...of Malcolm X. They were present at a rally in New York City on that tragic day in February 1965. Malcolm X was a grassroots leader, and the stories that my grandparents shared with me was impressed by his honesty and devotion to his idea of self-emancipation (Sales Jr., 1994, p. 207). His charismatic leadership helped him involve street elements in the struggle for Black liberation. My grandparents belonged to that social stratum, as well as their friends who also were present at that rally. From the stories I heard about him, I considered him with all sincerity of my heart to be a great teacher whom I revered for his morality. He did not receive any formal education. He challenged me, a person in his early twenties, with his idea of a better world in which we all were destined to live. He has verbalized some of my thoughts in an open way. His speech was not wordy but very precise. From his speeches, I was able to get a better understanding of the Black history. Whatever he said, he was honest; I believed his words as I read his work and was influenced by his awakening forces; I wanted to transform myself within the framework of Malcolm’s civic movement. I enjoyed learning and reading about Malcolm X because his words were truthful and trustworthy. It felt as if he was talking to me personally. It was a great and unforgettable feeling. He expressed his...
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...was Muslim, his name was Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X. Malcolm X got his point across and successfully improved the Civil rights of African Americans with the support of not only African Americans but Muslims too. There will be three focal points I will be discussing in this research paper. The first one being the nation of Islam made a huge difference in the popularity growth of Malcolm X which allowed Malcolm to have a louder voice in public and be able to speak to the people. The second one consist of Malcolm being smart with how he approached communicating with the people, he spoke and...
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...To what extent did the black power movement hinder the success of the civil rights movement? The black power movement branched off from the civil rights movement; however it had a very different approach then the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement had a peaceful nonviolent approach to the improvement of the black condition in America, where as the black power movement believed in using militancy and self-defence if provoked. The black power movement can be seen as a failure and an obstruction to the civil rights movement however the black power movement also had its success. An example of the success are the impact black power had on troubled black youths of the ghetto and the impact it had on black culture whereas an example of its failures among many are the division of the civil rights movement the alienation of white liberals and the corruption within the black power itself. The most important reason why the Black Power Movement was a failure to a fairly large extent was because it divided up the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement had, by the time the BPM emerged, achieved quite a lot, it had managed to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed. This proves that the movement had been successful and through the emergence of the Black Power Movement, members of the Civil Rights Movement got divided up over whether this was right or not. On the one hand, Martin Luther King, the head of SCLC one of the top organizations...
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...was raised by her mother who was a teacher and her father who fought in the Vietnam War and then was a steel worker. She has 4 sisters and 1 brother. Her childhood consists of segregation and racism still being a part of life and although there were major changes when the U.S. supreme court ruled segregation in public schools. During her childhood, television was becoming more popular and sock hops were the thing to go to for entertainment and dances. A period of time that Arlene has experienced is in 1963, when the civil rights march on Washington DC for jobs and freedom is attended by 250,00 people where Martin Luther King delivers his famous Martin Luther King speech from the steps of the Lincoln memorial. On February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X who was a black nationalist and the organization of afro American unity was assassinated. In 1966, the Black Panthers were founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was appointed by President Johnson to the Supreme Court; he became the first black Supreme Court justice. In 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1992, she remembers everything that had happen from the Rodney king beatings and the reason why the Los Angeles riots began. To her beliefs if the 4 police officers were not acquitted from the trial dealing with Rodney king those 6 days of rioting wouldn’t have happen. In 2008, Senator Barack Obama becomes the first African American to be elected...
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...Teaching Guide The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin The Novel at a Glance SUMMARY The book opens with the essay “My Dungeon Shook,” written as a letter to Baldwin’s nephew on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Baldwin says that the celebration is a hundred years too early, because black people in America are still not free. He exhorts his nephew to approach life with love, even though he lives in a racist world. In the second essay, “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind,” Baldwin describes his visit to the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad. Baldwin concludes that he does not agree with the Nation of Islam’s bitter beliefs about white people. In closing, Baldwin says that if Americans stop thinking of the United States as a white nation, it can transform the world. MORE ABOUT THE WRITER When James Baldwin was sixteen, he began one of the most important friendships of his life. As a confused and self-doubting teenager, he needed a mentor, and he found one in Beauford Delaney, a painter who lived in Greenwich Village in New York City. A black man and an artist, Delaney provided Baldwin with a model of how to respond to experience and transform it into works of art. Virtually taking the place of a father, Delaney introduced his young protégé not only to music and art, but also to a wide circle of friends, and Baldwin began to recognize new possibilities for himself. Through Beauford Delaney and his scratchy phonograph...
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...be the best’. This analogy was all I thought about while trying new things and keeping me motivated to keep doing it. Malcolm X’s motivation came from his desire to to learn. In “Homemade Education”, Malcolm X addresses his educational development through his “prison studies” (68). By simply getting a hold of a dictionary, he accomplished his goals of improving his penmanship, vocabulary and his education overall. He values education as he states before he not only “wasn't articulate” but also not “functional” (68). Malcolm X’s strategy to learn consisted of a dictionary; which he described it as a “miniature encyclopedia” (68). Malcolm X viewed education as a cure to humans, like “intellectual vitamins”(68). Education is a set of skills that one may learn through different resources, but the most important thing is having the motivation to learn and improve your own self. Malcolm X is the epitome of a motivational leader that used his limitations to his benefit of expanding his knowledge while in prison, with limited resources like a simple dictionary. Malcolm X had the motivation within himself and took those experiences and accomplishments to making a change and taking action upon things he cared about, which is something we must all think about in our life time, making a change. “I’ve never been one for inaction” (67) these are the first words Malcolm X uses to begin his Homemade Education Essay, he describes his desire and need of action towards aspects he feels strongly...
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...organization was putting Christian principles into practice, achieved by developing "a healthy spirit, mind, and body" (Wikipedia.org). In 1853, the first YMCA for blacks was founded by Anthony Bowen, a freed slave, in Washington, D.C. This opened the doors for newcomers and immigrants which has always been a part of the YMCA work. In 1860, YMCA supplied affordable safe housing similar to hotel rooms for young men moving to cities from rural areas. In 1867, the first YMCA dormitory ‘The Chicago’s Farwell Hall’ was built. Between 1922 and 1940, YMCA dormitory rooms grew from approximately 55,000 rooms to more than 100,000. amongst those who stayed at YMCA residences were journalists Andy Rooney and Dan Rather, African American leaders Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., novelist Jack Kerouac, and U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young (ymca.net). The YMCA is a federated organization made up of local and national organizations in voluntary association. Presently, the YMCAs are open to all, regardless of faith, social class, age, or gender. The YMCA is an influential association of men, women, and children committed to bringing about lasting personal and social change. According to ymca.net, currently the YMCA engages more...
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...and yourself as a Baptist, I having a past of wrongs and an illegal violent lifestyle and you being born into christianity and lastly you wanting segregation to end completely and for white people and black people to come together as one, and I wanting black people to be independent from racist whites meaning having their own business, communities etc. So with this being said although our ways of fighting for justice are opposite our goal is still the same. The purpose of this letter is to propose to you Martin Luther King Jr a proposition of I and yourself to join forces. I suppose, do to this proposal you would want to know more about myself aswell as my past and my beliefs. My past is not the brightest. I was not born Malcolm X, I was born Malcolm Little to My father Earl Little. My father was killed by the KKK (white racist) I believe that this is one of the reasons I feel the way I do towards white americans. Not only was my father murdered, but he did not receive justice in fact the police blamed him for his death calling it a suicide. I refuse to believe that my father beat himself up, tied himself up and through himself in front of a train. At my age of adolescence I lived in harlem with my sister during this time I got caught up in the hustling and managing prostitution. I landed in prison on a 10yr sentence do to a robbery charge in 1946. During this time I grew in the prison library. I expanded my vocabulary, as well as becoming a believer of islamic beliefs. I...
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...1960's Diary Entries Witness to the assassination of Malcolm X HIS 135 Dear Diary, I am one of many to witness the assassination of Malcolm X. On February 21, 1965 today we have lost a legacy. Malcolm X was a strong speaker, and was moved by many African Americans. He did so much to make us feel connected with our African American heritage. He would say the words that we would think but were scared to say. Malcolm X lost his life by the Nation of Islam; everyone is surrounded by questions of this fearless man’s death. The files The Files of Malcolm X, reveals The Smoking Guns in the FBI reports, which was dated for February 22, 1965, the files declares that Malcolm X had 10 gun shots penetrating to the chest, his thigh and ankle, also there were 4 bullets pleats into his chest and thigh. When his autopsy was done, they found 1 gun being noticed as a millimeter slug, 1 - 45 caliber slugs, with numerous shotgun shots, that were all around and about in his body, torn through the heart of Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. When Malcolm was in prison, he got religious, he wanted to change his criminal past, and became a member in the Nation of Islam. After Malcolm was released he started to preach on street corners. I have to say that Malcolm X was a very brave young man and stand up type of guy that did a lot to make blacks feel more connected to African American heritage. He stood up for African Americans and spoke out words and things that they were too afraid...
