ipl-logo

How Did Billy Joel's Song 'We Didn T Start The Fire'

961 Words4 Pages

Billy Joel’s song “We didn't start the fire” is a song easily recognizable by Americans. The song written by the self taught historian references many national and international events taking place in the mid-to-late 1900’s along with the chorus which states Americans have always had a fire burning within them throughout history. As the song lists the events that shaped the world, one leader with a self started fire is mentioned: Malcolm X. The fire he started lasted from his birth to his death and left a somewhat inspiring legacy for newer generations.
Malcolm Little was born into a family who had already ignited a fire within the civil rights movement. His father, Earl Little, had been an involed member of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro …show more content…

14). Once he returned to America, his spiritual journey became public as he became the second most famous speaker in the United States in 1963 (“Facts” par. 10). X established an argument of civil rights which was extremely radical compared to Martin Luther King Jr. While King advocated for only peaceful protests, X was willing to end racism “by any means necessary,” including violence which was stated in his infamous speech, “The Ballot or The Bullet” (“Malcolm” par. 11). X began to spread his beliefs through his organization of “Afro-American Unity” which was created with ties to the nation of islam to help defend the rights of all Africans (Myers page 158). The goal of the Organization of Afro-American Unity was to eliminate racism throughout society and economically progress. The organization only allowed people of African descent to join and donate. X taught his followers followers to stand up to racial slurs and even become violent when needed to show that the group was willing to eliminate oppression at any cost (Naoman par.

Show More
Related
192 Words | 1 Pages

We didn’t start the fire by Billy Joel is a famous American song about what was happening in America and around the world from the forties to the nineties. He starts with the forties talking about Harry Truman and red China, then in the fifties with Richard Nixon who was a big part of the fifties, North Korea, Eisenhower, Elvis Presley, Alabama and the Montgomery bus boycott, Little Rock. Then the sixties with Bob Dylan, the Berlin wall, Malcolm X, JFK blown away when the president was assassinated, Moonshot, with apollo 11 being the first lunar landing. The seventies with the watergate scandal, and Ronald Reagan wins his second presidency. The eighties were about the Homeless vets and AIDS which was making its way on becoming a pandemic.

Read More
1450 Words | 6 Pages

Notoriously, Martin Luther King Jr. has been the name of the civil rights movement, the one we all look up to in terms of the end of segregation. But, this respectable man was not the only one to take action in the name of equality, as another infamous speaker, Malcolm X, also drove the civil rights movement in a way of ferociousness and rage. This man, the head of the Black Nationalist movement, gave phenomenal speeches that indirectly propelled the civil rights movement, including Prospects For Freedom, By Any Means Necessary, and Message to the Grassroots. Malcolm X was a man who was an illustrious black nationalist, and was the speaker for the Nation of Islam. He often preached controversial things that regularly contrasted him with Dr.

Read More
1072 Words | 5 Pages

This journal article belabours the point that is also a common theme in “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”: Malcolm’s changing views on civil rights. Again as a result of his tumultuous childhood because of the “white man”, Malcolm generalizes all white people as essentially haters of blacks because of the negative experiences he’s had with them and the tragic ways they treated him. But, as he grows older and matures, Malcolm has the eye-opening experience of seeing people of all colors worship next to each other. This is an interaction between blacks and whites that creates a positive environment as an outcome.

Read More
834 Words | 4 Pages

Imagine living in a world of segregation - constantly judged by color of one’s skin and not being permitted to associate with the “superior” race. From slavery to discrimination, African-Americans experienced this horror in daily life since the beginning of their existence. Due to the fear of severe punishment, blacks were scared to fight for equality; however, on April 3, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, one brave soul finally did. His name was Malcolm Little (known as Malcolm X), a widely acknowledged human rights activist. Although he supported black equality, he attacked the problem unlike others such as Martin Luther King Jr. did.

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

Another method of the White Citizen’s Council was to discredit the NAACP by calling them communists. Being a communist in america was socially unacceptable, therefore being accused of holding communist ideals was a sin. Many northern members left the NAACP. Instead of desegregating schools, some school districts just closed them. White officials would have rather had no schools then to integrate them.

