Malcolm X . Also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was an American speaker, minister, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous defender of the rights of African Americans, a man who accused white Americans in the harshest conditions of his crimes against his black compatriots. Instead, his detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence . He has been described as one of the largest and most influential African Americans in history. This American political activist. He grew up in Lansing, in the state of Michigan, where he suffered the violence of the Ku Klux Klan: his house was burned down and shortly after his father was assassinated, as a result of which his mother was committed to an asylum.
Biography
He was born on 19 as maypole as 1925 in Omaha , Nebraska . At the age of 14, his father died and his mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital because of the madness caused by the fact that custody of her children was unfairly removed. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in the underworld in Boston and New York , and in 1945 he was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison. In prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam, and upon his parole in 1952 , he became one of the Nation’s leaders and a minister.
For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam, but tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad , head of the Nation of Islam, led to his departure from the organization in March 1964 . Islam, Malcolm X made the pilgrimage to Mecca and converted to Sunnism. He traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East , and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular Organization of African American Unity.
First name
His first name was Malcolm Little, which later changed to the X that identifies him. With the X he alluded to the unknown surname of the slaves from whom Malcolm descended.
International travel
Africa
Malcolm X visited Africa on three separate occasions, once in 1959 and twice in 1964 . During his visits, he met officials, gave newspaper interviews, and spoke on radio and television in Egypt , Ethiopia , Tanganyika (now Tanzania ), Nigeria , Ghana , Guinea , Sudan , Senegal , Liberia , Algeria, and Morocco . Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana , Gamal Abdel Nasser from Egypt, andAhmed Ben Bella from Algeria invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments.
In 1959 , Malcolm X traveled to Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic), Sudan, Nigeria and Ghana to organize a tour in honor of Elijah Muhammad. The first of Malcolm X’s two trips to Africa in 1964 ran from April 13 to May 21 , before and after his pilgrimage to Mecca. On May 8 , following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was distinguished as an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students Association. During this reception, the students gave him the name “Omowale”, which means “the son who has come home” in the Yoruba language. Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography that he “never received such a precious honor.”
The 9 of July of 1964 , Malcolm X returned to Africa, and on July 17 was welcomed at the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24, 1964, Malcolm had met with each of Africa’s prominent leaders and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.
United Kingdom
The 23 of November of 1964 , on his way to the United States from Africa, Malcolm stopped in Paris , where he spoke at the Hall of mutuality.
A week later, on November 30, Malcolm X traveled to the UK, where he took part in a debate at the Oxford Union on December 3 . The topic of the debate was “Extremism in the Defense of Freedom is not a vice; moderation in the search for justice is not virtue.” Interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC. The 5 as February as 1965 , Malcolm X returned to Europe . On 8 February he spoke in London , before the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations. Malcolm X tried to go to France on February 9 , but was denied entry. On February 12 he visitedSmethwick , near Birmingham , a place that had become synonymous with racial division after the 1964 general election, when the Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat following rumors that its party candidates used the slogan
“If you want a black for your neighbor, vote for the Labor Party”
.
Accused
In 1946, accused of theft, he was arrested, tried and imprisoned. In prison he came into contact with the Nation of Islam, a sect that proclaimed the superiority of the black race. Having become one of its most prominent members, he was sent to mosque number seven in New York , one of the most important in the country, where he stood out for his oratorical skills and congregational skills. His ideological discourse quickly evolved, and emphasized the need for coexistence between the races and the urgency of a social order that would eradicate injustice. This fact, added to his growing prominence within the movement, pitted him against the leader of the Nation of Islam. In 1959 he met Cuban leader Fidel Castro during his stay in the New York neighborhood ofHarlem .
Three theories about the perpetrators of the crime
Three theories about the perpetrators of the crime that took Malcolm X’s life: – The suspicion that the murder was perpetrated by the Black Muslims themselves is encouraged by the FBI in the information contained in the investigations to which the Nation of Islam was subjected, of Elijah Muhammad , the former teacher of Malcolm X. Obviously, these had reasons, means and moments, to do so, especially because of the internal struggle and political jealousy over the growth of the figure of Malcolm X.
