The Truth About Malcolm X as the Civil Rights Activist

Malcolm X is viewed as quite a questionable person. His followers see him as a fearless human rights activist who fought for the rights of African Americans, a righteous leader who showed white America how racist it was (YouTube). His enemies see him as a racist, anti-Semitic and savage person. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as “Malcolm X” has been watched by the FBI for his whole life as a civil rights activist. Malcolm was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha Nebraska (History.com). He was the son of Louise Norton and Earl Little and lived with seven brothers and sisters(Youtube). His father was a preacher who spoke out about the unity of black people (History.com Editors).

Malcolm was orphaned very early in life. At the age of six, his father was killed and it has been rumored that white racists were responsible(YouTube). Seven years later, his mother passed away after which he lived in multiple foster homes. At the age of 20 in 1946, he was sentenced to prison for larceny and also breaking and entering(History.com Editors). While Malcolm was in prison, he met a man by the name of John Bembry, a self-educated man who Malcolm would later describe as “The first man I had ever seen demand total respect with words”. While under Bembry’s influence, Malcolm started heavily reading. Meanwhile, multiple of his siblings wrote to him about the Nation of Islam, a brand new religious movement preaching black self-reliance and the return of the African diaspora to Africa, where they would be free from white American and European domination(History.com). He showed very little interest at first, but after his brother, Reginald wrote him a letter in 1948, 'Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison'. He quit smoking and began to refuse pork shortly after the letter (YouTube). After a visit in which Reginald described the group's teachings, including the belief that white people are devils, Malcolm stated that every relationship he'd had with whites had been tainted by fraud, injustice, greed, and hatred. Malcolm, whose hostility to religion had earned him the prison nickname 'Satan'(Malcolm X.).

In late 1948, Malcolm wrote to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad told him to renounce his past, humbly bow in prayer to God, and promise never to involve himself in destructive behavior again(YouTube). Malcolm soon became a member of the Nation of Islam, becoming close to Muhammad. In 1950, the FBI opened a file on Malcolm after he wrote a letter from prison to President Truman stating he disagreed with the Korean War and declaring himself a Communist. That year, Malcolm also began signing his name 'Malcolm X'.Muhammad instructed his followers to leave their family names behind when they joined the Nation of Islam and use 'X' instead. When the time was right, after they had proven their sincerity, he said, he would reveal the Muslim's 'original name'.In his autobiography, Malcolm explained that the 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he could never know. 'For me, my 'X' replaced the white slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears.'(Malcolm X.). After his parole in August 1952, Malcolm visited Elijah Muhammed in Chicago. In June 1953 he was titled assistant minister of the Nation's Temple in Detroit. Later that year he started Boston's Temple; in March 1954, he expanded Temple in Philadelphia; and two months later he was selected to lead Temple in Harlem, where he rapidly expanded its membership(Mamiya, Lawrence A).

In 1953, the FBI began closely watching him, turning its attention from Malcolm’s possible communist associations to his very fast ascent in the Nation of Islam. In 1955, Malcolm continued his thriving recruitment of members for the Nation of Islam. He established temples in Springfield, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Atlanta, Georgia. Hundreds of African Americans were joining the Nation of Islam every month(YouTube). Besides his skill as a speaker, Malcolm had an impressive physical presence. He stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg). One writer described him as 'powerfully built', and another as 'mesmerizingly handsome... and always spotlessly well-groomed'(Mamiya, Lawrence A). In 1955, Betty Sanders met Malcolm after one of his lectures, then again at a dinner party; soon she was constantly showing up to his lectures. In 1956 she joined the Nation of Islam, changing her name to “Betty X” instead of Betty Dean Sanders. One-on-one dates were against the Nation's teachings, so the couple courted at social events with plenty of others, and Malcolm frequently invited her to group visits he led at New York City's museums and libraries. Malcolm proposed to her during a telephone call from Detroit in January 1958, and they married two days later(YouTube).

The American public first started to know of Malcolm in 1957, after Hinton Johnson, a Nation of Islam member, was beaten by two New York City police officers. On April 26, Johnson and two other passersby—also Nation of Islam members—saw the officers beating a Black man with nightsticks(Malcolm X Legacy). When they attempted to step in, shouting, 'You're not in Alabama... this is New York!', one of the officers turned on Johnson and started viciously beating him so severely that he suffered brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. All four African-American men were arrested. Informed by a witness, Malcolm and a small group of Muslims arrived at the police station and wanted to see Johnson. Police initially opposed that any Muslims were being held, but when the crowd grew to about five hundred, they allowed Malcolm to speak with Johnson. Afterward, Malcolm insisted on getting an ambulance to take Johnson to the Hospital. Johnson's injuries were treated and by the time he was returned to the police station, roughly four thousand people had appeared outside. Inside the station, Malcolm and an attorney were trying to make bail arrangements for two of the Muslims. Johnson was not bailed, and the police said he could not go back to the hospital until after his arraignment the following day. Considering the situation to be at an impasse, Malcolm stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal to the crowd. Nation members silently left, after which the rest of the crowd also dispersed. One police officer told the New York Amsterdam News: 'No one man should have that much power.' Within a month the New York City Police Department organized to keep Malcolm under surveillance; it also made inquiries with authorities in other cities in which he had lived and prisons in which he had served time. A grand jury opposed indicting the officers who beat Johnson. In October, Malcolm sent a bitter telegram to the police commissioner. Soon the police department appointed undercover officers to infiltrate the Nation of Islam(Malcolm X Legacy). By the late 1950s, Malcolm was using a new name, Malcolm Shabazz or Malik el-Shabazz, although he was still generally referred to as Malcolm X. His judgments on issues and events were being extensively reported in print, on radio, and on television, and he was featured in a 1959 New York City television broadcast about the Nation of Islam(YouTube).

While the civil rights movement challenged racial segregation, Malcolm advocated the complete disengagement of African Americans from whites. He recommended that African Americans should return to Africa and that, in the interim, an independent country for black people in America should be created. He rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, explaining that black people should defend and progress themselves 'by any means necessary' (Youtube). His speeches had an influential effect on his audience, who were generally African Americans in northern and western cities. Many of them—tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality, and respect—felt that he articulated their complaints better than he did the civil rights movement. During 1962 and 1963, events caused Malcolm X to reevaluate his relationship with the Nation of Islam, and especially its leader, Elijah Muhammad (Malcolm X Legacy). Even though Malcolm X was looked at by some as a racist, anti-semitic, and overall bad person, I see him as a hero, a person not afraid to speak his mind, a person not afraid to stand up for his own. He was the voice that all black Muslims wanted to hear in the U.S. Malcolm X will always be the most real Black Activist Leader.