an essay about malcolm x

Civil rights activist Malcolm X was a prominent leader in the Nation of Islam. Until his 1965 assassination, he vigorously supported Black nationalism.

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Malcolm X was a minister, civil rights activist , and prominent Black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and 1960s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. A naturally gifted orator, Malcolm X exhorted Black people to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. The fiery civil rights leader broke with the Nation of Islam shortly before his assassination in 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a speech. He was 39 years old.

FULL NAME: Malcolm X (nee Malcolm Little) BORN: May 19, 1925 DIED: February 21, 1965 BIRTHPLACE: Omaha, Nebraska SPOUSE: Betty Shabazz (1958-1965) CHILDREN: Attilah, Quiblah, Lamumbah, Ilyasah, Malaak, and Malikah ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the fourth of eight children born to Louise, a homemaker, and Earl Little, a preacher who was also an active member of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and avid supporter of Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey .

Due to Earl Little’s civil rights activism, the family was subjected to frequent harassment from white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and one of its splinter factions, the Black Legion. In fact, Malcolm Little had his first encounter with racism before he was even born. “When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, ‘a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home,’” Malcolm later remembered. “Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out.”

The harassment continued when Malcolm was 4 years old, and local Klan members smashed all of the family’s windows. To protect his family, Earl Little moved them from Omaha to Milwaukee in 1926 and then to Lansing, Michigan, in 1928.

However, the racism the family encountered in Lansing proved even greater than in Omaha. Shortly after the Littles moved in, a racist mob set their house on fire in 1929, and the town’s all-white emergency responders refused to do anything. “The white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned to the ground,” Malcolm later remembered. Earl moved the family to East Lansing where he built a new home.

Two years later, in 1931, Earl’s dead body was discovered lying across the municipal streetcar tracks. Although the family believed Earl was murdered by white supremacists from whom he had received frequent death threats, the police officially ruled his death a streetcar accident, thereby voiding the large life insurance policy he had purchased in order to provide for his family in the event of his death.

Louise never recovered from the shock and grief over her husband’s death. In 1937, she was committed to a mental institution where she remained for the next 26 years. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in foster homes.

In 1938, Malcolm was kicked out of West Junior High School and sent to a juvenile detention home in Mason, Michigan. The white couple who ran the home treated him well, but he wrote in his autobiography that he was treated more like a “pink poodle” or a “pet canary” than a human being.

He attended Mason High School where he was one of only a few Black students. He excelled academically and was well-liked by his classmates, who elected him class president.

A turning point in Malcolm’s childhood came in 1939 when his English teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher responded, “One of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic... you need to think of something you can be... why don’t you plan on carpentry?” Having been told in no uncertain terms that there was no point in a Black child pursuing education, Malcolm dropped out of school the following year, at the age of 15.

After quitting school, Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Ella, about whom he later recalled: “She was the first really proud Black woman I had ever seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin. This was unheard of among Negroes in those days.”

Ella landed Malcolm a job shining shoes at the Roseland Ballroom. However, out on his own on the streets of Boston, he became acquainted with the city’s criminal underground and soon turned to selling drugs.

He got another job as kitchen help on the Yankee Clipper train between New York and Boston and fell further into a life of drugs and crime. Sporting flamboyant pinstriped zoot suits, he frequented nightclubs and dance halls and turned more fully to crime to finance his lavish lifestyle.

In 1946, Malcolm was arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to 10 years in prison. To pass the time during his incarceration, he read constantly, devouring books from the prison library in an attempt make up for the years of education he had missed by dropping out of high school.

Also while in prison, Malcolm was visited by several siblings who had joined the Nation of Islam, a small sect of Black Muslims who embraced the ideology of Black nationalism—the idea that in order to secure freedom, justice and equality, Black Americans needed to establish their own state entirely separate from white Americans.

He changed his name to Malcolm X and converted to the Nation of Islam before his release from prison in 1952 after six and a half years.

Now a free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, where he worked with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad , to expand the movement’s following among Black Americans nationwide.

Malcolm X became the minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston, while also founding new temples in Hartford and Philadelphia. In 1960, he established a national newspaper called Muhammad Speaks in order to further promote the message of the Nation of Islam.

