Malcolm X Biography

Malcolm Little was born on May 19th, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. He later change his name to Malcolm X. He took the name "Malcolm X" to signify the loss of his true African name and to reject the "slave name" of Little. Malcolm was the seventh of his father's nine children three by a previous marriage and his mother's fourth child. Although the Little family was poor, they were self-sufficient. His family moved several times because of racism, they moved from Omaha, Nebraska, after being threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, a group that believes that white people are superior to all other races. Malcolm X was a huge player in the civil rights battle that faced the United States in the 1960’s. He was a reformed drug addict and criminal, who after
his conversion to Islam, climbed the ranks of the Nation of Islam to become one of its most influential and controversial members.
Like every single other young black, he felt the pain of segregation, Malcolm strongly looked for a change. He knew that something was on, he knew that something have to be done, and he also knew that he could do something but he was not quite clear. In Malcolm X's childhood, 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?" When he eventually decided to read law in order to acquire a basic education for his path. His father Earl Little, preacher and an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s universal Negro Improvement Association was murdered. Left his mother Louise Little to care for the children. Unable to handle with the financial and emotional demands of single parenthood, she was placed in a mental institution, and the children were sent to separate foster homes. Because of his father’s death X becomes financially unstable that cut short his dream of going to the university. He became ruthless, a burglar, and an armed robbery and so on all targeted at the whites, it was his own way of living his childhood dream. Malcolm's disobedient behavior toward authority remained a problem, and at thirteen, he was sent to the Michigan State Detention Home, bound for reform school. Malcolm was arrested in early 1946 and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Another convict, introduced him to the prison's extensive library, and Malcolm became a reader. Malcolm X who went in as a thug developed a great force of change to awaken the mind. Malcolm’s brother came to visit him and told him about the Nation of Islam. He became very interested and studied the teachings of the Islam Nation. In 1952 he was paroled and devoted himself the Islam Nation. Malcolm X converted to the Black Muslim faith (Nation of Islam) and changed his name to Malcolm X when he was release in 1952 he met the Nation’s leader, Elijah Muhammad, who sent him on speaking tours endorsing the nation’s separatist views, including the use of violence for self-defense. X believed that every black person would settle to Muhammad's teachings, for "when he thinks about his own life, he is going to see where, to him personally, the white man sure has acted like a devil." (Alex Haley) He also allowed Malcolm to build new mosques in cities such as Detroit, Michigan, and Harlem, New York. Malcolm used the newspapers, television, and word of mouth to spread the Muslim message to
others.
In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty Sanders, a follower of the Nation of Islam. The couple had six children together, all daughters: Attallah born in 1958, Qubilah born in 1960, Ilyasah born in 1963, Gamilah born in 1964 and twins Malaak and Malikah born in 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 (Betty Shabazz Biography).
Malcolm ended his relation with the Islam Nation, he felt betrayed when he learned that his hero and mentor had violated many of his own teachings he found out that Elijah Muhammad was secretly having extramarital affairs relations with six different women, some of which resulted in children. Around the same time Malcolm founded the Muslim Mosque INC. Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. This journey changed Malcolm’s views on the world. During the visit he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He stated “blonde haired, blued eyed men I could call my brother”. Before when Malcolm was with the Nation of Islam, they felt the white man and their society worked to keep blacks from making themselves more powerful and achieving political power, economic,
Malcolm was not a man who believed that the problem of the African in the united states would be solved through a nonviolent method, he believes the problem has proceeded through the centuries and has come to a stage when the declaration of African Americans’ existence as humans has to be forcefully done or never. His methods were mainly campaigns and speeches aimed at restoring the dignity of the black man, his confidence in himself and a complete freedom as Americans. In one of his speeches in the street corner rallies, Malcolm told people in Harlem, “We are black first and everything else second”. (Salzman) Malcolm encouraged his audience to take pride in their Africa Heritage and to consider prepared for self-protection rather than relying only on non-violence. In short, to break free of white supremacy “by any means necessary”. (x)This clearly represents an extremist position. In his bestselling “Autobiography of Malcolm X’ he confessed that his position was extremist.
After his journey to Mecca, Malcolm X returned to the United States less angry and more positive 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

In conclusion we learned a lot from Malcolm X.
he is an incredibly powerful man that came from Nothing to become one of the most influential and controversial men in the history of the United States. Malcolm X was a very strong activist for the equality of African Americans in the United States. Later in his life he became a strong advocate for the rights of all people no matter the color of their skin. Malcolm stood up for what he believed in no matter who tried to fight the message he was trying to spread to the world. He constantly faced harsh conditions including drugs, prison, bad press, and the loss of the man he believed in the most, Elijah Muhammad, even of all his hatred yet he continued to tell his message to anyone who would hear
it.