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Malcolm X was one of the revolutionary leaders in the Black Civil Rights struggle in America in the 1960's.
I must admit that when I first heard about Malcolm X and his style of teaching, I didn't like it. I thought he was very revolutionary in his thinking and his actions. But now, I have come to see that, the way he taught, and the way he thought was the only way people would listen to him.
I read Malcolm X's biography while I was in high school, and I thought that it was fascinating that a person went through all what he went through to achieve civil rights in his own country. He was willing to achieve black rights through whatever means necessary.
In Malcolm's own words, he was going to be a product of his own generation..."Gentlemen, I finished the eigth grade in Mason, Mich. My high school was the black ghetto of Roxbury, Mass. My college was in the streets of Harlem, and my masters' was taken in prison." Malcolm X, Autobiography, p.389
It wasn't until he was put in prision for burglery that his life began to change. While in prision, he met a fellow prisioner who was a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who was the leader of the Nation of Islam, he was interested in what this man had to say, and eventually studies the readings from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and when he was parolled, he was able to meet him.
"What made him unfamiliar and dangerous was not his hatred for white people but his love for blacks, his apprehension of the horror of the black condition, and the reasons for it, and his determination so to work on their hearts and minds that they would be enabled to see their condition and change it themselves." James Baldwin in "No Name in the Street",p.97 Through his studies and his life, Malcolm was able to see the stark reality of how black people were treated, and the conditions that they lived in. He could see that there had to be a better way, and he believe that it was through Islam, that the black people would be saved.
On February the 21st, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated at a rally in the Audubon Ballroom in New York.
To find out more about Malcolm X and his teachings please have a look at the following pages...
Elke Moritz: Malcolm X
Has a great bio on Malcolm and black history in general.
A MUST for all interested people.X-Web
This page takes a while to download due to the frames and java graphics,
but it is a good site to visit.Malcolm X
Has sounds and pics and links..overall a good page to go to
Malcolm Luther King Jr. was also a leader in the Black Civil Rights struggle in America in the 1960's. Unlike Malcolm X, with whom I grew to like years later, Malcolm Luther King Jr, was my hero at a very early stage.
I listened to King's "I have a Dream" speach and was mesmerised. At the time I grabbed every book I could on King and read them all. But I think the most significant of them all was the bio that was written by his wife, CorettaScott King.
The love he had for his people, and the love he had for God were the his most endering feature, as well as his most hated feature.
King fought for the people he loved, and his dream was to see black and white working together. The 1950's and the 1960's were significant due to the brutality of the Anti-Black sentiment and also the riots that had taken place. His motovation to lead his people in boycotting the buses that took them to work in Montgomery, Alabama was one of the major acheivements in the Civi Rights Movement. This boycot lasted 381 days. Everyone thought it wouldn't last, but it did. It also proved that Black people were determined to overcome.
On December 21, 1956, both Black and White people were riding on the same buses
King and his followers did face opposition in everything they did, but they were determined to keep going until de-segregation was acheived. On August the 28th, 1963, the March on Washington took place. It became the largest and the most dramatic demonstration of civil rights in the history of the USA. There were more than 250,000 people at the march, this included about 60,000 white people, they all filled the mall between the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. The highlight of the march was King's "I have a Dream" Speach.
On the 3rd of April 1968, King says his "Promised Land" speach, which in my opinion, he knew something was going to happen to him. I watched a recording of that speach and it was a powerful speach, when he said that he looked over the other side of the mountian, he just knew something was going to happen to him.
On the 4th of April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr was assissinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis
To find out more about Martin Luther King Jr and his views, please have a look at the following pages..
A Tribute To Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The photo takes a while to download, but the end result is worth it.
An extensive site, and a good site.Martin Luther King, Jr.
This site has pics, sounds, and even the speaches. Definatly worth a look.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X
This is the only time the two men ever met
This page is the original work of Lisa Jackson, unless otherwise stated.
