Malcolm X: biography of this African-American activist

Malcolm X is one of the most important and, at the same time, controversial figures in black history. Defender of the rights of African-Americans and very critical of the white powers in the United States, he promoted the contact of blacks with their African roots.

His life is fascinating and, although not everyone liked it, his political project for the black race has been the spark for the creation of black nationalism. Let's take a deeper look at his life through this malcolm x biography in summary format.

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Malcolm X biography

Malcolm X's life is very intense, as is his activity as a defender of the rights of African-Americans and a defender of the Islamic faith.

early years

Malcolm X's birth name was Malcolm Little and he was born in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, on May 19, 1925. He was the son of a Protestant pastor and a mulatto woman who had been born as a result of the rape of a black woman by a white man. Malcolm X's childhood was tough. He had to live through the constant transfers of his family, which suffered constant attacks from racist groups.

While still a child, he lived through the murder of his father, a staunch defender of workers' rights. After this misfortune, Malcolm's mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, because she lost custody of her children after her husband died.

After these events, who was still called Malcolm Little he went from house to house, living the harsh conditions with which blacks were treated, who did not have the support of their family.

He moved to New York, where he became a street criminal. He was involved in shady activities, such as drug trafficking, robbery, and prostitution. He would later be involved in the underworld affairs of Boston and New York. However, in 1945 he ended up being arrested and sentenced to between eight and ten years in prison.

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Entry into the Nation of Islam

During his stay in prison he gave up drugs and began to study by correspondence. It was in the seven years that he was incarcerated that he made contact with an organization, influenced by other recluses, which would be fundamental for the rest of his life and in the formation of his thought: the Nation of the Islam.

This organization was a Muslim religious movement that was led by Elijah Muhammad in which the idea that Allah's favorite race was black and that whites were the personification of the devil, a race doomed to imminent disappearance, was postulated.

In 1952, after leaving prison, Malcolm visited the leader of the Nation of Islam in Chicago, Illinois. It is during the course of this visit that Malcolm Little would sacrifice his last name for that of a simple X, an act loaded with meaning. The X symbolized the African surname lost by blacks when a white master enslaved one of their ancestors.

Malcolm X's influence within the organization was immediate. In 1953 he managed to be appointed assistant minister of the Number One Temple of the Nation of Islam in Detroit and, at the end of the same year, he would found the Eleventh Temple in Boston himself.

The following year he would found Number Twelve in Philadelphia, and would be chosen to lead Number Seven temple in Harlem. He would also be the founder of the newspaper Muhammad Speaks (Mohammed Speaks).

The organization was contrary to many ideas espoused by the Civil Rights Movement.. He defended the idea that blacks and whites should be kept apart. In fact, they defended the idea of ​​creating a new country, made up exclusively of people blacks in the southern United States, as a stopgap measure so that blacks could return to Africa.

Malcolm X, already a minister of the Nation of Islam, defended that the black race was the original of humanity, and that the true religion of black humanity was Islam, while Christianity was the religion of man white. He defended that Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the organization, was the personification of Allah and that Elijah Muhammad was his messenger.

But it was not just his opinion and his joining a black supremacist organization that raised controversy. the fbi opened an investigation into Malcolm X in 1953 because he declared himself a communist, something very controversial in the middle of the cold war.

Meeting with Fidel Castro and other world leaders

If the FBI already had its suspicions of Malcolm X's communist activities, Fidel Castro's 1960 visit to New York was a clear indicator of his sympathies against American capitalism. Fidel Castro had set foot on North American soil with the intention of meeting at the United Nations General Assembly. Because of Malcolm X's impressive statements as an active member of the Nation of Islam, Fidel Castro wanted to meet with him in private.

Also, at the same General Assembly, Malcolm X he was invited to visit events held by newly independent African nations, including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea and Kenneth Kaunda of the African National Congress of Zambia.

Leaving the Nation of Islam

Given the controversial views of Malcolm X, the media presented him as an apostle of violence, in addition to emphasizing his message of rejection of the white man and showing him as a supremacist, but African-American.

