SATURDAY POST 05/03/2014 MALCOLM X: NO ONE MAN SHOULD HAVE THAT MUCH POWER. 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. Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha Nebraska on May 19, 1925. His mother was Louise Norton Little and his father was Earl Little. Louise Little was a homemaker to her husband and eight children and his father was an outspoken Baptist minister. The Littles were members of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association. The family suffered terroristic acts as a result of Earl’s outspokenness and the family’s associations. The family suffered death threats and their home in Omaha was firebombed twice before Malcolm reached his fourth birthday. The family moved to Lansing Michigan and trouble followed. In 1929, the family home was burned to the ground. Two years later Earl’s body was found lying across the town’s trolley tracks. The Lansing police ruled each incident. Louise suffered a mental breakdown a few years and was committed to a mental institution. The children were divided among orphanages and foster homes. X excelled in junior high school but dropped out after a white teacher told him that practicing law was no realistic goal for a nigger. He later recalled feeling that the white world offered no place for a career oriented black man, regardless of talent. From age 14 to 21 X held a variety of jobs while living with his sister in the Roxbury area of Boston. After a short time in Flint, Michigan he moved to Harlem in 1943. There he engaged in various crimes: drug dealing, gambling, racketeering and robbery. X was disqualified from service in war after reportedly saying to the draft board that he wanted to be sent down there to organize the nigger soldiers, steal some guns and kill us some crackers. In late 1945, X returned to Boston where he and accomplices committed a series of burglaries targeting white families in the city. In 1946, he was arrested while retrieving a stolen watch he was having repaired. He was sentenced to eight to ten years in the penitentiary. During his incarceration, X met a fellow convict John Bemby. Under Bemby’s influence, X developed a voracious appetite for reading. X later said that he eventually damaged his eyes by reading so intensively by low light. While in prison, some of X’s siblings wrote to him about the Nation of Islam. The Nation was a relatively new religious movement that preached self reliance, and ultimately a return to Africa. In 1948, X wrote to Elijah Muhammad (the leader of the Nation) who guided him in the ways of Islam. X communicated with members of the Nation through letters on a constant basis. In 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigations opened a file on X after he wrote a letter to President Harry S. Truman expressing opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself a communist. That year he also took the moniker of X. He chose X because it represents the unknown and he did not know his ancestral name from Africa. X was released from prison in 1952. Upon release, he met with Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. In 1953, he was named assistant minister of a temple in Detroit, Michigan. X worked to spread the teachings of the Nation of Islam and opened or operated temples in Boston, Philadelphia, and Harlem. In 1953, the FBI began surveillance of him. He continued the work of the Nation. Hundreds of members joined the religious movement monthly. In 1955, X met the former Betty Sanders after one of his lectures. In 1956, she joined the Nation changing her name to Betty X. The couple married in 1958 after X proposed to her on the telephone two days . The couple had six daughters. Malikah and Malaak, a set of twins were born after their father’s death. Other daughters Atallah, Qubilah, Ilyasay, Gamilah Lamumba. Malcolm X only grandson, Malcolm Shabazz was killed in Mexico. He was there to meet a civil rights activist from California. He was the son of Qubilah Shabazz and was 28 at the time of his death. Malcolm X came to national notoriety in 1957 during what is called the Hinton incident. On April 26th of that year, a group of three young Black men sought to verbally intervene in what they believe was a situation of police brutality. The young men were Muslim and members of the Nation. The young men were beaten by the police. One of the young men was named Johnson Hinton. Hinton suffered severe injury to his skull. X and a group of about 500 members went to the police to intervene. Sensing an impasse, X dismissed the followers with a sign of the hand. The members left silently. Said one of the officers on the scene, “ No one man should have that much power.” There was no indictment of the officers and X sent a terse telegram to the police commissioner. The New York Police Department then infiltrated the congregation. By the late 1950s Malcolm X had adopted the name Shabazz. Malik Shabazz. In 1960 Shabazz was invited to official functions at the United Nations general assembly. There he met Gamal Abdel Nassar of Egypt, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia. Fidel Castro of Cuba also met with Shabazz. As would be expected, many Whites and indeed many Blacks vehemently opposed Shabazz. He and other members of the Nation were described as hate mongers, Black Supremacists, racists, and violence seekers and segregationists. Civil Rights organizations denounced him and the Nation as irresponsible extremists whose views did not represent those of other African Americans. The Nation forbade its members from participating in elections. X was equally as critical of the civil rights movement. He called Martin Luther King a chump and other civil rights movement leaders as stooges of the white establishment. He called the 1963 March on Washington the farce on Washington. One of the people who joined the Nation and helped increase membership from 500 to over 25,000 during the time frame of the 1950’s to the 1960’s was the former Cassius Clay, who took the name Muhammed Ali. X likened the death of John F Kennedy as a case of the chickens coming home to roost. He was censured by the Nation for a period of 90 days. On March 8, 1964, X publicly announced his permanent break with the Nation. He had become aware of indiscretions by Elijah Muhammed involving single female secretaries with the Nation. After the break, X planned to set up a Black Nationalist organization to heighten the political consciousness of African Americans. March 26, 1964, X met martin Luther King for the first time. In April of that year, X gave a speech titled The Ballot or the Bullett, in which he advised Blacks to exercise their right to vote wisely but cautioned that if the government continued to prevent them from enjoying full equity, they may have to take up arms. In April 1964, X took a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The reader should note that a pilgrimage to Mecca during the Hajj is required for Muslims, if they are able to get there. X later said that after seeing Muslims of all colors, from blue eyed blondes to black skinned Africans interacting as equals led him to see Islam as a means by which racial problems could be overcome. X first visited Africa in 1959 when he went to plan a trip for Elijah Muhammed. He returned for a second time upon his returning from Mecca. He met with African leaders from several African countries. Many of the leaders offered X positions in their governments. While there, X was given the name of Omowale which means the son who has come home. He later called this his most treasured honor. X went to Paris and London in November 1964. He took part in the famous debate at the Oxford Union in the former city. There was so much interest in the debate that it was broadcast live on the BBC. Thoughout 1964, X received many death threats. Some passing through his wife. Some of these threats were believed to be from the Nation. On July 9, a former aide who was later exposed as an FBI informant, referred to X by saying, “Anyone who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in jeopardy.” In the December issue of Muhammed Speaks, a Nation newspaper Louis X, who would later be known as Louis Farrakhan wrote, “ Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death.” On February 21, 1965. While preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at Mahhattan’s Audubon Ballroom, someone in the 400 person crowd yelled, “Nigger get your hand out my pocket.” As the body guards moved to quell the disturbance, a man rushed the stage and shot X in the chest with a sawed off shot gun. Two others approached and fired. X succumbed to 21 bullet wounds. Three suspects were arrested, all members of the Nation. All three were convicted. All three were eventually paroled, one becoming leader of a Muslim temple. There has been new interest in the life of Malcolm X Shabazz. Time will tell if any generation picks up the mantle. X obviously had the opportunity to move to Africa with his young family. Did he decide not to go because he believed he had work here in America which involved leading his people to true freedom? Note that the same CO INTEL PRO that went after the Black Panthers surveiled X
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 01:01:13 +0000
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