Malcolm Little Thesis

Malcolm Little, an african american baby, born to Earl Little and Louise Helen Norton Little in Nebraska, more specifically, Omaha, on May 19th, 1925 would become one of the most influential powers of the 1960’s and history as a whole. He was raised in a house of 8 children, his mother a homemaker, and his father who was a preacher who took regular part in the local branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA). His family was under constant harassment from the local white supremacist groups such as the KKK because of his father’s involvement with the UNIA, so much so that their hands were forced to move elsewhere. That elsewhere came in the form of Lansing, MI, about 1.5 hours west of Detroit, MI, wherein Klan-like members of

According to History.com, ”He wore zoot suits, straightened his hair to affect a white look, and became known as Detroit Red”, Malcolm was convicted of and sentenced to prison for burglary at age 21. While he was in prison he had learned about and read of “The Lost-Found Nation of Islam”, as well as their belief system, as taught by their leader Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad’s claim that white people were the evil whom African-Americans cannot live among resonated with Malcolm such that he decided to end his career in crime to become a loyal disciple to Elijah Muhammad, and to adopt the X moniker he is famous for. According to Brittanica.com, the X surname was a common tradition among Nation of Islam followers that believed their original family name to have been from a white

After his meeting with Muhammad in Chicago, Malcolm went to the upstart African-American borough of New York known as Harlem and began to organize Temples for the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was above all else a voice for the people, because despite the surprising low number of members in the Nation(50,000 per Britannica.com) the influence and power of the Nation was undeniable. So, with his platform of being a key figure in The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X challenged mainstream ideals of major civil rights activists like Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., citing that integration was not the key to civil rights and the blacks should be independent and self-sufficient. The constant assault of famous figures came back to haunt him because after the assassination of JFK, Malcolm publicly pronounced that this was merely an example of “chickens coming home to roost”. This sparked controversy not just on a large scale but also on a personal scale for Malcolm as his leader and partner in the teachings of The Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, who sentenced him to a 90 day silence