- Another hypothesis leads to suspicion of the mafia and drug cartels, due to the influence of Malcolm X’s preaching on the black communities of the United States against drugs. Therefore, the drug traffickers gained from their physical elimination. – The latest suspicion falls on the US intelligence services, mainly the FBI and the CIA. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, had long followed the activities of Malcolm X and his disciples. His main fear was that an alliance between him and Martin Luther King Jr. would take shape. For the CIA, the presentation that Malcolm X made at the UN against the United States accusing the government of violating the human rights of African-Americans had implications for American foreign policy. Declassified FBI and CIA documents express the concern of these organizations for Malcolm X’s admiration for Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara, as well as with other Third World leaders. In the CIA Plans office, the division engaged in the overthrow and assassination of various rulers of the Third World, they were also uneasy about Malcolm X and spied on his activities until the very day of his death.
The two theories proved
Unsurprisingly, of these three suspicions, the FBI proved the first two. After a 72-hour investigation, he concluded that there were “no international implications” in the murder of Malcolm X. He came to such a conclusion with the same speed with which he charged Lee Harvey Oswald, as the sole perpetrator of the murder of John F. Kennedy and that James Earl Ray acted alone in the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. .
All the conjectures have ties in common: the deep internal differences in the Nation of Islam were fostered by a press and intelligence campaign (COINTELPRO, Counterintelligence Program), led by Hoover himself, to promote the division, including undercover agents infiltrated in the organization. It is even suspected that one of Malcolm X’s bodyguards, present on the day of the murder, was an FBI agent.
The FBI and the BOSSI (Office of Special Services) of the New York Police Department, infiltrated two groups founded by Malcolm X in 1964 : the Organization of African-American Unity and the Muslim Mosque Inc.The CIA, the mafia and the drug trafficking, were associated in the Bay of Pigs invasion , in the attempts to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro and in the atrocious murder of the Congolese leader Patricio Lumumba .
Death
The 21 of February of 1965 , at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, Malcolm X began to speak at a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity when a disturbance broke out in the crowd. A man shouted:
“Nigga, get your hands out of my pocket”
. Malcolm’s bodyguards came to see what happened while another man shot Malcolm in the chest with a sawed-off. Together with two other people, they shot him 16 times. One of the murderers was caught and beaten by the crowd, but the others managed to escape. Malcolm X was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Columbia University Medical Center.
Funeral
The number of people who came to the Harlem Funeral Unit from February 23 to 26 , 1965 was estimated to be between 14,000 and 30,000. Malcolm X’s funeral was held on February 27 at the Temple of Faith, at the Church of God in Christ, in Harlem . The Church had a capacity for more than 1,000 people, and in addition loudspeakers were placed outside the temple and a local television channel broadcast the funeral live.
Civil rights leaders like John Lewis , Bayard Rustin , James Forman , James Farmer , Jesse Gray and Andrew Young were in attendance, as well as actor and activist Ossie Davis , who delivered the eulogy, describing him as “our brilliant black prince.”
Legacy
Malcolm X has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. He is credited with increasing the self-esteem of black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritages. He is responsible for the spread of Islam in the black community in the United States .
Many African Americans, especially those living in northern cities, found Malcolm X better voicing their grievances about inequality than did the civil rights movement. A biographer says that, in expressing his frustration, Malcolm X
“It made it clear that the price white Americans had to pay if they did not comply with the legitimate demands of blacks”
. In the late 1960s, he became more radical as an activist, and his teachings were part of the foundation on which they built their movements. The Black Power and Black Arts Movement, and the widespread adoption of the slogan
“Black is beautiful”,
go back to the roots of Malcolm X.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest in Malcolm X among youth-fueled youth, in part because of his use as an icon by hip-hop groups like Public Enemy . Images of Malcolm X could be found on T-shirts and jackets. This wave reached its peak in 1992 with the release of Malcolm X, a long-awaited film adapted from the Autobiography of Malcolm X.