Remembering
Malcolm X
May
19, 1925
'Godfather Of Harlem'
The
Great Muslim Leader
of
Modern America
(M.
Javed Naseem)
Malcolm Little (the original name) was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha (Nebraska), the fourth of seven children of Louise Helen Little and Earl Little (of Georgia). Earl was an outspoken Baptist speaker, and he and Louise were admirers of Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey. They inculcated self-reliance and black-pride in their children. Malcolm X later said that white violence killed four of his father's brothers.
Because of KKK (Ku Klux Klan) threats, the family relocated in 1926 to Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and shortly thereafter to Lansing (Michigan). There, the family was frequently harassed by the Black Legion, a white racist group Earl accused of burning their family home in 1929.
Malcolm Little attended West Junior High School in Lansing and then Mason High School in Mason (Michigan), but left high school in 1941, before graduating. He excelled in junior high school but dropped out of high school after a white teacher told him that practicing law, his aspiration at the time, was "no realistic goal for a nigger". Later Malcolm X recalled feeling that the white world offered no place for a career-oriented black man, regardless of talent.
From age 14 to 21, Malcolm held a variety of jobs while living with his half-sister Ella Little-Collins in Roxbury, a largely African-American neighborhood of Boston.
Summoned by the local draft board for military service in World War-II, he feigned mental disturbance by rambling and declaring: "I want to be sent down South. Organize them nigger soldiers ... steal us some guns, and kill us [some] “crackers”. He was declared "mentally disqualified for military service".
In late 1945, Malcolm returned to Boston, where he and four accomplices committed a series of burglaries targeting wealthy white families. In 1946, he was arrested while picking up a stolen watch he had left at a shop for repairs, and in February began serving an eight-to-ten-year sentence at Charlestown State Prison for larceny and breaking and entering.
Besides
his skill as a speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical
presence. He stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and
weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg). One writer described him as
"powerfully built", and another as "mesmerizingly
handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed."
Prison
When Malcolm was in prison, he met fellow convict John Bembry, a self-educated man he would later describe as "the first man I had ever seen command total respect ... with words". Under Bembry's influence, Malcolm developed a voracious appetite for reading.
In
late 1948, Malcolm contacted Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the
emerging Nation of Islam. Muhammad advised him to renounce his past,
humbly bow in prayer to God, and promise never to engage in
destructive behavior again. Though he later recalled the inner
struggle he had before bending his knees to pray, Malcolm soon became
a member of the Nation of Islam, maintaining a regular correspondence
with Muhammad.
“Between
Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors … and my
reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being
imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my
life.” – Malcolm X.
Thoughts & Speeches
“The
common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human
beings. ...
We can never get civil rights in America until our human
rights
are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there
until we are first recognized as humans. ...
Just as the violation of human
rights
of our brothers and sisters in South Africa and Angola is an
international issue and has brought the racists of South Africa and
Portugal under attack from all other independent governments at the
United Nations, once the miserable plight of the 22 million
Afro-Americans is also lifted to the level of human
rights
our struggle then becomes an international issue and the direct
concern of all other civilized governments. We can then take the
racist American Government before the World Court and have the
racists in it exposed and condemned as the criminals that they are.”
—
Malcolm X.
“The
media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to
make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s
power. Because they control the minds of the masses. The press is so
powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like
he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal.
… If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the
people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing
the oppressing.” —Malcolm X.
Malcolm
X was equally critical of the civil rights movement. He called Martin
Luther King Jr. a
"chump", and said other civil rights leaders were "stooges"
of the white establishment.
He called the 1963 March
on Washington, "the
farce on Washington", and said he did not know why so many black
people were excited about a demonstration "run by whites in
front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred
years and who didn't like us when he was alive".
He inspired the boxer Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to join the Nation of Islam, and the two became close. In January 1964, Clay (Ali) brought Malcolm X and his family to Miami to watch him train for his fight against Sonny Liston. When Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam, he tried to convince Clay (who had just been renamed Muhammad Ali by Elijah Muhammad) to join him in converting to Sunni Islam, but Clay instead broke ties with him – which he later described as one of his greatest regrets.
Malcolm X mentored and guided Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan), who eventually became the leader of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X also served as a mentor and confidant to Elijah Muhammad's son, Wallace D. Muhammad, who told Malcolm X about his skepticism toward his father's "unorthodox approach" to Islam. Wallace Muhammad was excommunicated from the Nation of Islam several times, although he was eventually readmitted.
On
March 8, 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation
of Islam. He was still a Muslim, he said, but felt that the Nation
had "gone as far as it can" because of its rigid teachings.
He said he was planning to organize a black nationalist organization
to "heighten the political consciousness" of African
Americans.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
In April 1964, with financial help from his half-sister Ella Little-Collins, Malcolm X flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the start of his Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca obligatory for every Muslim who is able to do so. He was delayed in Jeddah when his U.S. citizenship and inability to speak Arabic caused his status as a Muslim to be questioned. He had received Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam's book “The Eternal Message of Muhammad” with his visa approval, and he contacted the author. Azzam's son arranged for his release and lent him his personal hotel suite. The next morning Malcolm X learned that Prince Faisal had designated him as a state guest. Several days later, after completing the Hajj rituals, Malcolm X had an audience with the prince.Malcolm X later said that seeing Muslims of "all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans," interacting as equals led him to see Islam as a means by which racial problems could be overcome.
Death threats and intimidation from Nation of Islam
Throughout 1964, as his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, Malcolm X was repeatedly threatened.In February, a leader of Temple Number Seven ordered the bombing of Malcolm X's car. In March, Muhammad told Boston minister Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan) that "hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off". The April-10 edition of 'Muhammad Speaks' featured a cartoon depicting Malcolm X's bouncing, severed head.
On June 8, FBI surveillance recorded a telephone call in which Betty Shabazz was told that her husband was "as good as dead". Four days later, an FBI informant received a tip that "Malcolm X is going to be bumped off." (That same month the Nation sued to reclaim Malcolm X's residence in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. His family was ordered to vacate but on February 14, 1965 – the night before a hearing on postponing the eviction—the house was destroyed by fire.)
On July 9, Muhammad aide John Ali (suspected of being an undercover FBI agent) referred to Malcolm X by saying, "Anyone who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in jeopardy." In the December 4 issue of 'Muhammad Speaks', Louis X wrote that "such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death".
Assassination
On February 19, 1965, Malcolm X told interviewer Gordan Parks that the Nation of Islam was actively trying to kill him. On February 21, 1965, he was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, NYC. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), was beaten by the crowd before police arrived. Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison. At trial Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants.
Reactions
Reactions to Malcolm X's assassination were varied. In a telegram to Betty Shabazz, Martin Luther King Jr. expressed his sadness at "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband". He said,“While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.”Elijah Muhammad told the annual Savior's Day convention on February 26 that "Malcolm X got just what he preached", but denied any involvement with the murder."
Writer James Baldwin, who had been a friend of Malcolm X's, was in London when he heard the news of the assassination. He responded with indignation towards the reporters interviewing him, shouting, "You did it! It is because of you—the men that created this white supremacy—that this man is dead. You are not guilty, but you did it ... Your mills, your cities, your rape of a continent started all this."
Hollywood actor
Denzel Washington played the title role in the 1992 motion picture
“Malcolm X” – named one of the ten best films of the 1990s by
both critic Roger Ebert and director Martin Scorsese. Washington had
previously played the part of Malcolm X in the 1981 Off-Broadway play
“When the Chickens Came Home to Roost”.
(Courtesy: Wikipedia.org)
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