![]() On his way back to the States, Malcolm shared his important new insight with his friend, author Maya Angelou.įriend and author Maya Angelou was also heavily involved in civil rights In the holy city Malcolm discovered a purer form of Islam - one almost unrecognisable from what he had been taught by the Nation of Islam. His response was to take the ultimate journey for a devout Muslim - to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Ousted from the brotherhood he had committed 12 years of his life to, Malcolm was in turmoil. Elijah Muhammad had grown jealous of Malcolm's rising international profile and when he made unauthorised comments about the assassination of President John F Kennedy, Muhammad used this as an opportunity to suspend Malcolm X from the Nation of Islam. Yet this wasn't the only tension between the two men. In 1962 it emerged that he was facing paternity suits from two of his former secretaries and various teenage girls. Unfortunately, it turned out that Mr Muhammad was preaching one thing and practising another. But while Malcolm was the spokesperson, the group's spiritual leader was the honourable Elijah Muhammad. With Malcolm as its public face, membership of the Nation of Islam rose rapidly during the 1950s. "That's what you mean by non-violent, be defenceless in the face of one of the cruellest beasts - the American white man." "The white man pays Reverend Martin Luther King so that Martin Luther King can keep the negro defenceless," he argued. In fact, according to Malcolm, King was going backwards. Martin Luther King was also working tirelessly to change the segregation laws, which were still in place in America until 1964.īut, with his stated non-violent approach, Dr King simply wasn't moving fast enough for the Nation Of Islam. Malcolm X made it his mission to show his congregation how they could shake off the chains of slavery once and for all.īut he wasn't the only minister fighting racial discrimination at this time. My father got his name from his grandfather and he got his name from his grandfather and he got it from the slave master." Malcolm answered: "My father didn't know his real name. "What was your father's real name?" the interviewer went on. "What is your real name?" an interviewer asked him. He gave up his surname, Little, and adopted the title X, as a protest against what had happened during the days of slavery. When he was released in 1952, he became a minister in the Nation of Islam. He memorised the dictionary, read the bible and began studying - everything from archeology to genetics. "We have a comon enemy - we have this in common - a common discriminator, so once we realise we have this common enemy we unite on the basis of what we have in common and what we have foremost in common is that enemy - the white man," he said later.Īfter this revelation, Malcolm made the most of his time inside. The Nation of Islam taught these problems could be traced to one simple source. Malcolm's life up to this point had been in many ways typical of the problems facing black Americans in the 1940s. It was here that he discovered the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist group that presented an African American version of the Islamic faith. Strangely enough, salvation came when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary. It wasn't long before he discovered one vocation that was open to a young black man in 1940s America - hustling. In school Malcolm found himself at an extreme disadvantage because of the colour of his skin. When his mother, unable to cope, was committed to a mental asylum, Malcolm went into a foster home. "He was just a fine human being, a man, as Ossie Davis said in his eulogy - he said Malcolm was a shining prince."īorn Malcolm Little in 1925, he was six years old when his father died a violent death, allegedly at the hands of white supremacists.Įxtreme hardship came next. He was blunt, he was honest - he called a spade a spade," says the film's director, Spike Lee. ![]() "Malcolm X stressed education, he didn't hold his tongue. A decade later Malcolm hit the big screen with a feature film based on his autobiography.
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