Articulate, passionate, and an inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted Black people to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. “You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.”

His militant proposals—a violent revolution to establish an independent Black nation—won Malcolm X large numbers of followers as well as many fierce critics. Due primarily to the efforts of Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952, to 40,000 members by 1960.

By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of the Civil Rights Movement, presenting a dramatic alternative to Martin Luther King Jr. ’s vision of a racially-integrated society achieved by peaceful means. King was critical of Malcolm’s methods but avoided directly calling out his more radical counterpart. Although very aware of each other and working to achieve the same goal, the two leaders met only once—and very briefly—on Capitol Hill when the U.S. Senate held a hearing about an anti-discrimination bill.

A rupture with Elijah Muhammad proved much more traumatic. In 1963, Malcolm X became deeply disillusioned when he learned that his hero and mentor had violated many of his own teachings, most flagrantly by carrying on many extramarital affairs. Muhammad had, in fact, fathered several children out of wedlock.

Malcolm’s feelings of betrayal, combined with Muhammad’s anger over Malcolm’s insensitive comments regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy , led Malcolm X to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964.

That same year, Malcolm X embarked on an extended trip through North Africa and the Middle East. The journey proved to be both a political and spiritual turning point in his life. He learned to place America’s Civil Rights Movement within the context of a global anti-colonial struggle, embracing socialism and pan-Africanism.

Malcolm X also made the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during which he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

After his epiphany at Mecca, Malcolm X returned to the United States more optimistic about the prospects for a peaceful resolution to America’s race problems. “The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision,” he said. “America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.”

Just as Malcolm X appeared to be embarking on an ideological transformation with the potential to dramatically alter the course of the Civil Rights Movement, he was assassinated .

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X took the stage for a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He had just begun addressing the room when multiple men rushed the stage and began firing guns. Struck numerous times at close range, Malcolm X was declared dead after arriving at a nearby hospital. He was 39.

Three members of the Nation of Islam were tried and sentenced to life in prison for murdering the activist. In 2021, two of the men—Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam—were exonerated for Malcolm’s murder after spending decades behind bars. Both maintained their innocence but were still convicted in March 1966, alongside Mujahid Abdul Halim, who did confess to the murder. Aziz and Islam were released from prison in the mid-1980s, and Islam died in 2009. After the exoneration, they were awarded $36 million for their wrongful convictions.

In February 2023, Malcolm X’s family announced a wrongful death lawsuit against the New York Police Department, the FBI, the CIA, and other government entities in relation to the activist’s death. They claim the agencies concealed evidence and conspired to assassinate Malcolm X.

Malcolm X married Betty Shabazz in 1958. The couple had six daughters: Attilah, Quiblah, Lamumbah, Ilyasah, Malaak, and Malikah. Twins Malaak and Malikah were born after Malcolm died in 1965.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

In the early 1960s, Malcolm X began working with acclaimed author Alex Haley on an autobiography. The book details Malcolm X’s life experiences and his evolving views on racial pride, Black nationalism, and pan-Africanism.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965 after his assassination to near-universal praise. The New York Times called it a “brilliant, painful, important book,” and Time magazine listed it as one of the 10 most influential nonfiction books of the 20 th century.

Malcolm X has been the subject of numerous movies, stage plays, and other works and has been portrayed by actors like James Earl Jones , Morgan Freeman , and Mario Van Peebles.

In 1992, Spike Lee directed Denzel Washington in the title role of his movie Malcolm X . Both the film and Washington’s portrayal of Malcolm X received wide acclaim and were nominated for several awards, including two Academy Awards.

In the immediate aftermath of Malcolm X’s death, commentators largely ignored his recent spiritual and political transformation and criticized him as a violent rabble-rouser. But especially after the publication of The Autobiography of Malcolm X , he began to be remembered for underscoring the value of a truly free populace by demonstrating the great lengths to which human beings will go to secure their freedom.

“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression,” he said. “Because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.”

• Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.
• Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
• You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.
• If you are not willing to pay the price for freedom, you don’t deserve freedom.
• We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying “We Shall Overcome.” We’ve got to fight to overcome.
• I believe that it is a crime for anyone to teach a person who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.
• We are non-violent only with non-violent people—I’m non-violent as long as somebody else is non-violent—as soon as they get violent, they nullify my non-violence.
• Revolution is like a forest fire. It burns everything in its path. The people who are involved in a revolution don’t become a part of the system—they destroy the system, they change the system.
• If a man puts his arms around me voluntarily, that’s brotherhood, but if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that’s not brotherhood, that’s hypocrisy.
• You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.
• 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 slavemaster.
• To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace. I formerly was a criminal. I formerly was in prison. I’m not ashamed of that.
• It’s going to be the ballot or the bullet.
• America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 18, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Malcolm X was a minister, a leader in the civil rights movement and a supporter of Black nationalism. He urged his fellow Black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary,” a stance that often put him at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. His charisma and oratory skills helped him achieve national prominence in the Nation of Islam, a belief system that merged Islam with Black nationalism. After Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, his bestselling book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, popularized his ideas and inspired the Black Power movement.

Malcolm X: Early Life

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska . His father was a Baptist preacher and follower of Marcus Garvey . The family moved to Lansing, Michigan after the Ku Klux Klan made threats against them, though the family continued to face threats in their new home.

In 1931, Malcolm’s father was allegedly murdered by a white supremacist group called the Black Legionaries, though the authorities claimed his death was an accident. Mrs. Little and her children were denied her husband’s death benefits.

Did you know? In 1964, Malcolm X made a pilgrimage to Mecca and changed his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

At age 6, the future Malcolm X entered a foster home and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown. Though highly intelligent and a good student, he dropped out of school following eighth grade. He began wearing zoot suits , dealing drugs and earned the nickname “Detroit Red.” At 21, he went to prison for larceny.

Nation of Islam

It was in jail that Malcolm X first encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad , head of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, a Black nationalist group that identified white people as the devil. Soon after, Malcolm adopted the last name “X” to represent his rejection of his “slave” name.

Malcolm was released from prison after serving six years and went on to become the minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem, where his oratory skills and sermons in favor of self-defense gained the organization new admirers: The Nation of Islam grew from 400 members in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. His admirers included celebrities like Muhammad Ali , who became close friends with Malcolm X before the two had a falling out.

His advocacy of achieving “by any means necessary” put him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Martin Luther King, Jr. ’s nonviolent approach to gaining ground in the growing civil rights movement .

After King’s “ I Have a Dream ” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, Malcolm remarked: “Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’ … while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?”

Malcolm X’s politics also earned him the ire of the FBI , who conducted surveillance of him from his time in prison until his death. J. Edgar Hoover even told the agency’s New York office to “do something about Malcolm X.”

In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty Shabazz (née Betty Sanders), a native of Detroit, Michigan , after a lengthy courtship.

The couple had six children, all daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba and twins Malikah and Malaak. Several of Malcolm X’s children have been outspoken activists in the civil rights movement and other causes.

Organization of Afro-American Unity

Disenchanted with corruption in the Nation of Islam, which suspended him in December 1963 after he claimed that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was “the chickens coming home to roost,” Malcolm X left the organization for good.

A few months later, he traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he underwent a spiritual transformation: "The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision," he wrote. Malcolm X returned to America with a new name: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

In June 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which identified racism, and not the white race, as the enemy of justice. His more moderate philosophy became influential, especially among members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ).

Malcolm X Assassination

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by three gunmen at an Organization of Afro-American Unity rally in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City .

Though it was initially believed that the three assassins were members of the Nation of Islam and were affiliated with religious leader Louis Farrakhan, the killing remains controversial and no consensus exists on who the killer(s) actually were.

In 2021, Muhammad Aziz was exonerated after being convicted in 1966 for the killing along with Khalil Islam and Mujahid Abdul Halim. Halim, who admitted to the shooting but later said Aziz and Islam were not involved, was paroled in 2010.

Malcolm X had predicted that he would be more important in death than in life, and had even foreshadowed his early demise in his book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm X is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, New York.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X began work on his autobiography in the early 1960s with the help of Alex Haley , the acclaimed author of Roots . The Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicled his life and views on race, religion and Black nationalism. It was published posthumously in 1965 and became a bestseller.

The book and Malcolm X’s life have inspired numerous film adaptations, most famously Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington .

Quotes by Malcolm X

“If you have no critics, you'll likely have no success.”

“Stumbling is not falling.”

“There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.”

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

“You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”

Malcolm X. Biography.com . ‘Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X.’ New York Times. People and Ideas: Malcolm X. PBS . Malcolm X’s 5 surviving daughters: Inside lives marred by tragedy and turmoil. New York Post . A man exonerated in the killing of Malcolm X is suing New York City for $40 million. NPR .

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May 19, 1925 to February 21, 1965

As the nation’s most visible proponent of  Black Nationalism , Malcolm X’s challenge to the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped set the tone for the ideological and tactical conflicts that took place within the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. Given Malcolm X’s abrasive criticism of King and his advocacy of racial separatism, it is not surprising that King rejected the occasional overtures from one of his fiercest critics. However, after Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, King wrote to his widow, Betty Shabazz: “While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had the great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem” (King, 26 February 1965).

Malcolm Little was born to Louise and Earl Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on 19 May 1925. His father died when he was six years old—the victim, he believed, of a white racist group. Following his father’s death, Malcolm recalled, “Some kind of psychological deterioration hit our family circle and began to eat away our pride” (Malcolm X,  Autobiography , 14). By the end of the 1930s Malcolm’s mother had been institutionalized, and he became a ward of the court to be raised by white guardians in various reform schools and foster homes.

Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) while serving a prison term in Massachusetts on burglary charges. Shortly after his release in 1952, he moved to Chicago and became a minister under Elijah Muhammad, abandoning his “slave name,” and becoming Malcolm X (Malcolm X, “We Are Rising”). By the late 1950s, Malcolm had become the NOI’s leading spokesman.

Although Malcolm rejected King’s message of  nonviolence , he respected King as a “fellow-leader of our people,” sending King NOI articles as early as 1957 and inviting him to participate in mass meetings throughout the early 1960s ( Papers  5:491 ). Although Malcolm was particularly interested that King hear Elijah Muhammad’s message, he also sought to create an open forum for black leaders to explore solutions to the “race problem” (Malcolm X, 31 July 1963). King never accepted Malcolm’s invitations, however, leaving communication with him to his secretary, Maude  Ballou .

Despite his repeated overtures to King, Malcolm did not refrain from criticizing him publicly. “The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy,” Malcolm told an audience in 1963, “is the Negro revolution … That’s no revolution” (Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,” 9).

In the spring of 1964, Malcolm broke away from the NOI and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. When he returned he began following a course that paralleled King’s—combining religious leadership and political action. Although King told reporters that Malcolm’s separation from Elijah Muhammad “holds no particular significance to the present civil rights efforts,” he argued that if “tangible gains are not made soon all across the country, we must honestly face the prospect that some Negroes might be tempted to accept some oblique path [such] as that Malcolm X proposes” (King, 16 March 1964).

Ten days later, during the Senate debate on the  Civil Rights Act of 1964 , King and Malcolm met for the first and only time. After holding a press conference in the Capitol on the proceedings, King encountered Malcolm in the hallway. As King recalled in a 3 April letter, “At the end of the conference, he came and spoke to me, and I readily shook his hand.” King defended shaking the hand of an adversary by saying that “my position is that of kindness and reconciliation” (King, 3 April 1965).

Malcolm’s primary concern during the remainder of 1964 was to establish ties with the black activists he saw as more militant than King. He met with a number of workers from the  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee  (SNCC), including SNCC chairman John  Lewis  and Mississippi organizer Fannie Lou  Hamer . Malcolm saw his newly created Organization of African American Unity (OAAU) as a potential source of ideological guidance for the more militant veterans of the southern civil rights movement. At the same time, he looked to the southern struggle for inspiration in his effort to revitalize the Black Nationalist movement.

In January 1965, he revealed in an interview that the OAAU would “support fully and without compromise any action by any group that is designed to get meaningful immediate results” (Malcolm X,  Two Speeches , 31). Malcolm urged civil rights groups to unite, telling a gathering at a symposium sponsored by the  Congress of Racial Equality : “We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying ‘We Shall Overcome.’ We've got to fight to overcome” (Malcolm X,  Malcolm X Speaks , 38).

In early 1965, while King was jailed in Selma, Alabama, Malcolm traveled to Selma, where he had a private meeting with Coretta Scott  King . “I didn’t come to Selma to make his job difficult,” he assured Coretta. “I really did come thinking that I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King” (Scott King, 256).

On 21 February 1965, just a few weeks after his visit to Selma, Malcolm X was assassinated. King called his murder a “great tragedy” and expressed his regret that it “occurred at a time when Malcolm X was … moving toward a greater understanding of the nonviolent movement” (King, 24 February 1965). He asserted that Malcolm’s murder deprived “the world of a potentially great leader” (King, “The Nightmare of Violence”). Malcolm’s death signaled the beginning of bitter battles involving proponents of the ideological alternatives the two men represented.

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X, 1 February 1957, in  Papers  4:117 .

Goldman, Death and Life of Malcolm X , 1973.

King, “The Nightmare of Violence,”  New York Amsterdam News , 13 March 1965.

King, Press conference on Malcolm X’s assassination, 24 February 1965,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King, Statement on Malcolm X’s break with Elijah Muhammad, 16 March 1964,  MCMLK-RWWL .

King to Abram Eisenman, 3 April 1964,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King to Shabazz, 26 February 1965,  MCMLK-RWWL .

(Scott) King,  My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. , 1969.

Malcolm X, Interview by Harry Ring over Station WBAI-FM in New York, in  Two Speeches by Malcolm X , 1965.

Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,”  in Malcolm X Speaks , ed. George Breitman, 1965.

Malcolm X, “We Are Rising From the Dead Since We Heard Messenger Muhammad Speak,”  Pittsburgh Courier , 15 December 1956.

Malcolm X to King, 21 July 1960, in  Papers  5:491 .

Malcolm X to King, 31 July 1963, 

Malcolm X with Haley,  Autobiography of Malcolm X , 1965.

Historical Material

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X

From Malcolm X

Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X» Essay

Introduction.

The paper will argue that the film “Malcolm X” is a fight against the demonization of an African American icon. In light of critics’ remarks in the book “The mistakes of Malcolm X”, the director went beyond propaganda and told the story of a society changer. It will argue that the prison scene in the movie was designed to illustrate the story of a man who freed himself from a self created prison.

In the prison, Malcolm Little and another black prisoner are reading a dictionary. Malcolm’s friend reads out the definition of black from the book; all definitions were synonymous to evil, dirt and wickedness. He also reads out the definition of white, which was synonymous to honesty, purity and fairness (Lee, 1992). In this instance, the signifier refers to the negative definitions of ‘black’ that are found in the white man’s dictionary.

The signified in this case is the oppression and inequality that those words represent in the eyes of the protagonist as well as members of the black race. When Malcolm’s prison mate reads those definitions, the ideas shock Malcolm. He explains that the ideas come from a white man’s dictionary. It is at this point that Malcolm X realizes that knowledge was one of the greatest tools that white men used to control and dominate society.

The dictionary definitions assisted Malcolm in his self consciousness because he now knew that not all written material was accurate. His colleague points out that society gives out propaganda, and it is one’s responsibility to look beyond that propaganda in order to get to the truth. Critics assert that Malcolm X read too much into the racial-domination ideology (Lavelle, 2011). They believe that he looked for trouble even where it did not exist.

However, I disagree with this viewpoint because Malcolm’s analytical approach to literature reflected how social structures worked. It is necessary to look beyond certain objects and words in order to understand the intrinsic meaning behind those words. Malcolm was simply analyzing a society that treated black people as second class citizens. He was trying to get to the root of the problem through this analysis.

Malcolm X spoke to white and black audiences alike; however, his message was designed for the poor black people. He was deeply suspicious of the white man even after taking a long trip to Mecca. Furthermore, he was a radical. He made demands concerning black people’s separation from the white population. He believed in a violent propaganda that demanded equality by any means necessary.

Malcolm asserted that one should only be non violent to people that are non violent. Therefore, physical violence was a weapon that Malcolm endorsed. In this regard, the revolutionary message that Malcolm preached scared white Americans deeply. This was an individual who made sense, yet he preached hate. He was a powerful orator that the white citizens did not know how to handle. In essence, one can understand why Malcolm X’s image was quite negative.

The director needed to counter his demonization by portraying an individual that audiences could relate to. Through the journey of self enlightenment that the director highlights in the prison scene, it is possible to understand where Malcolm’s notions of racial oppression came from.

This means that non-black audiences can then identify with his ideas. The scene was crucial in bringing out the sociological ideologies that dominant classes used in order to protect their positions; literature was one such avenue. The dictionary was designed in such a way that it did not recognise the rights and opinions of black people who were not all ‘wicked’ or ‘evil’.

These words brought out the fundamental struggles that people in that society had to confront in their daily lives. These dictionary definitions were designed to give film consumers a better grasp of the black man’s struggles, and thus minimize chances of racial stereotyping.

The dictionary may also be perceived in another way in this film. When in prison, Malcolm X was ashamed about his lack of literacy skills. He could barely express himself in prose (Lee, 1992). Furthermore, he became envious of other prison mates who had a great command of the English language.

Having realized that his only path to liberation was his own literacy, Malcolm decided to learn how to read and write. The dictionary became his greatest companion because he would write out all the words on a page; including the punctuation marks. As he practiced this, his vocabulary kept improving.

When his command of the language increased, Malcolm became a book fanatic. The dictionary can also be seen as a signifier in this case. Critics, on the other hand, would explain that the dictionary represents someone who took responsibility for his actions (Lavelle, 2011). Such critics assert that many minorities failed to take responsibility for their own lives.

I disagree with this viewpoint because it does not recognize the importance of social and economic constructions in Malcolm’s society. ‘The signified’ refers to the journey of self discovery and emancipation. The dictionary was Malcolm’s tool out of the entrapment that others felt in the prison.

In fact, Malcolm explains that when he learnt how to read, he finally felt free. This dictionary signified the protagonists’ ability to become self made. He did not accept his circumstances passively; Malcolm knew that he was disadvantaged, and his only way out was through an education. The dictionary came to represent liberation.

He chose to curve out a different path for himself. He would never have become the great leader that society recognizes today if he never took the time to teach himself the English language. In this regard, I disagree with the critics because the dictionary shows the drive and determination of the protagonist.

Other non black races did not have to make that choice. Teachers, parents and other individuals could always teach white children how to read and write. They did not have to struggle or fight the same battles that Malcolm fought, because they were already liberated. The dictionary was symptomatic of this journey.

Economically damaged people can identify with these struggles because a number of them still confront similar challenges to Malcolm’s. Some of them may not know how to read and write so self expression is indeed a great mystery. The dictionary can represent the same thing that it represented to Malcolm in their views.

As Malcolm X started to improve his vocabulary, he also started to learn about the idea of the Nation of Islam, as taught by Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm interpreted books about history in a different light. He started looking at the depictions of great men and women in the past from a different lens.

At the time, he believed that there was a whitening process at play that undermined black people’s accomplishments. In this regard, one may interpret the history books as an instrument of white propaganda. Critics assert that Malcolm’s reading of these books was tainted by the unfounded philosophies of the Nation of Islam (Lavelle, 2011). However, I disagree with this viewpoint because, true to Malcolm’s assertions, there was no mention of blacks in the history books. Malcolm found that explanation through the use of racial discourses.

As this paper has demonstrated, the film was a fight against the demonization of Malcolm X in relation to critic’s attempts to downplay his accomplishments. Through the library scene, it is possible to see how self enlightenment, self consciousness and liberation were realised through this protagonist’s efforts.

Lavelle, D. (2011). The many mistakes of Malcolm X . NY: AMZ

Malcolm X . 1992 [DVD] Spike Lee USA: Largo International

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, December 14). Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X». https://ivypanda.com/essays/malcolm-x-essay/

"Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X»." IvyPanda , 14 Dec. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/malcolm-x-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X»'. 14 December.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X»." December 14, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/malcolm-x-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X»." December 14, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/malcolm-x-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Fight Against the Demonization in «Malcolm X»." December 14, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/malcolm-x-essay/.

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Malcolm X: A Radical Vision for Civil Rights

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X waiting for press conference, March 26, 1964.

Wikimedia Commons

When most people think of the civil rights movement, they think of Martin Luther King, Jr., whose "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, and his acceptance of the Peace Prize the following year, secured his place as the voice of non-violent, mass protest in the 1960s.

Yet the movement achieved its greatest results—the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act—due to the competing and sometimes radical strategies and agendas of diverse individuals such as Malcolm X, whose birthday is celebrated on May 19. As one of the most powerful, controversial, and enigmatic figures of the movement he occupies a necessary place in social studies/history curricula.

Malcolm X’s Black Separatism

Malcolm X’s embrace of black separatism shaped the debate over how to achieve freedom and equality in a nation that had long denied a portion of the American citizenry the full protection of their rights. It also laid the groundwork for the Black Power movement of the late sixties.

Malcolm X believed that blacks were god's chosen people. As a minister of the Nation of Islam, he preached fiery sermons on separation from whites, whom he believed were destined for divine punishment because of their longstanding oppression of blacks.

Whites had proven themselves long on professing and short on practicing their ideals of equality and freedom, and Malcolm X thought only a separate nation for blacks could provide the basis for their self-improvement and advancement as a people.

In this interview at the University of California—Berkeley in 1963, Malcolm X addresses media and violence, being a Muslim in America, desegregation, and other issues pertinent to the successes and short-comings of the civil rights movement. 

Malcolm X and the Common Core

The Common Core emphasizes that students’ reading, writing, and speaking be grounded in textual evidence and the lesson Black Separatism or the Beloved Community? Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. , which contrasts Malcolm X and Martin Luther King’s aims and means of achieving progress for black American progress in the 1960s, provides a wealth of supplementary historical nonfiction texts for such analysis.

This lesson helps teachers and students achieve a range of Common Core standards, including:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2 —Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9 —Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4 —Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

The background to the teacher section, written by a scholar of African American political thought, will benefit both novice teachers and those who seek to deepen their understanding of this seminal figure.

In the activity section, students gain an understanding of Malcolm X’s ideas and an appreciation for his rhetorical powers by diving into compelling and complex primary source material, including an exclusive interview with the journalist Louis Lomax (who first brought Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam to the attention of white people) and by reading and listening to a recording of Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroots.”

The assessment activity asks students to evaluate both visions for a new and “more perfect” America. In this way they will gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of civil rights movement writ large.

In the extending the lesson section, the evolution of Malcolm X’s views are traced and considered.

After he left the Nation of Islam in March 1964, Malcolm felt free to offer political solutions to the problems that afflicted black Americans. He advised black Americans to (1) engage in smarter political voting and organization (for example, no longer voting for black leaders he viewed as shills for white interests); and (2) fight for civil rights at the international level .

One of Malcolm X’s last speeches, "The Ballot or the Bullet," is crucial, and a close reading of it will help students understand how his thinking about America and black progress was evolving.

More Common Core Connections

Teachers may also wish to use a radio documentary accessible through the NEH-supported WNYC archive that includes a rare interview with Malcolm X and goes on to explore his legacy and relationship with Islam through interviews with friends, associates, and excerpts from his speeches.

Last and not least, the NEH-supported American Icons podcast on The Autobiography of Malcolm X surveys The Autobiography ’s  appeal and includes riveting passages read by the actor Dion Graham. Teachers can listen to both podcasts as they begin to plan lessons around the text, or they may choose to listen with students in order to introduce them to the debates the text continues to spark around race, rights, and social justice. This activity would help students meet another of the ELA Standards.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.5 —Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Additional Resources

• American Icons podcast on The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• WNYC Archive: Rare Interviews and Audio with Malcolm X

Related on EDSITEment

The music of african american history, the green book: african american experiences of travel and place in the u.s., grassroots perspectives on the civil rights movement: focus on women, lesson 2: black separatism or the beloved community malcolm x and martin luther king, jr., the works of langston hughes.