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Malcolm X on education

Malcolm x on education. malcolm x is a fascinating person to approach as an educational thinker – not because he was an academic or had any scholastic achievements but as an example of what can be achieved by someone engages in ‘homemade’ or self-education..

contents: introduction · homemade education · conclusion · bibliography · how to cite this article

Malcolm X (1925 – 1965) was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. His father was a Baptist minister and a strong devotee of the Black leader Marcus Garvey. Garvey’s message, as many readers will be familiar, was that Black people in America would never be able to live in peace and harmony with white Americans and their only hope of salvation was to move as a people back to their roots in Africa. Malcolm’s father died when he was six and his mother was put in a mental home when he was about twelve. As a result, his many brothers and sisters were split up and put into different foster homes.

Malcolm left school early and eventually drifted North and finally settled in Harlem, New York, on his own, at the age of 17.

In Harlem, he soon slipped into a life of crime. He became involved in hustling, in prostitution, in drug dealing. He became a cocaine addict and a burglar. Finally, at the ripe old age of 19, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

It was while he was in prison that his whole life changed. He first learned of the existence of the Honourable Elijah Mohammed and of the movement known as the Black Muslims from his brothers and sisters outside the prison. They had become converts to the movement and asked Malcolm to write to Elijah Mohammed. In Chapter 11 of his autobiography, Malcolm writes that “at least twenty-five times I must have written that first one-page letter to him, over and over. I was trying to make it both legible and understandable. I practically couldn’t read my handwriting myself; it shames me even to remember it. My spelling and my grammar were as bad, if not worse”. This chapter in his autobiography is extremely moving as it documents a man’s desperate pursuit of an education.

Homemade education

Malcolm became a letter writer and as a result he says that he “stumbled upon starting to acquire some kind of homemade education”. He became extremely frustrated at not being able to express what he wanted to convey in letters that he wrote. He says that “in the street I had been the most articulate hustler out there … But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional”. His ability to read books was severely hampered. “Every book I picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might have been in Chinese”. He skipped the words he didn’t know and so had little idea of what the books said.

He got himself a dictionary and began painstakingly copying every entry. It took him a day to do the first page. He would copy it all out and then read back aloud what he had written. He began to remember the words and what they meant. He was fascinated with the knowledge that he was gaining. He finished the A’s and went on to the B’s. Over a period of time he finished copying out the whole dictionary. Malcolm regarded the dictionary as a miniature encyclopedia. He learned about people and animals, about places and history, philosophy and science.

As his word base broadened, he found that he could pick up a book “and now begin to understand what the book was saying”. He says that “from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of a book with a wedge”.

He preferred to read in his cell but one of the problems he had was that at 10 o’clock each night when ‘lights out’ was called he found that it always seemed to coincide with him in the middle of something engrossing. Fortunately, there was a light on the landing outside his particular cell and once his eyes got accustomed to the glow, he was able to sit on the floor by the cell door and continue his reading. He found that the guards would come around once every hour so that when he heard their footsteps approaching, he would rush back to his bunk until they had gone past and pretend to be asleep. As soon as they had gone, he would be back by the door reading. This would continue until three or four every morning. He says that “three or four hours of sleep a night was enough for me. Often in the years in the streets I had slept less than that”.

Malcolm read and read and read. He devoured books on history and was astounded at the knowledge he obtained about the history of black civilizations throughout the world. He read books by Gandhi on the struggle in India, he read about African colonization and China’s Opium Wars. He found within the library’s collection some bound pamphlets of the Abolitionist Anti-Slavery Society and was able to read for himself descriptions of atrocities committed against the slaves and of the degradations suffered by his forbears. “I never will forget how shocked I was when I began reading about slavery’s total horror … Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown, red and yellow peoples every variety of the sufferings of exploitation”. His reading was not limited to history, however. He read about genetics and philosophy. He read about religion.

He relates that “ten guards and the warden couldn’t have torn me out of those books … I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life”.

