David P.
Creative Writing and Research
10/08/2008

Malcolm X
When we were assigned to read the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” by Malcolm X, I really didn’t have any idea what to expect. But as I was reading it, I really started to be interested in what he was saying. I had already knew some about Malcolm X, in the way that he was one of the more so “violent” leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. A few of the major things that I wanted to know a little bit more about though from this research were things such as: facts about his early childhood, what made him act the way he did, and why and how he choose to do the things that he did throughout his life.
Firstly, I wanted to know, who Malcolm X was, and to find a brief biography of his life. I found out that he was born on the 19th of April in 1925, in the town of Omaha, Nebraska, with the name Malcolm Little (1). I also found that his mom’s name was Louise Norton Little, who was a stay at home wife, as many were at that time, raising eight children (1). Malcolm X’s father’s name was Earl Little, who happened to be one of the leaders in early civil rights activism, and a big supporter of Marcus Garvey (1). Consequentially, this caused the Little family to move two times, all before Malcolm turned four years old (1). But this was to no avail, because in 1929, the Little’s house was burnt to the ground, and two years later, Earl Little’s body was found dead and mutilated on the town’s nearby trolley tracks (1). Unfortunately, this sent Louise Little (now as a widow) into a mental breakdown, and was later forced to go to a mental institution (1). After this Malcolm and his seven brothers and sisters were orphaned and split up and sent out to foster homes, and orphanages (1). From this, I can really see how a person, such as Malcolm X, could really be driven to do what he did. I also believe that this lead him to think the way that he did, because of all of these family problems that he had when he was young.
When, Malcolm, and his brothers and sisters were broken up, this really led Malcolm into a sense of marching to his own tune. This happened after one of his junior high teachers told him that “being a lawyer is no realistic goal for a nigger” (1). After this, he decided to drop out of junior high, and he moved to New York, “Where By 1942 Malcolm was coordinating various narcotic, prostitution and gambling rings” (1). In 1946, Malcolm X was convicted of burglary. Which he was sent to jail for, for seven years, which he took without a fight, because what he really wanted to do was to further his education and knowledge (1). This happened to be the time that he turned to the religion of Muslimism, and the nation of Islam, along with his brother Reginald Little (1). One of the first people that Malcolm X studied was a man named Elijah Muhhammad. Malcolm learned about what Elijah Muhhammad said, which was basically all about how “white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success” (2). This is what I believe really led Malcolm to become an activist in the Civil Rights movement, and it did because in 1952 when he was released from prison, he had become a avid follower of the Islam ideas, and decided to change his name to Malcolm X, because he thought that Malcold Little was his “Slave Name”, and he used the X to signify his “lost tribal name” (1).
“Intelligent and articulate, Malcolm was appointed a minister and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam” (2). From the skills that Elijah Muhhammad had seen from Malcolm X, he appointed Malcolm to travel around establishing mosques around the country, “Thereby increasing membership in the Nation of Islam from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.” (1). This really turned Malcolm to be more of an extremist as he spread the ideas of the Islam faith around the country as he delivered speeches such as “The Ballot or the Bullet”. One of the major issues that came up and eventually led Malcolm to departing from the Islam faith, and Elijah Muhhammad, was when he said, "[Kennedy] never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon," (1). After Malcolm said this, Elijah Muhhammad “silenced” Malcolm for ninety days. But Malcolm didn’t comply and went of and decided to start his own religious group called “Muslim Mosque Inc.” (1). This, however was not widely appreciated by all of the members of the “Nation of Islam” group. After his departure from the “Nation of Islam” group there were many attempts by the Nation of Islam group headed by Elijah Muhhammad to kill Malcolm X. But this did not prevail in the end, because on the night of February 21st 1965 when Malcolm X was giving a speech, he was gunned down by three gunmen (from the Nation of Islam group) who shot him fifteen times, and was later pronounced dead that same day (1).
I believe that from this brief biography of Malcolm X, that I now have a much better understanding of whom he is, than I did before, a small amount of his history and childhood experiences, and some of the major aspects and events that happened though out his life.