Malcolm X

Malcolm X:

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the son of Earl Little, a Baptist preacher, and his wife, Louise. His father’s death had a disastrous effect on Malcolm and his family. His mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and the welfare department took the eight little children away from her. Malcolm was placed in a foster home and then in reform school. In 1941 he went to live with his half-sister in Boston, Massachusetts. There he soon entered the fringes of the underworld, and at the age of 17 he moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Known as Detroit Red, Malcolm turned to a life of crime, including drug dealing and armed robbery. When he was 20, Malcolm received a sentence of ten years in prison for burglary. This is when his life took a turn for the better.

While he was in prison he developed an interest in the nation of Islam. They were a black nationalist movement also known as black Muslims. He studied the teachings of the great leader Elijah Muhammad. When Malcolm was released from prison in 1952, he went to Detroit, Michigan, and joined the Nation of Islam temple in that city. He dropped his last name a considered “slave name” by Black Muslims and became Malcolm X. In 1958 he married Betty Sanders, later known as Betty Shabazz, and they eventually had six daughters. After five years Malcolm X had become a more prominent spokesperson for the Nation of Islam than Elijah Muhammad. During the decade between 1955 and 1965, while all of the activist were working in the civil right movement Malcolm preached the opposite. Malcolm declared the non violence was the philosophy of a fool. But after a trip to the holy Muslim city of Saudi Arabia his views changed Malcolm X renounced his previous racism against whites, declaring that in Mecca ( city in Saudi Arabia) he had realized that people of all colors were children of Allah. he encouraged blacks to vote, to participate in the political system, and to work with each other and with sympathetic whites and Hispanics for an end to racial discrimination. His views took a complete 360 turn for the good and he was later admired for it by many across the world. But sadly to say he was assassinated on February 21, 1965 after a very honorable life that had many twist and turns as well as trials and tribulations but he still lived another day.

Dear Diary,

Today was my first night in Saudi Arabia, everything is so different