Read More
2619 Words | 11 Pages

There are many ways that people portray and view Malcolm X but most importantly, people regard him as a true visionary, an exemplary leader, and a revolutionary. He is an archetype of how one can greatly reform oneself and how one can become someone completely different through one’s firm beliefs and tenacity. However, Malcolm X wasn’t always the fiery and firm human

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

The Life and Death of Malcolm Little “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.” Around the year Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, the Great Migration was taking place. This affected his family's life, and the future lives of his children.

Read More
971 Words | 4 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief History with Documents written by David Howard-Pitney is a great history book that gives us an entry into two important American thinkers and a tumultuous part of American history. This 207-pages book was published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in Boston, New York on February 20, 2004. David Howard-Pitney worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in 1986, and that made him a specialist on American civil religion and African-American leaders ' thought and rhetoric (208). Another publication of Howard-Pitney is The African-American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America.

Read More
2060 Words | 9 Pages

In this passage of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X describes the dissolution of his family at the hand of state institutions. This passage, as well as this entire “Nightmare” chapter, demonstrates how systematic racism preys on the black family. After Malcolm’s father is killed by white men, his mother is left “thirty-four years old […] with no husband, no provider or protector to take care of her eight children” (14). To make matters worse, his life insurance money falls through because his death was ruled a suicide; as if it were possible he “could bash himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over” (14).

Read More
1339 Words | 6 Pages

During the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties Malcolm X became one of the most outspoken and often volatile spokesperson for the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X, unlike his counterpart Martin Luther King Jr. who was fighting to stop segregation, believed in a separatist society condemning and accusing the white population of suppressing the black communities by denying access to education and other publicly funded resources. After a pilgrimage to the holy land Malcolm X changed his name and became known by his Islamic name Malik El-Shabazz, and became a nonviolent activist who created organizations to better the black communities. Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925, to parents Louise and Earl Little. Malcolm’s

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

In 1929, Black Legion burned the house in Michigan where Malcolm and his family lived in. Two year later, Earl Little was found dead on trolley tracks. Although police ruled Earl’s death an accident, the Littles believed the Black Legion were responsible. Growing up in a time where racism and segregation were prominent, especially to African-Americans, Malcolm had to become a leader in order to receive justice.

Read More
655 Words | 3 Pages

As Malcolm grew up seeing his racial ethnicity being rejected in society and being made les, this complied to the racial injustices occurring today. However being hispanic and being the minority, I can easily understand the huge impact his father had on him. My father has been discriminated before and his advice to me stays and shapes me day after

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

When he joined the Nation of Islam, he changed his family name from “Little” to “X” as it was “a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to have originated with white slaveholders” (1). Malcolm benefited the organization by being a spokesman and expanding the movement (“Malcolm X.” History. History Channel, n.d 1). He “became the minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston” (“Malcolm X Biography” 1). “An articulate public speaker, a charismatic personality, and an indefatigable organizer, Malcolm X expressed the pent-up anger, frustration, and bitterness of African Americans during the major phase of the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1965”

Read More
631 Words | 3 Pages

The Story of Malcolm X Malcolm X was a Black rights activist during the 1960’s, he was regarded as a powerful speaker and a highly intelligent person. He was averse to blacks and white living in harmony, and spearheaded the black separatist movement. Malcolm X was not always the man that is taught to the public in history classes however, “Learning to read”, and excerpt from Malcolm X’s autobiography, recounts the tale of who Malcolm X was before he was well read, and how a prison’s library shaped views during the civil rights movement, and started fanning the flames for his racism.

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

“i carry your heart with me” Sonnets have been evident in literature for ages, and have been known to contain some of the most famous lines and structures. A traditional Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines, and is broken up into lines of four and then a couplet at the end. The sonnet also follows a distinct pattern of rhythm called iambic pentameter. There are also other versions of sonnets such as Petrarchan, which is broken up into two stanzas of eight and six lines.

Read More

More about How Did Billy Joel's Song 'We Didn T Start The Fire'

Related Topics

Open Document