Malcolm X converted to being a Black Muslim in prison. When he was discharged, he immediately gained a status of an influential figure in the Nation of Islam, second to Elijah Muhammad who was a leader. And yet Malcolm X was not able to see himself as a free man. His anti-white beliefs were based upon the function of white men as a symbol of malevolence, and everything he did was to fulfill an obligation of Elijah Muhammad. However, he did not rise up against Elijah Muhammad up to the point when it became clear that he had no alternative left. After all, Muhammad had changed Malcolm X’s life by bringing back his faith. Furthermore, it was not easy for him to contemplate turning away from his own beliefs, especially when he sacrificed many years
During, the fight for civil rights in the late 1950s and 1960s two men stood up to lead the black community to fight for their rights and their equality. In the 1960’s it was a hard time for black Americans to consider themselves as equals due to the laws in the United States of America. The Civil War had stopped slavery but hadn’t stopped discrimination towards blacks. To help their fellow African Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. both wanted to find a way that could and a way that should help all African Americans receive equality in a world where they weren’t wanted.
The way that Malcolm X talked about his religion is that of someone who persecutes everyone around him. The way that he saw everything while he was part of the Black Muslims was only black and white. The Nation of Islam and their leader clearly stated that all white men were devils and as such Christianity was the white man’s religion. It is also stated that everything pure and good was aimed towards those who were black. While the persecution of Christians by the nation of Islam was perfectly fine.
“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem,” remarked Malcolm X in this Letter from Mecca in April of 1964 (“Malcolm, X” 1). For the longest time, Malcolm X believed that there was no way White Americans and African Americans could get along as one. He was against everything Martin Luther King Jr. would preach as a civil rights leader. This letter showed an unbelievable change in the man he was and had been previous to his pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca. Everything he once believed had completely been wiped away.
Malcolm led a group of people through a revolution and changed everyone around him as he went. As he went through this revolution he changed himself too.
After several run-ins with the law, Malcolm was sent to prison for larceny and breaking and entering in 1946. While in prison, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Malcolm X, symbolizing the rejection of his "slave name" and his
As an infant to the man he became, Malcolm X experienced the extreme hardships like being taken away from his family, and only being able to work labor jobs and being a hustler. Malcolm X was sentenced to prison for eight to ten years in 1946. For those 7 years that Malcolm X was in prison he began to become educated and that's when Elijah Muhammad a messenger of the Nation of Islam saved him. Malcolm X took all the events that happened in his life and the lessons he learned from Nation of Islam came all together to create the philosophy he calls “Black Nationalism”. During the time of being separated from his family he saw how the government is unfair to the black community.
While in prison Malcolm spent a majority of his time reading and becoming knowledged in law and other “forensic skills” (Epps). During this time he is frequently visited by his siblings, who had recently converted to the religion of Islam, his brother Reginald was part of the Nation of Islam (NOI)(“Biography”). NOI was a select group of black Muslims who believe in black pride and that to get equality and freedom they must establish their own state, completely separate from the white Americans. While in Prison Malcolm converts to the religion of Islam and joins NOI and shortly before his early release (A & E) changes his last name to X believing that his surname Little was his “slave” name (History.comStaff).
What were Malcolm X’s beliefs? What did he hope to see change, and how for that matter did he believe he could make those changes happen? While analyzing Malcolm X and Black Rage, written by Cornel West, questions such as those are brought to light. Malcolm X’s motives are further explored as author Cornel West goes into depth and critiques Malcolm X’s tactics, such as black rage and psychic conversion, why they were such an important part of his philosophy, and if he believed said tactics were effective.
Philosophical differences between martin luther king and malcolm X The philosophical differences between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X have to do with the their protest strategies. MLK never fought with violence. Although he would get physically attacked, he stood his ground and continued to fight for equality peacefully. King believed that whites and blacks should come together to end the hate and violence.
Malcolm X was a Muslim minister who was also African American. He was a activist for human rights, Malcolm was a bold and courageous spokesperson for blacks to have rights,Malcolm X declared America “white America” to have the most harshest of terms for it’s tenacious treatments against African Americans. In the year 1946, he was sentenced to prison because he was caught breaking and entering. When he was incarcerated, he was chosen to become a member of the Nation of Islam. This is when he changed his birth name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X. Later he had written,”Little was the name that the white slave master … had imposed upon paternal forebears” After his parole in 1952 his popularity grew and became the organization 's most influential leaders, and served as the public face of the controversial group for a dozen years.
Due to Malcolm X’s struggles in his early life, he dealt with an internal anger and resentment towards the white race, which lead to him rebelling and acting out. When Malcolm X was only 6 years old, criminals murdered his father and sparked an internal flame of hatred. His anger convinced him to commit various crimes such as stealing. This acted as a way to rebel against his family and the white community; he would not accept going unnoticed, nor would he accept others as they treated him as inferior. Not only did young Malcolm steal, but he also fought frequently with his family members.
After he went to Mecca his philosophy about the use of violence change after encountering a wide variety of different races who are all Muslim from the places he visited. Malcolm X views of whites had changed because before visiting Mecca, he believed the whites are “devils”, but after he went to Mecca his views on whites had
From the beginning of Malcolm X’s life he saw the injustices in the country of America, he was only a kid innocent to the world around him. His father was supposedly killed in a car accident, but Malcolm and his family believe that he was murdered by the Black Legion, which was a group of white racist. Even worse the officials claimed that his father had committed suicide, which prevented his family from inheriting the life insurance money. Furthermore, in the midst of all this happening to young Malcolm his mother began to go crazy and as a consequence, she got sent to a mental hospital.
Malcolm X, a man born into a time of extreme oppression based on the color of your skin, joined to Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam according to the article of Malcolm X, “an African American
Without Malcolm, the White people would have not favored Martin Luther King Jr. over other Civil Rights leaders. Towards the end of Malcolm’s life, Martin Luther King Jr. began to become more like Malcolm in a militant way. Martin Luther king Jr. “was also re-evaluating his presuppositions and was moving toward a greater understanding of Malcolm X, especially regarding black pride, separatism, and White America’s lack of commitment to genuine black equality” (Cone, 1992, p. 256). These transformations of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas, likely led him to accomplish the revolution of Civil Rights. Although, this is a possibility, it is extremely unrealistic.