Presentation on Malcolm X

I’m going to introduce you Malcolm X.

I-Malcolm’s childhood

Malcolm X born as Malcolm Little came to the world in 1925, in Omaha (Nebraska). He grew up in a family of 7 children and bathed in activism since birth because of his parents. His father Earl Little carpenter and baptist preacher and his mother Louise Helen Norton wanted to let their children know about the past of their ancestors. They were interested by the ideas of the pan african activist Marcus Garvey, for those who don’t know pan-africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African descent. Malcolm X’s father was also preaching desegregation.

Living in a still racist and segregationist America, the Little’s family was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan and they were forced to move many times. In 1929 their house in Lansing (Michigan) will be set on fire by the Black Legion, an affiliated small group of the KKK. In 1931 Earl Little will be gravely injured and will die, some say that he was killed by the Black Legion, he was struck by a street car in Lansing, the authorities said it was an accident, Malcolm X then wrote How could my father bash himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over?" Louise will then fall into depression and will be interned in a psychiatric hospital.

Malcolm will unfortunately face the hard reality of the condition of black people; he once told his professor he wanted to be a lawyer and his professor answered that a black couldn’t be a lawyer. This teacher, M. Ostrowski said “Malcolm, one of life's first needs is for us to be realistic. Don't misunderstand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you've got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer—that's no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be. You're good with your hands—making things. Everybody admires your carpentry shop work. Why don't you plan on carpentry? People like you as a person—you'd get all kinds of work” Thus Malcolm will be forced to match the idea the society has about black men ; and becomes a delinquent.

II- Life in prison and the Nation of Islam

Involved in many cases of drug dealing and racket he’ll be arrested for robbery in New-York at the age of 21, he was condemned to a sentence of 10 years of prison. There he’ll start learning about History and will convert to Islam. He served 6 years and was then freed on parole

He became interested by the ideas of Elijah Muhammad, leader and founder of “nation of Islam”, an organisation defending the ideas of black nationalism and the rejection of whites. Malcolm will join the NOI. He then changed his name (Little) to X, the unknown in mathematics, symbol of the ignorance of his own origins and rejection of his “slave name” as he said later “my father didn’t know his last name, my father got his last name from his grandfather and his grandfather got it from his grandfather who got it from the slave master, the real name of our people were destroyed during slavery”.

Malcolm X moved to Chicago and began to preach for the organization. He succeeded in doubling the number of faithful in a very short time and arousing media interest in him and in the NOI. X is increasingly taking political positions, notably criticizing the nonviolent method and universalism of the black civil rights movement. However his relationship with the NOI will deteriorate from the 60’s and will reach a point of no return when he spoke about the death of JFK, (chickens coming home to roost.=on récolte ce que l’on a semé) he was suspended.

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