Malcolm X
 Malcolm X          ( Clergy, activist) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Malcolm Little May 19, 1925 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | February 21, 1965 (Age 39) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Victim of |  assassination |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
| Parents | • Earl Little • Louise Helen Norton Little |
| Children | • Attallah Shabazz • Qubilah Shabazz • Ilyasah Shabazz • Gamilah Lumumba Shabazz • Malikah Shabazz • Malaak Shabazz |
| Spouse | Betty Shabazz |
| Member of | Malcolm X family |
| Interests | “Black genocide” |
| Interest of | Malcolm X family |
| Subpage | •Malcolm X/Assassination |
Black radical leader who advocated revolution in the US. | |
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his time spent as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He was assassinated in 1965, probably by the FBI.
Contents
Early life
After a difficult childhood – his father died when he was six, his mother was admitted to a mental hospital when he was thirteen – he became a petty criminal in Harlem and Boston.
From age 14 to 21, Malcolm held a variety of jobs while living with his half-sister Ella Little-Collins in Roxbury, a largely African-American neighborhood of Boston. After a short time in Flint, Michigan, he moved to New York City's Harlem neighborhood in 1943, where he engaged in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, and pimping.[2]
My boss's wife, when she had the time and the inclination to talk, would tell me many interesting things. She would talk to me about the Dutch Schultz days - about deals that she had known, about graft paid to officials - rookie cops and shyster lawyers right on up into the top levels of police and politics. She knew from personal experience how crime existed only to the degree that the law cooperated with it. She showed me how, in the country's entire social, political and economic structure, the criminal, the law and the politicians were actually inseparable partners.[3]
With tips, which were often heavy, sometimes I would make over a hundred dollars a night steering up to ten customers in a party-to see anything, to do anything, to have anything done to them, that they wanted. I hardly ever knew the identities of my customers, but the few I did recognize, or whose names I happened to hear, remind me now of the Profumo case in England. The English are not far ahead of rich and influential Americans when it comes to seeking rarities and oddities.
Rich men, middle-aged and beyond, men well past their prime: these weren't college boys, these were their Ivy League fathers. Even grandfathers, I guess. Society leaders. Big politicians. Tycoons. Important friends from out of town. City government big shots. All kinds of professional people. Star performing artists. Theatrical and Hollywood celebrities. And, of course, racketeers.
Harlem was their sin-den, their fleshpot. They stole off among taboo black people, and took off whatever antiseptic , important, dignified masks they wore in their white world. These were men who could afford to spend large amounts of money for two, three, or four hours indulging their strange appetites.[4]
In late 1945, Malcolm returned to Boston, where he and four accomplices committed a series of burglaries targeting wealthy white families.[5] In 1946, he was arrested while picking up a stolen watch he had left at a shop for repairs,[6] and in February began serving an eight-to-ten-year sentence for larceny and breaking and entering.[7]
Prison
Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors ... and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life.[8]
In 1948, he became a member of the Black nationalist and anti-white Nation of Islam. After his release from prison in 1952, he rose rapidly within the organization, primarily due to his oratorical skills and his success in recruiting new members.
Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, therefore appointed him the official spokesman of the religious community. In this role, he disseminated the NOI's ideas to the American public. Its core tenet was that white people were devils and bore collective responsibility for the systemic oppression of Black people in the USA and around the world. During this time, Malcolm X emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the comparatively moderate Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. His accusation against the pacifist King was that his message of nonviolence and racial integration kept African Americans pacified and hindered genuine change. What was needed, he argued, was a violent revolution by Black people against their oppression.[9]
In 1950, the FBI opened a file on Malcolm after he wrote a letter from prison to President Truman expressing opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself a communist.[10] That year, he also began signing his name "Malcolm X".[11] Muhammad instructed his followers to leave their family names behind when they joined the Nation of Islam and use "X" instead. When the time was right, after they had proven their sincerity, he said, he would reveal the Muslim's "original name".[12] In his autobiography, Malcolm X explained that the "X" symbolized the true African family name that he could never know. "For me, my 'X' replaced the white slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears."[13]
In 1953, the FBI began surveillance of him, turning its attention from Malcolm X's possible communist associations to his rapid ascent in the Nation of Islam.[14]
Hinton Johnson incident
The American public first became aware of Malcolm X in 1957, after Hinton Johnson, a Nation of Islam member, was beaten by two New York City police officers.[15][16] On April 26, Johnson and two other passersby saw the officers beating an African-American man with nightsticks.[15] When they attempted to intervene, shouting, "You're not in Alabama ... this is New York!" one of the officers turned on Johnson, beating him so severely that he suffered brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. All four African-American men were arrested. Alerted by a witness, Malcolm X and a small group of Muslims went to the police station and demanded to see Johnson.[15] Police initially denied that any Muslims were being held, but when the crowd grew to about five hundred, they allowed Malcolm X to speak with Johnson.[17] Afterward, Malcolm X insisted on arranging for an ambulance to take Johnson to Harlem Hospital.[18]
Johnson's injuries were treated and by the time he was returned to the police station, some four thousand people had gathered outside.[17] Inside the station, Malcolm X and an attorney were making bail arrangements for two of the Muslims. Johnson was not bailed, and police said he could not go back to the hospital until his arraignment the following day.[18] Considering the situation to be at an impasse, Malcolm X stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal to the crowd. Nation members silently left, after which the rest of the crowd also dispersed.[18] One police officer told the New York Amsterdam News: "No one man should have that much power."[18][19] Within a month the New York City Police Department arranged to keep Malcolm X under surveillance; it also made inquiries with authorities in other cities in which he had lived, and prisons in which he had served time.[20] A grand jury declined to indict the officers who beat Johnson. In October, Malcolm X sent an angry telegram to the police commissioner. Soon the police department assigned undercover officers to infiltrate the Nation of Islam.[21]
Opinions
Malcolm X advocated violent revolution in the US.
“I do believe that there will be a clash between East and West. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think that it will be based upon the color of the skin....”
Malcolm X (January 1965) [22]
On corporate media
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Malcolm X (1963) [23]
Assassination
- Full article: Malcolm X/Assassination
- Full article: Malcolm X/Assassination
The US Deep state used the FBI to assassinate Malcolm X, according to a deathbed confession letter by Raymond A. Wood penned in 2011 and released in 2021.[24]
A Quote by Malcolm X
| Page | Quote | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Election 2017: finally, a real choice for Britain's voters | “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:House Negro | book extract | 1 March 2012 | Denis Rancourt |
References
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/799-i-m-for-truth-no-matter-who-tells-it-i-m-for
- ↑ Perry, pp. 62–81.
- ↑ Malcolm X, Autobiography, Chapter 7
- ↑ Malcolm X, Autobiography, Chapter 7 https://sufi.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Autobiography-of-Malcolm-X.pdf
- ↑ Natambu, pp. 106–109.
- ↑ Perry, p. 99.
- ↑ Marable, Malcolm X, pp. 67–68.
- ↑ Malcolm X, Autobiography, p. 199.
- ↑ Perry, Bruce (1991). Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill. ISBN 978-0-88268-103-0. page 91
- ↑ Marable, Malcolm X, p.95.
- ↑ Marable, Malcolm X, p. 96.
- ↑ Natambu, pp. 139–140.
- ↑ Malcolm X, Autobiography, p. 229.
- ↑ Carson, p. 95.
- ↑ a b c Marable, Malcolm X, p. 127.
- ↑ Perry, p. 164.
- ↑ a b Perry, p. 165.
- ↑ a b c d Marable, Malcolm X, p. 128.
- ↑ Perry, p. 166.
- ↑ Marable, Malcolm X, p. 132.
- ↑ Marable, Malcolm X, pp. 134–135.
- ↑ https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Malcolm_X Malcolm X Speaks (1965), p. 216
- ↑ http://izquotes.com/quote/297464
- ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9284295/Malcolm-Xs-family-release-new-letter-claims-FBI-police-conspired-1965-assassination.html
