Malcolm X Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley was published in 1965. It is content best seller ab come in the life and times of Malcolm X. On May 19, 1925 Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a preacher who spoke turn out about the unity of black people. This caused several white racists to strike out against Malcolms father and his family violently. His family moved to Lansing, Michigan where Malcolm, his parents, brothers, and sisters were shot at, burned out of their home, harassed, and threatened. When Malcolm was 6 years old, his father was murdered by a white man. After his fathers death his mother had a nervous breakdown and the family got disclose up by welfare agencies. Malcolm was placed in a lot of different schools and boardinghouses. He was a good student and wanted to be a lawyer someday, but a teacher told him that because he was black he should take up carpentry instead. At age 15 he dropped out of school and moved to Boston to live with his h alf sister Ella. He quickly sees the fast pace life of Detroit. 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 tender York urban center 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. The Islamic religion taught that white people were devils so Malcolm went around speaking out against whites at universities and other places. He returned to New York and became minister of the Harlem temple. For 12 years he preached that the white man was the devil and Muhammad was Gods messenger. In 1964 he left the Nation of Islam and express "I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone elses control. I feel what Im thought and saying now is for myself. Before, it was for and by guidance of another, now I think with my own mind."(Haley 312) He was 38 years old when he left the Islamic religion and started his own group, Organization of Afro-American Unity. He went to Mecca, known as the Hajj, and this is a religious... ...t of drug addiction, self-hatred and poverty. He restored a sense of pride in our African heritage to millions of black Americans. He offered his own view of civil rights issues, and it was totally different from the views held by other leaders, who were thought to be more moderate. If he had lived, many people think that he would have become one of the most powerful political figures this nation has known. At the end of the book Malcolm said, "I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that forget help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America then all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine." curb Report The Autobiography of Malcolm X     Chidima KekeApril 13, 2004African American History IIProfessor LewisWorks CitedHaley, Alex. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Ballantine Books New York.1965D.Hine, W.C. Hine, Harrold Stanley. The African American Odyssey. 2nd edition. Vol.2.Perason Education, Inc New Jersey. 2003