An african-american hero : Malcom X

Short biography of a great man

Malcolm Little, surnamed Malcolm X, was born in 1925 in Nebraska. He grew up in a middle class family with a black father and a white mother. His mother was confined to a mental institution during Malcolm’s childhood. A lot of his family was killed by the KKK. Malcolm X went to a white school and he was relatively well integrated. Later he went to jail for various reasons like robbery and drug deals. There his life took a decisive turning point. He embraced Islam. When he went out of prison, he joined the Nation of Islam. Because of the tensions that increased between Malcolm X and the Nation, he definitely left the Nation of Islam in 1964. He will finally be murdered on February 21st, 1965, during one of his speeches.

Why can we consider him as a hero ?

Malcolm X committed himself in the Black cause by making speeches and by calling for Black unity. But he was opposed to Martin Luther King, who claimed a peaceful fight. Malcolm X said that there is no peaceful revolution and that Martin Luther King was an Uncle Sam. In a speech he said “I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate”. In this speech he claimed that black people didn’t only want the same rights as the white people but also the fact that they are equal and not only something written on a paper. So he criticized a lot the civil rights movement.

“By any means necessary.”

— Malcolm X

...