Malcolm went on to become a major figure in the fight against racism in the United States. He became a dynamic spokesman for the Black Muslims. He was feared by many, he was respected by many.

He never stopped wanting to learn. Just before his death in 1965, he maintained that one of the things he most regretted in his life was his lack of an academic education. He stated that he would be quite willing to go back to school and continue where he had left off and go on to take a degree. “I would just like to study. I mean ranging study, because I have a wide-open mind. I’m interested in almost any subject you can mention”.

When he left the Black Muslims and formed his own organization, one of the roles he performed was that of a teacher. He ran a regular class for young people where he told them “We have got to get over the brainwashing we had … get out of your mind what the man put in it … Read everything. You never know where you’re going to get an idea. We have to learn how to think …”

Bibliography

Bloom, H. (1996) Alex Haley & Malcolm X’s the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House.

DeCaro, L. (1998) Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity. New York: New York University Press.

Haley, A. (ed.) (1965) The Autobiography of Malcolm X . New York: Grove Press, Inc. (Also available as a Penguin paperback 1970).

Perry, B. (1991) Malcolm: The Life of the Man Who Changed Black America. Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press.

BrotherMalcolm.net – comprehensive listing of links etc.

Malcolm-X.org – various resources

Acknowledgement : Picture: Malcolm X – released into the public domain by its author, U.S. News & World Report (Library of Congress). Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

How to cite this article : Burke, B. (2004). ‘Malcolm X on education’, The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education . [ www.infed.org/thinkers/malcolm.htm Retrieved: insert date ].

© Barry Burke 2004

Last Updated on January 28, 2013 by infed.org

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

“A Homemade Education” Book by Malcolm X Essay

The point to be made from the book A Homemade Education is that only determination and a willingness to educate can provide a person with actual knowledge that can be used. This work is a kind of memoir by Malcolm X, recounting his struggle in the quest for knowledge. The process of self-education, the pursuit to which he committed everything, began while Malcolm served a prison sentence in Charlestown. There, he met a man named Bimbi, who became an example and inspiration to him on his path to knowledge. Malcolm’s later self-development allowed him to become one of the most famous and influential African Americans in U.S. history.

The work provides perspectives on his time’s various teaching methods and educational approaches from the perspective of an initially illiterate but very determined man. When the book was written, the problem of racism and rejection of other cultures in society was very acute (Malcolm X 127). Like any other member of the African American community, Malcolm experienced many hardships and often faced injustice. Thus, he began his journey of self-improvement when he realized that the book given to him in prison did not make sense (Malcolm X 122). He then turned the pursuit of knowledge into his primary ambition and set himself the goal of preparing himself for the prospects of the future – after all, acquiring knowledge is the best preparation.

Through self-study and a thorough examination of literature, Malcolm learned more about the history of his own people, the diversity of the races and cultures that inhabit America, and the violation of rights they experience. In prison, he also became interested in the activities and ideology of the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad (Malcolm X 123). After the release, he joined the organization and rose to become one of its leaders afterward. Later it is difficult to underestimate his contribution to the struggle for the rights of Americans of African descent and Muslims.

Sometimes being in prison provides more educational opportunities than being free. After the release, Malcolm had the tools he needed to change his life and the lives of many others in America. His path to enlightenment, described in his memoir, commands respect for his determination and dedication to his self-determined goals. His dedication to overcoming adversity has made him an inspiring figure and enabled him to gain recognition and respect.

Malcolm X. “A Homemade Education.” The Mercury Reader. Ed. Sharon Walsh. Boston: Pearson (2005): 122-131. Web.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . ""A Homemade Education" Book by Malcolm X." June 17, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-homemade-education-book-by-malcolm-x/.

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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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Quick Facts

Early life and family, time in prison, nation of islam, malcolm x and martin luther king jr., becoming a mainstream sunni muslim, assassination, wife and children, "the autobiography of malcolm x", who was malcolm x.

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

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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Malcolm X: A Radical Vision for Civil Rights

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

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.

