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Becoming A Master Student, Concise, Tenth Edition
Dave Ellis | | | |
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Malcolm Little became Malcolm X at age 26. In the Muslim religion, the name "X" symbolizes the true African family name that no one can ever know. All of the Nation of Islam believe they will keep the name "X" until God returns and gives each person a holy name.
Malcolm was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was the Reverend Earl Little, a Baptist minister, and his mother was a native of Grenada, British West Indies.
Soon after his birth, the family moved to Lansing, Michigan. Trouble followed them. In 1929, a group of whites called "The Black Legion" burnt the Little's home to the ground. They punished Rev. Little for being an "uppity nigger" who was spreading revolutionary ideas.
The next year, Rev. Little was murdered, apparently by the same Black Legion. The attackers had bashed the Reverend's head and then laid him across the tracks where the streetcar severed him practically in half.
After the Reverend's death, the family began to fall apart as hunger eroded their pride. Employers would fire Malcolm's mother as soon as they learned she was the widow of the Reverend Little. Mrs. Little and her nine children subsisted on welfare checks, which were handed over for grocery bills before they could be cashed.
Poverty eventually forced Malcolm's mother to give custody of the children to the state welfare workers. It broke her heart. She suffered a complete breakdown and spent the next 26 years in the State Mental Hospital at Kalamazoo.
Malcolm began to cause assorted troubles at school. He was expelled and sent to a detention home. Malcolm lived in the detention home and then a foster home while completing his education in Lansing. Things looked up when his practically all-white 7th grade class elected him president. He also starred on the basketball team.
The summer before 8th grade, 1940, Malcolm stayed with his half-sister in Boston. He returned to Lansing in a restless spirit. Discussing his career plans with his English teacher, Malcolm expressed his intention of becoming a lawyer. His teacher said that was not a realistic goal for a Black and that he should consider carpentry instead. That remark changed Malcolm. He turned his back on the whole white world.
At the end of the 8th grade, Malcolm quit school and moved to Boston.
He was quite a sight in his zoot suit and conked hair. He hung out in pool rooms and gambled on the numbers. Before the age of 20, he had worked as a shoeshine boy, soda jerk, busboy, waiter, railroader, drug dealer, and burglar. Burglary was the profession which landed him in prison for the next seven years.
The inmates named him Satan because of his anti-religious attitude. He changed. During his incarceration, his brother introduced him to the teaching of the Black Muslim leader, Elijah Mohammed.
Leaving prison in 1952, Malcolm worked for the Black Muslims for the next 12 years. He followed their beliefs in monogamy, abstinence from drugs and drink, and worked ceaselessly for the Black community.
He became an evangelist. Malcolm saw white America as extremely racist. He symbolized the hatred of Black America for whites. His attempt to bring a formal human rights case against the United States before the United Nations dragged on, but never succeeded.
In 1964, he broke from the Black Muslim movement because he felt Elijah Mohammed had betrayed him. He spent his last year traveling abroad. The White Muslims welcomed him to Mecca, and this experience changed his original opinion that all whites were devils.
Many Blacks were inspired by Malcolm and most whites feared him. His list of enemies grew when he left the flock of Mohammed. One of these enemies firebombed his home in February, 1965.
Later that month, Malcolm X was shot to death as he took the stage to speak to his followers. Some believed his killers were sent by the Mafia due to Malcolm's campaign to abolish drugs in Harlem. Others pointed at the CIA. In the end, as Malcolm had predicted weeks before the shooting, three Black Muslims were convicted of the murder.
Malcolm X left a legacy, a wife, and three daughters.
More information is available for each of the Master Student Profiles that appear in Becoming a Master Student. Start by visiting these web sites to find out more about Malcolm X. Then, use your favorite search engine to find more information. Remember to think critically about information you find online.
Student Voice: If you find a URL that you think your fellow Master Students will find helpful in researching a Master Student Profile, submit your findings to College Survival for posting on this web site.
Mail to: csweb.collegesurvival@cengage.com
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