he was appointed to serve as a full time minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number One in Detroit. Towards the end of 1953, he was able to establish Boston’s temple number eleven. With that as his base of operation, he expanded temple number twelve to Pennsylvania by March 1954. Two months later, he was elected to lead the temple number seven at Harlem where he rapidly expanded its membership (Karim, 42).
Having being a communist opposed to the war in North Korea, the FBI saw Malcolm as s threat to the national peace. By the year 1955, Malcolm had managed to recruit many African Americans into the national Islam association.
His first main public appearance was when a case of police brutality on four Islam was reported to him. He matched to the police station where the four were being held and demanded their justice and release. After a man named Hilton was treated and returned to the police station, National Islam members started gathering in the police station and the officers realized that a riot would easily occur thus they called for backup. After some negotiations, two of the detained Muslims were released but Hilton was to be released after being arrayed in court the following day. With a hand signal, Malcolm was able to calm the crowd which had grown to about four thousands who dispersed. The police were alarmed and even claimed that no single man should have such power (wikipedia.org).
This put him on a limelight and the whole security system set its eyes on him. After the unfair treatment of Hilton in his case against the police, Malcolm wrote a telegram to the police commissioner who reacted to it by introducing some spies in the National Islam Association to spy on Malcolm (Karim, 48).
The cause of his assassination
In the year 1959, he had gained enough popularity in is locality and he was exceedingly persuasive to his listeners. On one occasion when Fidel Castro (the president of Cuba at the time) even held a private meeting with him. He invited Malcolm to visit him in Cuba and later Malcolm attended many functions which involved many African leaders. This increased the hate that the Whites had on him.
In most of his lectures, he often described the Africans as the only superior race and the whites are devils thus the Africans should use all possible means to protect themselves from the devils even if it meant violence. He argued that the Africans should be secluded from the devils and given an interim country before returning to Africa. These words made the white much afraid since anything could happen. This made him to be termed a war monger who should not be listened to. With his influential nature, the government saw him a threat thus planned to assassinate him. It is believed that the government organized his assassinations following the security threats that were present at that time (wikipedia.org). He was assassinated on February 21 1965 bringing to an end the famous Malcolm X. he was married and had six daughters (wikipedia.org).
In conclusion, Malcolm can be viewed as an Afro-American who was charismatic enough to oppose the whites. His pain which appears to be deep rooted against the whites may be attributed to the hostile environment that he grew up in. though he was influencing the blacks into violence in pursuit for freedom, he made it possible for the black Americans to be treated with some more respect than it was initially and also made the American hatred for Muslim become significant.
Works cited.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X#cite_note-Perry165-65.
Karim M. Malcolm X on Afro-American History. New York: Merit Publishers, 1967