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Malcolm X -A Homemade Education

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It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education. I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there -I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn't articulate, I wasn't even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way I would say it, something such as, "Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat, Elijah Muhammad -" Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I've said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies.

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73 Motivational Malcolm X Quotes On Life and Education

best motivational malcom x quotes

Before we read the best Malcolm X quotes, Let’s know a bit more about him.

Malcom x was one of the most influential african americans, he was a human rights activist and a prominent leader representing islam., malcolm’s family had to experience a lot of harassment because his father was an activist and this eventually led to his fathers death when he was just 6 years and his mother sent to a mental asylum when he was 13. he had witnessed a lot of trauma and adversity early on in his life., when he was 20, malcom was arrested for larceny and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but after seven years of jail term he was granted parole. malcolm committed  to improve himself and spent hours on reading extensively about philosophy and religion. he embraced islam and the ideology of black nationalism. he soon became an influential leader, he later left the nation of islam and started his own movement which aimed at bringing more international attention. unfortunately he could not gather much steam through his work and was assassinated on february 21st, 1965 during a meeting in harlem. malcolm x was an advocate of universal freedom. millions drew inspiration for him., we have compiled the best ever malcolm x quotes for all of you. have a look, also, if you’re a student who is reading this article you can get online assignment help to have a great chance for dealing with one of the best writing experts., 73 powerful malcolm x quotes, 1. “anytime you see someone more successful than you are, they are doing something you aren’t.” – malcolm x, 2. “if you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.” – malcolm x, 3. in all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.” – malcolm x, 4. “a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” – malcolm x, 5. “so early in my life, i had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” – malcolm x, 6. “if not now then when, if not me then who” – malcolm x, 7. “there is no better than adversity. every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” – malcolm x, 8. “education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” – malcolm x, 9. “if you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.” – malcolm x, 10. “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, 11. “a wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can’t play the part of a wise man.” – malcolm x, 12. “the future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – malcolm x, 13. “we need more light about each other. light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.” – malcolm x, 14. “stumbling is not falling.” – malcolm x, 15. “you can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” – malcolm x, 16. “you’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” – malcolm x, 17. “change is only a good thing if you change in a good way.” – malcolm x, 18. “the media’s the most powerful entity on earth. they have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. because they control the minds of the masses.” – malcolm x, 19. “children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again.” – malcolm x, 20. “you have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.” – malcolm x, 21. “all of our experiences fuse into our personality. everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.” – malcolm x, 22. be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” – malcolm x, 23. “i have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.” – malcolm x, 24. “envy blinds men and makes it impossible for them to think clearly.” – malcolm x, 25. “power doesn’t back up in the face of a smile, or in the face of a threat of some kind of nonviolent loving action. it’s not the nature of power to back up in the face of anything but some more power.” – malcolm x, 26. “sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner. you must be eating some of what’s on that plate. being here in america doesn’t make you an american. being born here in america doesn’t make you an american.” – malcolm x, 27. “to have once been a criminal is no disgrace. to remain a criminal is the disgrace.” – malcolm x, 28. “segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. separation is done voluntarily by two equals.” – malcolm x, 29. “america needs to understand islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. throughout my travels in the muslim world, i have met, talked to, even eaten with people who in america would have been considered ‘white,’ but the ‘white’ attitude had been removed from their minds by the religion of islam.” – malcolm x, 30. “nobody can give you freedom. nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. if you’re a man, you take it.” – malcolm x quotes, 31. “despite my firm convictions, i have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. i have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth.” – malcolm x, 32. “i believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but i don’t believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn’t want brotherhood with me. i believe in treating people right, but i’m not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn’t know how to return the treatment.” – malcolm x, 33. “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.” – malcolm x, 34. “i don’t even call it violence when it’s in self defense; i call it intelligence.” – malcolm x, 35. “i believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.” – malcolm x, 36. “i believe in a religion that believes in freedom. any time i have to accept a religion that won’t let me fight a battle for my people, i say to hell with that religion.” – malcolm x, 37. “you don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. all you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.” – malcolm x, 38. “without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.” – malcolm x, 39. “i for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” – malcolm x, 40. “you can’t legislate