On December 1, 1963, he was asked about his opinion regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, implying that he was pleased with the event. Also, when asked about the murder of black rights activists Patrice Lumumba and Medgar Evers, and the attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham (Alabama), came to say the same as with the president Kennedy.

These comments provoked the ire of society, both white and black. Even the Nation of Islam had issued a message of condolences to the Kennedy family and ordered its ministers not to comment on the assassination. The Nation of Islam publicly censured Malcolm X and, despite retaining his job, he was banned from public speaking for 90 days.

But the rivalry within the organization between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X made the latter organize more effective ways to silence him. An assassination plan began to be orchestrated. Suspecting this, Malcolm X decided in 1964 to officially break with the organization, saying that the Nation of Islam had become too rigid in its religious doctrine.

In these times he opted for an even more active political struggle, denouncing that neither individual reform actions of the Nation nor the civil rights campaign of Martin Luther King would lead to the release of the blacks. Violence was necessary. It was then that he founded the Muslim Mosque movement (Muslim Mosque, Inc.) within American society.

Contact with Sunnismo

Malcolm X wanted to comply with the religious precept of making a pilgrimage to Mecca, taking advantage of the passage to visit seven Muslim countries. It was during this trip that he changed his racial stance, realizing that the twinning of all races was possible..

So he stopped preaching separatism and segregation to move to a more supportive position of the black nationalism, as opposed to the white nationalism in which the United States was based from America.

His visits to several Muslim countries allowed him to have contact with the Sunnis., who encouraged him to learn in depth about what Islam was according to them.

Despite his friendlier vision of him regarding the relationship between the races, he did continue to defend the idea that the African Americans had every right to defend themselves against aggressors proportionately, with all the violence necessary. He kept rejecting the pacifist message of nonviolence of the civil rights campaign.

His popularity continued to be remarkable, and he went on to give several lectures on many university campuses, underlining the opportunity that he had to be able to speak with university students and make them understand his struggle. He also spoke with political parties, such as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the largest Trotskyist party in the United States.

Threats and murder

The leadership of the Nation of Islam was already considering ending the life of Malcolm X even after he left the organization. He was also the victim of anonymous threats, calling him and his wife saying that he deserved to be dead.

In June 1964 the Nation of Islam sued him claiming the home of Malcolm X in Queens. The organization was successful, and Malcolm X was ordered to vacate the house.

On February 14, 1965, the night before a hearing to postpone the eviction date was decided, that same house was burned down. Malcolm X and his family miraculously survived and, despite the event, no one could be charged.

But the final tragedy would not take long to occur. On February 21 of that same year, while at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, Malcolm X began speaking at a meeting of the Organization of African-American Unity. As he was speaking, someone yelled "black, get your hands out of my pocket!", causing a ruckus. Malcolm X's bodyguards came to find out what was happening, while another man shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun.

Nothing could be done for his life, officially declaring him dead at Columbia University Medical Center.

Malcolm X Legacy

malcolm x he has been described as one of the most influential African Americans in history, being at the level of Martin Luther King or Richard Wright. He is credited with increasing the self-esteem of African Americans and reconnecting them with their pre-slavery African roots. It is also thanks to Malcolm X that Islam had a greater impact in the United States.

Many blacks saw in the figure of Malcolm X the real fight that had to be done to win their rights, something that they saw that the civil rights movement was doing too softly and that it didn't seem to get them anywhere. side.

He is also credited with having managed to change the image people had of beauty, which until then had been monopolized in America by whites. This is how, at the end of the 1960s, and thanks to the inspiration of Malcolm X, the slogan of "black is beautiful" arises.

Several decades later, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, thanks to hip-hop icons like Public Enemy, the figure of Malcolm X once again had a resurgence among black youth, in addition to his name being marketed as material for merchandising. In 1992 the film was broadcast in theaters malcolm x, a film adaptation of the activist's autobiography, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee.