Malcolm X was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a controversial figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his advocacy of black nationalism and his call for black power.
Table of Contents:
1. Early life
2. Prison
3. The Nation of Islam
4. Break with the Nation of Islam
5. Assassination
6. What Malcolm X Meant to Blacks in America
7. Top Malcolm X Quotes
Early life
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925. He was the fourth of seven children born to Earl Little, a Baptist minister, and Louise Little. Earl Little was an outspoken supporter of Marcus Garvey, the black nationalist leader, and was also a member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
Louise Little was born in Grenada and had a black nationalist view of the world. She was a domestic worker and later a homemaker.
The Littles moved around a great deal, living in several cities in the Midwest and Northeast, before settling in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929. It was in Lansing that Malcolm first experienced racism. He was called “nigger” by other children and was told that he would never amount to anything by his white teachers.
In 1931, when Malcolm was six years old, his father’s body was found lying across the town’s trolley tracks. The death was ruled an accident, but Malcolm’s mother believed that Earl had been killed by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group.
Louise Little soon became mentally ill, and in 1937 she was committed to a state mental hospital. Malcolm and his siblings were placed in foster homes or in the care of relatives.
In 1940, Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his half-sister, Ella. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and began hustling on the streets, selling drugs and committing petty thefts. In 1946, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for burglary.
Prison
It was in prison that Malcolm began to educate himself. He read widely, including works by Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Alexis de Tocqueville. He also studied the teachings of the Nation of Islam, a black Muslim movement, and converted to Islam.
When he was released from prison in 1952, Malcolm changed his last name to “X” to symbolize his rejection of his “slave” name. He also became a minister in the Nation of Islam.
The Nation of Islam
Under the guidance of its leader, Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam advocated black separatism and the belief that whites were ” devils.” Malcolm X was an effective speaker and organizer for the group, and he quickly rose to a position of prominence.
In 1957, Malcolm X married Betty Sanders, a fellow member of the Nation of Islam. The couple had six children.
In 1959, Malcolm X made a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The experience changed his views on race and religion, and he began to distance himself from the Nation of Islam.
Break with the Nation of Islam
In 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc., a black nationalist organization. He also joined the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a group dedicated to the advancement of civil rights for blacks.
assassination
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by Nation of Islam members while he was giving a speech in New York City. He was 39 years old.
What Malcolm X Meant to Blacks in America
Malcolm X was a powerful voice for black rights during the civil rights movement. He advocated for black separatism and black power, and he was unafraid to speak out against white racism. His assassination silenced a powerful voice, but his legacy continues to inspire black Americans.
Top Malcolm X Quotes
“You can’t have capitalism without racism.”– Malcolm X
“When ghetto living seems normal, you have no shame, no privacy.”– Malcolm X
“An English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, ‘What’s your alma mater?’ I told him, ‘Books.”– Malcolm X
“I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream–I see an American nightmare.”– 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.”– Malcolm X
“The goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to give Negroes a chance to sit in a segregated restaurant beside the same white man who had brutalized them for 400 years.”– Malcolm X
“To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.”– Malcolm X
“We’re not Americans, we’re Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock – that rock landed on us.”– Malcolm X
“I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.”– Malcolm X
“I am neither a fanatic nor a dreamer. I am a black man who loves peace, and justice, and loves his people.”– Malcolm X
“You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.”– Malcolm X
“Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. You don’t need anything else.”– Malcolm X
“I’m the man you think you are. If you want to know what I’ll do, figure out what you’ll do. I’ll do the same thing–only more of it.”– Malcolm X
“Western interests: imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, racism, and other negative -isms.”– Malcolm X
‘The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.”– Malcolm X
“To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.”– Malcolm X
“In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.”– Malcolm X
“I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don’t believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn’t want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.”– Malcolm X
“Times change so quickly that if you and I don’t keep up with the times, we’ll find ourselves with an umbrella in our hand, over our head, when the sun is out. Or we’ll find ourselves standing in the rain, with the umbrella inside the door.”– Malcolm X
“And just because you have colleges and universities doesn’t mean you have education.”– Malcolm X
“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”– Malcolm X
“If you turn the other cheek, you can be enslaved for 1,000 years.”– Malcolm X
“If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.”– Malcolm X
” I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.”– Malcolm X
“A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can’t play the part of a wise man.”– Malcolm X
“In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determine success or failure.”– Malcolm X
“What I want to know is how the white man, with the blood of black people dripping off his fingers, can have the audacity to be asking black people, ‘Do they hate him?’ That takes a lot of nerve.”– Malcolm X
“Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.”– Malcolm X
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.”– Malcolm X
“There is no more apartheid in South Africa than in the United States.”– Malcolm X
“He said, one time, that no true leader burdened his followers with a greater load than they could carry, and no true leader sets too fast a pace for his follows to keep up.”– Malcolm X
“People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.”– Malcolm X
“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”– Malcolm X
“America in its entirety is segregationist and is racist. It’s more camouflaged in the north, but it’s the same thing.”– Malcolm X
“America is the first country that can actually have a bloodless revolution.”– Malcolm X
“My black brothers and sisters – of all religious beliefs, or of no religious beliefs – we all have in common the greatest binding tie we could have. We are all black people!”– Malcolm X
“Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”– Malcolm X
“I say, sir, that you can never make an intelligent judgment without evidence.”– Malcolm X
“I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading has opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”– Malcolm X
“It is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come.”– Malcolm X
“What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.”– Malcolm X
“Not one black man is prominent in Brazil. The Negroes there are still at the bottom.”– Malcolm X
“They put your mind right in a bag, and take it wherever they want.”– Malcolm X
“How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?.”– Malcolm X
“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
“Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality….”– Malcolm X
“It is the process of mis-education that inhibits the full potential of a nation.”– Malcolm X
“Anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you’re both engaged in the same business – you know they’re doing something that you aren’t.”– Malcolm X
“Don’t be bitter. Remember Lot’s wife when they kill me, and they surely will. You have to use all of your energy to do what it is you have to do. [To his wife Betty Shabazz].”– Malcolm X
“There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent.”– Malcolm X
“A new world order is in the making, and it is up to us to prepare ourselves that we may take our rightful place in it.”– Malcolm X
“If they don’t want you and me to use clubs, take the clubs away from the racists. If they don’t want you and me to get violent, then stop the racists from being violent. Don’t teach us non-violence!!!”– Malcolm X
“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.”– Malcolm X
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”–Malcolm X
“The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God.”– Malcolm X
“I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong. Than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.”– Malcolm X
“You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. You can’t hate Africa and not hate yourself.”– Malcolm X
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.”– Malcolm X
“They cripple the bird‘s wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.”– Malcolm X
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”– Malcolm X
“History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, a man is demoted to the lower animals.”– Malcolm X
“Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”– Malcolm X
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