good will – that comes through education.” – malcolm x quotes on education, 41. “when a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won’t do to get it, or what he doesn’t believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn’t believe in freedom. a man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire…or preserve his freedom.” – malcolm x, 42. “we declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” – malcolm x, 43. “usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. they just cry over their condition. but when they get angry, they bring about a change.” – malcolm x, 44. “when you live in a poor neighborhood, you are living in an area where you have poor schools. when you have poor schools, you have poor teachers. when you have poor teachers, you get a poor education. when you get a poor education, you can only work in a poor-paying job. and that poor-paying job enables you to live again in a poor neighborhood. so, it’s a very vicious cycle.” – malcolm x, 45. “i have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. i knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. as i see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” – malcolm x, 46. “i’m for truth, no matter who tells it. i’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. i’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such i’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” – malcolm x, 47. “read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you never know where you’ll get an idea from.” – malcolm x, 48. “i believe in human rights for everyone, and none of us is qualified to judge each other and that none of us should therefore have that authority.” – malcolm x, 49. “people don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.” – malcolm x quotes on education and life, 50. “we cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. we cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.” – malcolm x, 51. “education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. it is the means to help our children and thereby increase self-respect. education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” – malcolm x, 52. “if you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – malcolm x, 53. “it is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. it used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. but now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. as the nations of the world free themselves, the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. it’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely.” – malcolm x, 54. “i believe in recognizing every human being as a human being – neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there’s no question of integration or intermarriage. it’s just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being.” – malcolm x, 55. “who taught you to hate the colour of your skin who taught you to hate the texture of your hair you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what god made you.” – malcolm x, 56. “what kind of a man wants a woman today that cannot hold a conversation.” – malcolm x, 57. “one of the first things i think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself. then you can come to an intelligent decision for yourself. if you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west when you think you’re going east, and you will be walking east when you think you’re going west.” – malcolm x, 58. “when ‘i’ replaced with ‘we’, even the illness becomes wellness.” – malcolm x, 59. “only those who have already experienced a revolution within themselves can reach out effectively to help others.” – malcolm x, 60. “how can anyone be against love” – malcolm x quotes on love, 61. “i believe in islam. i am a muslim and there is nothing wrong with being a muslim, nothing wrong with the religion of islam. it just teaches us to believe in allah as the god. those of you who are christian probably believe in the same god, because i think you believe in the god who created the universe. that’s the one we believe in, the one who created universe – the only difference being you call him god and we call him allah. the jews call him jehovah. if you could understand hebrew, you would probably call him jehovah too. if you could understand arabic, you would probably call him allah.” – malcolm x, 62. “just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without history or cultural roots also becomes a dead people.” – malcolm x, 63. “the mother is the first teacher of the child. the message she gives that child, that child gives to the world.” – malcolm x, 64. “learn to see, listen, and think for yourself.” – malcolm x, 65. “concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.” – malcolm x, 66. “the mental flexibility of the wise man permits him to keep an open mind and enables him to readjust himself whenever it becomes necessary for a change.” – malcolm x, 67. “it’s good to keep wide-open ears and listen to what everybody else has to say, but when you come to make a decision, you have to weigh all of what you’ve heard on its own, and place it where it belongs, and come to a decision for yourself; you’ll never regret it. but if you form the habit of taking what someone else says about a thing without checking it out for yourself, you’ll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies.” – malcolm x, 68. “anytime anyone is enslaved or in any way deprived of his liberty, that person, as a human being, as far as i’m concerned he is justified to resort to whatever methods necessary to bring about his liberty again.” – malcolm x, 69. “the only thing power respects, is power.” – malcolm x, 70. “daring to reach, to climb, to crawl, to scratch, to get back up when you’ve been knocked down, to push forward – ever forward – to forgive. it means sacrificing everything if necessary, to carve out a place for your own existence. it means living.” – malcolm x, 71. “you can always chase a dream but it will not count if you never catch it.” – malcolm x, 72. “it is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest light can come; it is only after extreme grief that the greatest joy can come.” – malcolm x quotes, 73. “hatred and anger are powerless when met with kindness.” – malcolm x, few more bonus malcom x quotes on religion , 74. “i am a muslim and…my religion makes me be against all forms of racism. it keeps me from judging any man by the color of his skin. it teaches me to judge him by his deeds.” – malcolm x, 75. “how can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours” – malcolm x, related :  31 best og mandino quotes on life and success, related :  77 best motivational ct fletcher quotes, leave a comment cancel reply.

