Download Malcolm X and the rise of Black Power

Malcolm X
and the rise of Black Power
Matt Bowen, Yoann Delisle, Jacob Reznik
Biography
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Born Malcolm Little
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His Father, Earl Little, was an outspoken supporter of Black
Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, which was calling for Black
separatism, an idea later revived by Malcolm X.
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Supporting Garvey made the Littles the target of white terrorists.
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They moved to Lansing, Michigan, where they were attacked by the
Black Legion, a white terrorist organization
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Members of the Legion burned his family house to the ground in
1929
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In 1931 Earl Little was found on some streetcar tracks with his
skull crushed and his body nearly severed in half
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Little’s wife never recovered and was soon admitted to a mental
hospital
Biography
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Attended West Junior High School, he was the only black student
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Exceeded academically - Elected class president
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Quit school because of racial issues there and moved to Boston
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Got involved selling drugs and other criminal activity
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Liked to wear pinstriped suits and lived a very lavish, if illegal lifestyle
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Arrested in 1946 on larceny charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison
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Learned of the Nation of Islam, a group that embraced the concept of black
nationality, while incarcerated and converted to it
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Changed his surname to “X” upon his release as he considered “Little” a relic of
slavery
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Traveled to Detroit where he became deeply involved with the Nation of Islam,
becoming a minister of two of the group’s temples in Boston and Detroit
Actions
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Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Malcolm X led the
Nation of Islam from a group of about 400 people to an organization of
10,000 official members and an untold number of sympathizers.
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Black Muslims worked in prisons, they urged prisoners to follow Islam.
They stressed black pride, unity and self-help.
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The message he shared with his audiences was very different from that
of other civil rights activists who called for the integration of American
society through nonviolent means.
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Malcolm X called for black separatism, and he advised blacks to take up
arms in self-defense against white hostility.
Actions
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In 1963 Malcolm X broke with Nation of Islam
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Created two new African American Muslim groups of his own
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In 1964 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and toured in Africa. He
then called for the freedom of all colonial people, comparing anticolonial struggles to the American Civil Rights movement
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When he came back in the US he started criticizing the Nation of
Islam, creating a conflict between his organization and Nation of
Islam
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On February 21 of 1965 he was assassinated while giving a speech
at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom
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The assassins were affiliated with the Nation of Islam and were all
sentenced to life in prison
Changes
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Malcolm made africanamericans feel that they had
the power to stand up to
white men
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He was one of the first to say
that blacks should stand up
and make something happen
Citations
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"Malcolm X." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Biography in Context. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.