Malcolm X And The Civil Rights Movement

With Malcolm's imprisonment ended the acceptance of the ghetto hustler and gangster life. In prison Malcolm had to find a new place to turn for acceptance. As his father did, Malcolm turned to religion. The religion he turned to, The Nation of Islam or more commonly known as the Black Muslims, were a group of African Americans who believed, among other things, that whites were the roots of evil. Malcolm became immersed in his religion. It seeped into every part of his life. "For the next years I was the nearest thing to a hermit in the Norfolk Prison Colony. I have never been more busy in my life" (173). Malcolm wrote many letters to family and friends about his new found faith and , most importantly, he found the acceptance he longed for with the teachings of Mr. Muhammad. This acceptance gave him purpose and after his release Malcolm became one of the foremost representatives of the Nation of Islam.

It would be the time spent in prison that would transform Malcolm and change him from a career criminal to the activist he would later be known as. He visited the prison library and read books on religion, philosophy, and history. He read and copied the entire dictionary acquiring the skills that would make him a powerful public speaker. He dedicated his time in prison to his own personal development and through his brother Reginald learned of the organization known as the Nation of Islam or the Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam is an Islamic religious organization founded by its leader Elijah Muhammad which promoted Black separatism from whites culturally, physically, politically and psychologically. Malcolm began to follow the preachings of Muhammad and practiced the religion devoutly, giving up drug use, alcohol consumption, as well as eating pork.

He started thinking about the world and the society he lives in. He began to question the way things were, and he realized that a change in his life, and in the society was both possible and necessary. Prior to his imprisonment, Malcolm had been enclosed in the world of the hustler, the player, the pimp, the gangster, the parasite, and he couldn¹t imagine him outside of that world. “Reading exposed Malcolm to new worlds; it allowed him to see that there were alternatives to the lifestyle and values of the social parasite” (Shanna). While in prison, Malcolm began to think, and to read. but only after he had been encouraged to do so by someone that he respected and who had taken an unselfish interest in him. “Malcolm was later motivated by a new sense of self-worth and identity and purpose, as his family introduced him to the religious and political philosophy of Islam, as taught by Elijah Muhammad, and practiced by the Nation of Islam (NOI)” (Estate of Malcolm X). 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.

In his autobiography Malcolm X writes,“In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I never will be guilty of that again – as I know now that some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are capable of being brotherly toward a black man. The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites made blanket indictments against blacks”(Haley 369). Malcolm, the spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI), writes this after he has converted from the NOI to Orthodox Sunni Islam. The Nation of Islam strayed very far from traditional Islam, and rather than promoting peace, it promoted hatred against the white man. Malcolm’s conversion

Malcolm X was born in Omaha on May 19, 1925 as Malcolm Little to Reverend Earl Little and Louise Little. Malcolm’s father was a Baptist minister and a committed organizer for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) . Garvey believed that the black race should remain pure and return to the homeland (Africa) . Malcolm’s father’s involvement led to two of their houses being burned down by Ku Klux Klan members. At age six, Malcolm’s father was killed by Ku Klux Klan members. After, his father’s death his mother was soon pronounced paranoid and the kids were split up . At age twenty, Malcolm began serving six and a half years in prison for larceny. In prison, he read history, philosophy, religion, about the life of Gandhi, and Nat Turner. He also read the works of W.E.B. DuBois, Shakespeare, and Socrates. It was in prison that he found out about Islam through his brother who became a member of the Nation of Islam. Once released Malcolm joined the nation of Islam and became Malcolm X . Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam, took Malcolm under his wing. Soon, Malcolm worked to expand the black Islamic community and even became of the most important temple on the east coast, Temple No. 7 in Harlem . Later on, Malcolm had become very expressive about civil rights during his speeches and they were not often centered around religion. This angered Elijah Muhammad and caused them to drift. Malcolm soon left the Nation of Islam and created his own religious organization called the Muslim Mosque Inc. for his followers. This caused the Nation of Islam to become even more upset with Malcolm. Later more conflicts arose between the two groups. On February 21, 1965 Malcolm was assassinated by three Black Muslims before delivering a speech in Harlem .

During this time he was visited by his sisters who had joined a Islam group of Black Muslims. They introduced him to this small sect of black Muslims it was then that he discovered Elijah Muhammad and was interested in his claim that “the white man was the devil”. He wanted to know more about this group and so he started corresponding with Elihaj Muhammad who gave him spiritual advice. As he started to listen to Elihaj’s teachings, Malcolm wanted to know more, his need for knowledge grew and he decided to empower himself. He did this by reading every book in the prison library related to philosophy, history, literature, and science. He was so busy learning that time flew by and He later said, "Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life." By the time he left prison, He had changed his name from Malcolm little to Malcolm X, he did this because the last name little was given to his family in the slave trade and it was not his real last

He was sentenced to 8 years in Massachusetts State Prison. His education had come to an abrupt halt due to his life of crime. In jail, Malcolm used his sentence to gain a Master’s degree. Malcolm’s brother visited and discussed his recent conversion to the Nation of Islam, a Black nationalist organisation which used Islam to deal with the hardships of White supremacy in North America. Curious to find out more, Malcolm studied the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm underwent a transformation in prison. He learnt the value of knowledge; Malcolm famously said “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare it for

Malcolm made more speeches in America and around the world which he was helpful to join all the people around the world to fight for freedom. Malcolm has been distancing himself with his family while he is with Elijah Mohamed and his ideologies fate. Malcolm cannot stand anymore dividing the black nation and he chose to break with Elijah Mohamed. However, Malcolm comeback for his community and stand with black people while he also got more experience about different culture, customer and fate. Malcolm tour to Mecca, travels to Africa, and Black immigrant people in London. Malcolm broke up with Elijah Nation of Islam also he visited in Britain.

In written passages before Malcolm's breakup with the Nation of Islam, he is known as a dedicated, servant of his people, devoted to freeing the black man from the white "devils." To Malcolm, Elijah Muhammad was his personal savior. It was primarily he who lifted Malcolm out of the depths of ignorance and crime while in prison. From this point in time, he was then known as clearly perfect. Muhammad slowly built up the membership of the Black Muslims through assiduous recruitment in the postwar decades. His program called for the establishment of a separate nation for black Americans and the adoption of a religion based on the worship of Allah and on the belief that blacks are his chosen people. Muhammad became known especially for his flamboyant

Despite his dismal upbringing, Malcolm was able to graduate from his junior high school at the top of his class. He was aspiring to become a lawyer, but after one of his teachers told him that trying to be one was, "no realistic goal for a nigger", he decided that school was not for him and moved to Boston for awhile and made a living working a number of jobs, none of which were permanent. Eventually he would find himself working as a waiter at a restaurant called Small's Paradise in Harlem, New York. It was at this time that Malcolm Little began using and then selling drugs and even committing burglary. In 1946 he would be arrested for burglary and sentenced to ten years in prison. It was during his stay at the Charlestown, Mass. Prison that he would make maybe the most significant change of his life. Malcolm would begin studying the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of a small cult-like Islamic group that called themselves the Nation of Islam, he also began to study the Koran (the Islamic holy book). It was during these long years in prison that Malcolm was able to educate himself fully and came to the conclusion that he wanted to join Elijah and the Nation of Islam and fight for equality between blacks and whites.

Malcolm graduated the eighth grade, but by the age of fifteen he dropped out of school and began running the streets. Malcolm began to make friends with drug dealers, thieves, and pimps. By the age of twenty, Malcolm was convicted of burglary, he then served seven years in prison. While in prison Malcolm, furthered his education. During his prison time, his brother Reginald would visit and discuss his recent encounters with the Muslim religion. His brother Reginald belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam. By the time Malcolm was released from prison, he had undergone a transformation from a criminal to a religious priest, for the Nation of Islam. Malcolm had become a student of Elijah Mohammed teachings. Through these teachings Malcolm developed individual views about race in America and around the world. The more Malcolm learned about the teachings, the more he despised white citizens and he blamed them for the struggle of African Americans.

Malcolm Little was born in Omaha Nebraska. He was put in jail for 6 years, because of suspected theft. After he was release he joined the group called Nation of Islam. He followed Elijah Muhammad as an apprentice. After his studies in 1952 he was appointed a new name MalcolmX. The “X” stands for the lost tribute name. He thought the last name “Little” was a slave name. He was appointed minister and spokesman by Muhammad because of his high energy. Since he was appointed the number of people in the group shot up from 500 to 30,000 in a 1-year gap.

In Malcolm’s younger years he was quite a different type of person. At the time he was a drug dealer and though he sold drug he used them himself. He was doing petty robberies in other cities, but he was imprisoned for committing another crime. While in jail he went from being an young atheist drug dealer and addict to a proud member of the Nation of Islam. It was his brother Reginald that occasionally visited him. Each time he would tell Malcolm

Malcolm X was a leader who, was the spokesman for the Nation of Islam, an African American political and religious movement, embraced the "Black Power" philosophy. Malcolm Little was born May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, the fourth of seven children. His Father was a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and his mother served as secretary and "branch reporter", sending news of local UNIA activities to Negro World, a weekly newspaper established in New York, they inculcated self-reliance and black pride in their children. Malcolm X later said that white violence killed three of his father 's brothers. Because of Ku Klux Klan threats his family relocated in 1926 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and shortly thereafter to Lansing, Michigan. There the family was frequently harassed by the Black Legion, a white racist group. When Little was six, his father died in was believed that that Black Legion murdered him. Rumors that white racists were responsible for his father 's death were widely circulated, and were very disturbing to Malcolm X as a child. As an adult, he expressed conflicting beliefs on the question. In late 1938, Malcolm’s mother was sent to a mental hospital after she had a nervous breakdown, which resulted in Malcolm and his siblings going to a foster home. In the history of the Civil Rights Movement Malcolm X was involved in the most important actions in the realm of politics through embodying the Nation of Islam and encouraging his people to not

Malcolm was fighter for what he believed in,When he was in 8th grade, he got his first job shinning shoes. Soon enough he was out on the streets doing drugs, gambling. Malcolm got bad into coke around the time he moved to Harlem new york. shortly after he went to jail, his brother taught him about the Nation of Islam.soon he converted over to the NOI, when he got out of prison he moved to Detroit to start recruiting others for this new organization in 1953 Malcolm adapted the NOIs tradition of replacing ones last name with the letter X, He filled the void of earls death when he became the spokesperson