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malcolm x education essay

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Rhetoric — Rhetorical Brilliance in Malcolm X’s ‘The Ballot or the Bullet’

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Rhetorical Brilliance in Malcolm X's 'The Ballot Or The Bullet'

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‘Lumumba: Death of a Prophet’: Revisiting a Mythic Figure

The 1990 documentary about Patrice Lumumba by Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”), showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, looks and feels newly minted.

A black-and-white image shows a man wearing glasses, a suit and a sash sitting at a table with an assortment of glasses and plates.

By J. Hoberman

“If the prophet dies, so does the future,” the director Raoul Peck says early in “ Lumumba: Death of a Prophet .” The movie, a personal essay in the form of a history lesson, is as much a poem as it is a documentary.

Made in 1990 and showing for a week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a 4K restoration of the original 16-millimeter film, “Death of a Prophet” looks and feels newly minted.

Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of the former Belgian Congo, was brought down after a few months in power by internecine rivalry, hysterical anti-Communism and imperialist greed. His fate was sealed in the post-independence ceremonies when he followed the patronizing speech by King Baudouin of Belgium with a blunt j’accuse, citing Belgian racism and “colonial oppression.”

A civil war ensued. With Belgian support, the mineral-rich Katanga province was encouraged by Belgian mining interests to secede, and the white-dominated Force Publique, the Belgian colonial army, revolted. Ridiculed and vilified in the Western press, Lumumba — who would be hailed by Malcolm X as “the greatest Black man who ever walked the African continent” — was killed in early 1961 after being undermined by the United Nations and betrayed by his allies, including his successor, the strongman Joseph-Désiré Mobutu .

For Peck, best known for his essayistic James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” made in 2017, Lumumba is a mythic figure . Peck spent his early childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where, as Francophones, his Haitian parents had been recruited to bolster the post-independence professional class.

As noted by Stephen Holden, who reviewed “Death of a Prophet” in The New York Times when the movie was shown during the 1992 New York Film Festival, Peck “boldly” inserts himself into the film. He not only narrates but often cites his mother’s account of events, puts the exorbitant fee charged by a British newsreel for a few minutes of footage in the context of a Congolese worker’s average salary and explains his last-minute cancellation of plans to film in Zaire, as Congo came to be called under Mobutu.

Consequently, much of the film is shot in snowy Brussels (never more white), and most of the interviews are with aging, often self-justifying Belgian witnesses. The least defensive as well as the liveliest is Serge Michel, a French Jew active in the Algerian liberation movement who served as Lumumba’s press attaché. When a newly arrived Western journalist asked for background material, Michel suggested he read Maurice Nadeau’s “History of Surrealism.”

Indeed, Peck follows suit with his unexpected juxtapositions, as when he scores a tour of Brussels’s Museum of Natural Sciences to Le Grand Kallé’s 1960 Pan-African hit “Indépendence Cha-Cha” or cuts from demeaning Art Deco sculptures of Black colonial subjects with cheerful monuments to the Belgian cartoon icon (and colonial explorer) Tintin. Densely edited but never impenetrable, “Death of a Prophet” is more economical and inventive filmmaking than Peck’s passionately overwrought biopic from 2001, “Lumumba.”

