Malcolm X

Malcolm X is born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Midwest, during that period, was completely full of discrimination and racial violence. Malcolm X’s father, Earl Little was a Baptist preacher and on one day, he was found dead on the trolley tracks in town after a streetcar ran over him. In spite of the police report that Earl's death was an accident, Malcolm strongly believed that his father was killed by the Black Legion. Following his father’s death, Malcolm's mother, Louise Little, was in effort to provide sustenance for her eight children on her own.

Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to Earl and Louise Little. Right off the start Malcolm was faced with harsh racism for his father was an active member of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and avid supporter of black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. The cruel attention gained from white supremacists caused Malcolm’s family to have to move quite often. All the moving didn’t help though, and Earl Little was found dead on the city streetcar tracks in 1931. It was evident that his murder was on the hands of white supremacists, but the authorities ruled it as a suicide and prohibited the family from collecting death benefits.

To get money he shined shoes, worked at a soda fountain, worked at a restaurant and on a railroad kitchen crew. Later he moved to the black Harlem section of New York City where he sold drugs, became a thief, and was involved with a lot of hoodlums and pimps. He moved back to Boston and got arrested for burglary. While he was in prison he learned about the Nation of Islam and later joined the Islamic religion. He was released from prison in 1952 and went to be with his brother in Detroit where he replaced his last name, Little, with X to symbolize his lost true African family name.

In 1929 the family house was burned down, by white supremacists. After Earl Little died in 1931 in a streetcar accident, Malcolm's mother eventually had a mental breakdown and entered an inside asylum. The siblings were dispersed to other families. Malcolm lived with a foster family before moving to Roxbury, Mass., in 1941 to live with a half sister, Ella Collins. A few months after his arrival in Roxbury, a predominantly black section of Boston, Malcolm dropped out of school (having completed eight grade) and took a job as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom in Boston's Back Bay section.

1. Malcolm x's childhood was definatly rough. He had ten brothers and sisters and his father was murdered. His father was an organiser for the marcus garvey negro association and believed that blacks would never find peace in America and that they should just go back to Africa and live a simple but happy and peaceful life. At the age of twelve he was put in a reform center for safety.

Malcolm believed white racists took his fathers life. When Malcolm was 12 years old, his mother was admitted to a mental hospital. After these two incidents, Malcolm spent the rest of his childhood in foster homes. In 1941, Malcolm moved to Boston where he became involved in criminal activities. In 1946, he was arrested for burglary and sent to prison.

This is where he began participating in petty crimes. Rising from small time hustles to more serious crimes such as armed robbery and drug dealing, it was only a matter of time before Malcolm was caught. After moving back to Boston, he was arrested in 1946 for a burglary charge and sentenced to 10 years in prison. It was here where Malcolm recalled his days in school and put his long time to use by educating himself. It was during this period of self-enlightenment where, as Kevin Brown explains, "his brother Reginald visited him and told him of his involvement in the Muslim religion."

In 1931 Earl’s body was discovered by train tracks in Lansing, Michigan and was ruled by the local police as “accidents” but the Little family knew it was the Black Legion. By 1937 Louise was dating a man who was possibly getting married t... ... middle of paper ... ...veral crimes that when against the NOI’s teachings. Malcolm lost his trust and faith with the Nation and decided to start his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque Inc. Many Nation members now saw Malcolm as a threat to Elijah and the Nation itself. Soon after leaving the Nation Malcolm converted to Sunni Islam.

In 1946 his luck ran out; he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to ten years in prison Malcolm's downward descent took a U-turn in prison when he began studying the teachings of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (NOI), the black Muslim group founded by Wallace D. Fard and led by Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole). Submitting to the discipline and guidance of the NOI, he became a voracious reader of the Qu'ran (Koran) and the Bible. He also immersed himself in works of literature and history at the prison library. Behind prison walls he quickly emerged as a powerful orator and brilliant rhetorician. He led the famous prison debating team that beat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, arguing against capital punishment by pointing out that English pickpockets often did their best work at public hangings!

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm’s father was murdered by a white supremacists group while in Lancing, Michigan. His mother was declared legally insane and committed to the state mental hospital. Because of that Malcolm X had no parental guidance in his young adult life. Malcolm X also dropped out of school also after the murder of his father, and from then on Malcolm turned to the streets for guidance.