How Did Malcolm X Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

For hundreds of years, African Americans have struggled to achieve Civil Rights within the United States. The Civil Rights movement started in the mid 1950s to late 1960s, African Americans wanted rights equal to those of whites, including equal opportunity in employment, housing, education, as well as the right to vote, the right of equal access to public facilities, and the right to be free of racial discrimination (The free dictionary). Although, the Emancipation Proclamation freed African Americans from slavery, they had a long way to go before having equal rights.

Southern states still inhabited an unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race inspired violence (History.com Staff). This civil rights movement sought to reestablish the rights of citizenship given to African Americans in the constitution guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which had been undermined by the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws also known as Black Codes prohibited African Americans from using classrooms, bathrooms, theaters, and train cars that whites also used, this was executed at the state level in several southern states. This caused

Born Malcolm Little, he was son of an outspoken Baptist minister and supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Gravey. His father civil rights activism prompted death threats from white supremacist organization Black Legion, which caused the family to relocate twice before Malcolm was even four years old (Biography). Regardless of his father’s efforts to elude the Legion, he was found dead. His father’s death caused his mother to have a psychotic break, which caused her children including Malcolm to be split up into multiple foster homes. Eventually, Malcolm and a long time friend were convicted of burglary charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison after only serving 7 years Malcolm was granted