“What is there to say about a 30-year-old murder?” Peck asked in 1990. It has now been 63 years since Lumumba was killed and there’s still plenty to talk about. (Currently making the festival rounds, Johan Grimonprez’s expansive documentary “Soundtrack to a Coup d’État” elaborates on American complicity in Lumumba’s overthrow.)

Lumumba’s only grave, according to Peck, are the trees in the savanna riddled with bullet holes. The prophet’s death haunts us still.

Lumumba: Death of a Prophet

Through Feb. 29 at BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn; bam.org .

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malcolm x education essay

Family of Malcolm X says they have new evidence in his assassination

In the decades-long investigation into the killing of civil rights leader Malcolm X, his family says they have new evidence.

Two former members of Malcolm X’s security team have come forward, alleging they were falsely arrested by the NYPD days before the assassination.

What You Need To Know

Malcolm x was killed 59 years ago in manhattan's audubon ballroom  two men who were part of his security detail said they were falsely arrested days before malcolm x was assassinated civil rights attorney ben crump said, "we're going to get to the truth, one way or another".

One of the men, Khaleel Sultarn Sayyed, spoke publicly Wednesday, saying, “I believe I was detained in this conspiracy by the NYPD and FBI in order to ensure Malcolm X’s planned assassination would be successful.”

“Had I not been arrested, I would have attended his speech and would have served as part of his security detail," he said.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said he’s been trying to get information from the Department of Justice for months, including the names of the undercover FBI agents and NYPD officers inside the room when Malcolm X was fatally shot.

“Why is it 59 years later and they still won’t give up the documents on their surveillance of Malcolm X?” Crump said. “We will leave no stone unturned.”

On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was ambushed and fatally shot while delivering a speech. His wife and daughters were in the audience.

Three men were convicted of his murder. However, in 2021, two of those men were exonerated.

The conviction against the third man in the case, Mujahid Abdul Halim, stands to this day. Malcolm X’s family believes if he played a role in the assassination, he did not act alone.

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COMMENTS

  1. Malcolm X on education

    Malcolm X is a fascinating person to approach as an educational thinker - not because he was an academic or had any scholastic achievements but as an example of what can be achieved by someone engages in 'homemade' or self-education. contents: introduction · homemade education · conclusion · bibliography · how to cite this article

  2. What did Malcolm X mean by "homemade education" in his essay and what

    Octavia Cordell | Certified Educator Share Cite The term "homemade education" refers to the time Malcolm spent in prison studying. In his essay, Malcolm writes that he was frustrated with...

  3. Malcolm X

    Original name: Malcolm Little Muslim name: el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz Born: May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. Died: February 21, 1965, New York, New York (aged 39) Founder: "Muhammad Speaks" Notable Family Members: spouse Betty Shabazz Role In: black nationalism See all related content → Recent News Feb. 1, 2024, 12:17 PM ET (AP)

  4. Malcolm X

    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.

  5. "A Homemade Education" Book by Malcolm X Essay

    The point to be made from the book A Homemade Education is that only determination and a willingness to educate can provide a person with actual knowledge that can be used. This work is a kind of memoir by Malcolm X, recounting his struggle in the quest for knowledge. The process of self-education, the pursuit to which he committed everything, began while Malcolm served a prison sentence in ...

  6. PDF The Self-Education of Malcolm X

    The Self-Education of Malcolm X By Eric Moberg January 1, 2006 ABSTRACT In Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), Haley recounts the life of an historical personage of enduring controversy. Whether one reveres or reviles Malcolm, "X", Little, his is a fascinating story of lifelong learning.

  7. Malcolm X: Biography, Civil Rights Activist, Nation of Islam

    1925-1965 Who Was Malcolm X? 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...

  8. Malcolm X: A Homemade Education

    Malcolm X: A Homemade Education from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education. II became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially to Mr. Elijah Muhammad.

  9. Writing the Dictionary: the Education of Malcolm X

    Writing was the instrument by which Malcolm X communicated with and. manded attention" (172) in the world outside the prison. powerful, technological extension of voice and speech. But if writing is in some sense an extension of speech, it is also, immediately discovered, profoundly different from speech.

