African-American Civil Rights Leader: Malcolm X

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Malcolm X was an influential African-American civil rights leader who sacrificed his life to change the conception of segregation based on race, and influenced people that race and skin colour doesn’t change someone’s abilities and characteristics. He was born on May 19th, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, given his original name, Malcolm Little.
When Malcolm was little, his family was frequently harassed from white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. In Omaha, the local Klan members smashed all their windows, and threatened to murder people in his family. In 1928, the family moved to Lansing, Michigan, and the racism there was even worse. They burned down the family’s house, and the local all-whites police department had refused to do anything, …show more content…

He excelled in school, until one day, when he decided that he wanted to drop out of school. Living with his sister, he found a job, and soon started to sell drugs. Then, he quit his job and started a life of crime.
At age 20 (1946), he was sent to prison for robbery, sentenced to 6 years in jail. Since he missed so many years of education, he spent all his time in jail reading books and studying at the prison library. While in jail, he was visited by his siblings who had joined the Nation of Islam - a group of black muslims who embraced the black nationality, and worked together to obtain freedom, justice and equality. One day, he decided to join the Nation of Islam too.
6 years later (1952), he was released from prison. He met Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, and received the legendary “X” as his last name, since “Little” was his slave name, and “X” signifies his tribal name. He had countless extraordinary ideas, and decided to become a spokesperson. Intelligent and eloquent, Malcolm becomes the minister of the Nation of Islam's temple numbers 11, 7, and 12. "By any means necessary," including violence. "You don't have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as nonviolent revolution." he said. These statements won him massive numbers of followers as well as many indignant