Malcolm X :: essays research papers

The civil rights movement was a very grueling period in American history, this period promoted social and economic independence for blacks. In order to unite and to better spread the messages of the civil rights movement to other blacks throughout the country many black organizations choose leaders with powerful speaking skills to spread there messages. One of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement was a young Muslim preacher by the name of Malcolm X. Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, the son of Louise and Earl Little of Omaha, Nebraska. Louise Little was a mulatto born in Grenada in the British West Indies. And Earl Little was a Baptist minister and organizer for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. Louise, his second wife, bore six children: Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Yvonne, and Reginald. Earl Little also had three children by a first wife: Ella, Earl, and Mary. Little had migrated with his family from Philadelphia to the midwe st, first to Milwaukee, then Omaha, and finally to East Lansing, Mich. In 1929 the family house was burned down, by white supremacists. After Earl Little died in 1931 in a streetcar accident, Malcolm's mother eventually had a mental breakdown and entered an inside asylum. The siblings were dispersed to other families. Malcolm lived with a foster family before moving to Roxbury, Mass., in 1941 to live with a half sister, Ella Collins. A few months after his arrival in Roxbury, a predominantly black section of Boston, Malcolm dropped out of school (having completed eight grade) and took a job as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom in Boston's Back Bay section. A career as a hustler seemed a more tempting option, and he was soon selling narcotics. Roxbury proved to be too small for him, and in 1942 he took a job as a railroad dining-car porter, working out of Roxbury and Harlem. Settling in Harlem, he became involved in robbery, prostitution, and narcotics. After a year in Harlem Malcolm was officially initiated into hustler society. He returned to Boston in 1945 after a falling out with another hustler, and continued a life of crime, forming his own house robbing gang. He was arrested for robbery in February 1946, and was convicted and sentenced to prison for seven years. While in prison, Malcolm became a follower of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of a small, urban cult, the Nation of Islam, with branches in Detroit, Chicago, and New York.