  10. Malcolm X: A Radical Vision for Civil Rights

    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.

  11. (DOC) Malcolm X -A Homemade Education

    See Full PDFDownload PDF. Malcolm X - A Homemade Education Writer, lecturer, and political activist Malcolm X (1925-1965) was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, a Baptist minister, supported the back-to-Africa movement of the 1920s. Because of these activities the family was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan and forced to move ...

  12. Malcolm X's "A Homemade Education": Liberation through Literacy

    In conclusion, Malcolm X's "A Homemade Education" stands as a powerful testament to the transformative power of literacy. From the challenges faced in prison to the exploration of black history and racial injustices, the essay unveils the profound impact of self-education on Malcolm X's worldview. The enduring quest for knowledge beyond his ...

  13. The Education Of Malcolm X Essay

    The Education Of Malcolm X Essay 984 Words 4 Pages Literacy is power. Being taught to read and write is important to function in society. You learn to read and write to express your feelings and communicate with others. Frederick Douglass and Malcom X both succeeded in learning how to read and write, but in different ways.

  14. Malcolm X Education Essay

    Malcolm X Education Essay Good Essays 1560 Words 7 Pages Open Document Malcolm X once said "education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today". From adolescence to adulthood almost every person is put through schooling.

  15. Malcolm X Barrier Of Education

    A Homemade Education by Malcolm X, is an informative essay about the author Malcolm X dedication to further his education by himself. In this essay the author talks about how he was envious, how he turned that into motivation, and how he didn't let the fact that being imprisoned would keep him from pursing his goals.

  16. Summary Of Malcolm X Education

    Education Malcolm X did not graduate from a college, but he was aware of the difficulties of the American society in his time. Also, he wanted to erase the paradigm that black people were not educated, indeed he learned all his education in one of the toughest places to learn: jail.

  17. Malcolm X

    Essays and criticism on Malcolm X - Malcolm X. ... What is at issue is Malcolm's education in the nature of evil. For 12 years he endorsed a demonology which proclaims that the white man is a ...

  18. An Introduction To Malcolm X And His Life History Essay

    Black people did not have equal rights compared to white people in this era. Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, which is in the state of Nebraska. In the U.S history, people knew Malcolm X as a violent, black civil rights activist. His idea was that racial separation was the only way to help and improve African Americans' lives in ...

  19. Essay on Malcolm X for Students and Children in English

    Long Essay on Malcolm X is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10. On February 2, 1847, an escaped American slave named Frederick Douglass, one of the fathers of the civil rights movement, readied himself to deliver a scorching lecture about the evils of slavery to the people of this city.

  20. Essay On Malcolm X Education

    Essay On Malcolm X Education Decent Essays 814 Words 4 Pages Open Document A good education lays the path for a better quality of life. Having an education permits us to discover oneself, the environment, and our world. This gives us the space to make educated choices about the future.

  21. Malcolm X and Experiencing Education

    Malcolm X's self-taught education led him to be an influential man on hundreds of thousands of people in America. Although many don't see it as ideal, non-traditional education does not mean someone is not educated, they are just educated differently then most others are taught.

  22. 73 Motivational Malcolm X Quotes On Life and Education

    73 Powerful Malcolm X Quotes. 1. "Anytime you see someone more successful than you are, they are doing something you aren't.". - Malcolm X. 2. "If you have no critics you'll likely have no success.". - Malcolm X. 3. In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.".

  23. Rhetorical Brilliance in Malcolm X's 'The Ballot or the Bullet': [Essay

    During the peak of the civil rights movement, a key leader known as Malcom X, advocated for african american rights. Malcom X delivered a speech named, "The Ballot or the Bullet". In this address, Malcom X's purpose was to motivate African American individuals to actively pursue their voting privileges.

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  25. Family of Malcolm X says they have new evidence

    On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was ambushed and fatally shot while delivering a speech. His wife and daughters were in the audience. Three men were convicted of his murder.