Malcolm X
Malcolm
X (real name: Malcolm Little) was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha,
Nebraska. He was also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He was an
African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. His
admirers call him a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man
who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against
black Americans. He has been called one of the greatest and most
influential African Americans in history.
Childhood
Malcolm
Little was born to mother Louise Little and father Earl Little. When
Little was 6, his father was killed in a street car accident, which was
rumored to be an act by white racists. Malcolm X later said that
violence by whites killed three of his father's brothers.
Education
Malcolm
Little excelled in junior high school but dropped out after a white
teacher told him that practicing law, his aspiration at the time, was
"no realistic goal for a nigger". In his later life Malcolm X has kept
on mentioning his feeling that the white world offered no place for a
career-oriented black man, regardless of talent.
Career
From
age 14 to 21, Malcolm X stayed in Roxbury, a largely African-American
neighborhood of Boston. He took up a variety of jobs there. In 1943, he
moved to New York where he got engaged in drug dealing, gambling,
racketeering, robbery, and pimping. He tried to enter into the military
but was declared "mentally disqualified for military service".
He
was arrested in 1946 and was sent to Charlestown State Prison for 8-10
years for larceny and breaking and entering. After his parole in 1952,
he became active with the activities of “Nation of Islam” – a group
formed to bring African Americans at equal rights with White Americans.
He was responsible to increase the followers of this group and spread
its teachings. Because of internal issues he left the group in 1964 and
went ahead to form Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and
the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a secular group that advocated
Pan-Africanism.
In
April 1964, Malcolm X gave a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet",
in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote
wisely but cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African
Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them
to take up arms.
At the End
On
February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was preparing to address the Organization
of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in
the 400-person audience rushed forward and shot him once in the chest,
two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. He was
pronounced dead at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
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