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...AAS2010 Introduction to African American Studies Comment Paper #3 3/14/2011 Dr. King speaks of the struggle as a hope for the poor and oppressed, regardless of race or creed as Ho Chi Minh fought for the liberty of his people over the corrupt Dieu regime. Noting he had several major reasons for commenting on Vietnam, the most apparent and obvious of the irony that we “have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools” (King). King referred to a cruel manipulation of the poor, those youth with education or money were exempt from a war, sending poor youth and minorities into a country and fighting a war they did not understand, fighting for liberty of the people in Vietnam while killing side by side, yet they would not be able to eat in the same room or live on the same block in America. From the Japanese, French and later American involvement, the Vietnamese have been embroiled in 116 constant years of warfare and oppression, betrayed by the Japanese, betrayed by the French and anticipating and inevitable betrayal from the blatant lies of the U.S.A. King mentions this distrust of the Vietnamese against the United States and how “Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese...
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...(Pierre) Minority groups within the United States struggled for nearly a century to gain racial equality. In the mid 1940s a movement began assembling that would later bring about change, it was known as the Civil Rights movement. It reached its apex in the mid 1960s, around the same time a heavy-weight fighter named Cassius Clay was making his bid for a belt. In 1964, the young boxer shocked the world, making his conversion to Islam and his new name public. He announced that he had become a member of the Nation of Islam, a group that would influence his ideology and involvement with Civil Rights. (Pierre) It is widely believed that Ali joined the Nation of Islam because of his friendship with another Civil Rights activist of the time, Malcolm X. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam urged blacks not to cooperate with the Mass Civil Rights movement and not to coalesce with their white...
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...many different types of people. Not only people with different personalities, but people with different types of race and ethnicity. In our present day it is very rare for you to go somewhere and notice that everyone is all one race or ethnicity. Going back many years ago, if one were to use the same bathroom as an African American you were viewed as a traitor and a bad person. Now imagine living that way today, imagine how difficult it would be to find a job or even do your daily routines, it would almost be impossible. The real question is what caused all of the racism to change or who can we thank for all of this? There are a great number of people who came up and made a stand against this which helps us live freely today. Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with the family's eight children. Louise father was Scottish which made Louise have a very light complexion, so light she could even pass for white. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Earl's civil rights activism constantly received death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, which forced the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday. Regardless of the Little's efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl's body was found lying across the...
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...Ever since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War there has been the issue of race and equality and rights. A movement occurred and two men gained power and influence the African American community. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X two men having experienced different things in their lives held different beliefs and morals and influenced people based upon those things. Martin Luther King Jr., came from a Baptist home with a fairly easy childhood, he was educated when he was younger and attended Morehouse College, an all black college, where he had several role models that shaped his beliefs. Malcolm X, on the other hand, experienced a hard childhood and used drugs and committed other crimes in his early adult years. While in prison he found a father figure in Elijah Muhammad and joined the Nation of Islam. There are many differences between Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X in the way they acted and influenced the African American community. This paper will look to describe their differing views and analyze their actions and their lives. In most cases a person’s childhood has a lasting affect on the rest of a person’s life. In comparing Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X this seems to be the case. Martin Luther King Jr., was born January 19, 1929 and was raised by a strong supportive family. He had a somewhat privileged life and “never experienced the feeling of not having the basic necessities of life.”[1] His father “was a community leader in Atlanta...
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...Rhetorical Analysis Martin Luther King’s inspiration for writing his, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was mainly to appeal to an undeniable injustice that occurred during his time. His letter was in response tos eight white clergymen, who objected to King protesting in Birmingham. Dr. King effectively crafted his counterargument after analyzing the clergymen’s unjust proposals and then he was able to present his rebuttal. Dr. King effectively formed his counterargument by first directly addressing his audience, the clergymen and then using logos, pathos and egos to present his own perspective on his opponent’s statements. The majority of the sentences in King’s letter can be connected to logos, pathos or ethos and his incorporation of appeals is masterful. On more than one occasion, King uses various strategies to appeal to his audience, in the letter he writes, “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.” In this excerpt, King presents his ethos very tactically. The Alabama clergy presents him as an outsider in the letter, but demonstrating his ethos, King presents himself as an insider. He is not just a man who chose to protest in an outside community, but is in fact the president of the Conference. He...
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...Martin & Malcolm & America In this paper, there will be a primary focus on two of the most prominent leaders during the civil rights era. These two leaders are Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The paper will discuss how these extraordinary men made their phenomenal contributions to America by offering to bring about their own political, racial, and social views that were affecting the people of color. Their ability to voice their strong opinions about the injustices that were taking place among African Americans and the oppositions that were before them gave them the durability to prolong the fight for freedom and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were both men of purpose, dignity, and pride. The ongoing effort they gave for the people and to the people helped them to earn the respect that has followed them for decades. For that reason, this paper will reflect the ways in which both men contributed to the African American culture and the shaping of America in an effort to bring about a change that was needed to move forward. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X had different political philosophies; however, they both went about using different methods to campaign for civil rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a champion of non-violent protests and peace marches. His speeches entranced both blacks and whites into action for the civil rights movement. MLK knew that if the blacks worked for peace, peacefully, then equality was inevitable. “What they...
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