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Malcolm X

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Malcolm X
Malcolm Little
Birthday
BirthplaceOmaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Died
Occupation
Minister, activist

Malcolm X

original name Malcolm Little. 1925--65, US Black civil-rights leader: assassinated
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Malcolm X (b. Malcolm Little)

(1925–65) African-American activist; born in Omaha, Nebr. Malcolm claimed his father, a minister and follower of Marcus Garvey, was murdered by racists in Lansing, Mich. (1931) (but at least one researcher claims his father died accidentally). Moving to Boston, Malcolm turned to pimping and drugs as a teenager. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for burglary (1946) where he discovered the antiwhite Black Muslims. Joining the Muslims (1952), he became a recruiter, changed his name, and came to national attention with his writings and through a television documentary (1959), both of which tended to portray him as a threat to white people. Breaking with the Muslims (1964), he founded the Muslim Mosque in an effort to internationalize the Afro-American struggle and journeyed to Muslim lands abroad where he was impressed with their lack of racial bias. Returning to the U.S.A. convinced that whites were not inherently racist, he called himself El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz and formed the Organization of African American Unity, hoping to cooperate with progressive white groups. Before his assassination in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City (March 1965), he came to believe that leaders of the Nation of Islam and powerful elements within the U.S. government wanted him dead; the only legal trial put all the blame on members of the Nation of Islam. Alex Haley helped immortalize him as coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), and Spike Lee's 1992 film renewed interest in the man and his message. He proved as powerful after his death as alive, influencing disparate movements with his positions on black power and neocolonialism, and transforming the consciousness of a generation of African-Americans.
The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.
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By using Freedom of Information legislation they trawl through thousands of previously unknown documents, such as those of the FBI, to reveal the level of surveillance Clay/Ali and Malcolm X were placed under.
Both he and Malcolm X also grew in their understanding of Islam, moving beyond the "Black Muslim" version preached by Elijah Muhammad to a more global understanding of the faith that appealed to them because in it they saw reflected the ideals of unity, equality and fraternity which formed the core of their struggle against racism at home in the USA.
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Although it draws on some of the Malcolm X Papers at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Chapter 1 is primarily concerned with synthesizing secondary material about Malcolm X's life of travel and discovery between 1925 and 1964.
Critique: Collaborative compiled and co-edited by the team of Rita Kiki Edozie (Professor of International Relations and African Affairs at the James Madison College at Michigan State University) and Curtis Stokes (Professor of Political Theory and Black Politics in the James Madison College at Michigan State University), "Malcolm X's Michigan Worldview: An Exemplar for Contemporary Black Studies" is comprised of sixteen original and scholarly articles deftly organized into three sections: Malcolm as a Theoretical Framework; Malcolm and Community Engagement; Malcolm and Black World Struggle.
She is also in the early stages of developing a play about civil rights activists' Malcolm X and Trinidad-born journalist Claudia Jones - marking the 50th anniversary of Malcolm X's assassination.
NEW YORK -- Activists, actors and politicians gathered Saturday in New York City to honor civil rights leader Malcolm X with a ceremony at the Harlem site where he was killed 50 years ago.
Now, half a century later, Avtar Singh Johl, former general secretary of the Indian Workers' Association, has relived his memories of hosting Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick.
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