Social Studies Exam: Malcolm X

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Worksheet for the Social Studies Exam: Malcolm X Malcolm Little was born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska as the son of the Baptist preacher, Earl Little and Louise Little. Earl Little was a member of the United Negro Improvement Association, lead by Marcus Garvey, that believed there could be no peace for blacks in America and therefore had to return to Africa. In 1931 Earl’s body was found almost cut in 2 parts, apparently by the hands of whites because of his preaching for Marcus Garvey. Five of the six brothers of Earl had also died by violence; one was lynched and another killed by white police. Louise Little collapsed under the burden of taken care of eight kids in a racist society. She looked white but lost every job as soon as one of her…show more content…
They were pictured by the mass media as: “Malcolm X and his organization were teaching hate and violence”. According to Malcolm X, he was teaching blacks to understand their exploitation, to fight back when attacked, and to seize self-determination “by any means necessary”. As for violence he did advocate armed self-defense (only when under attack, the black people had the right to defend themselves). He argued that this doctrine would only detect and deflect racist violence, not cause it! While during that same time Martin Luther King, Jr., who was also a black civil right activist in America, taught to fight racism with love. Malcolm spoke publicly of his lack of respect for Martin Luther King, who would, through a white man’s religion (Christianity), tell blacks not to fight back. In 1962 Malcolm was designated by Elijah Muhammad as the official public representative of Nation of Islam. By 1963, New York Times poll found that Malcolm X was, after conservative Senator Barry Goldwater, the most sought after speaker by student groups on college campuses. His attraction seemed to rest not only in his ability to attack the system of white supremacy in forceful language but also in his wit. He was also gaining more publicity outside…show more content…
As a consequence he had become a dedicated internationalist, opposed to American imperialism (The policy of extending Americans authority by territorial acquisition and/or by the establishment of its economic and political hegemony over other nations) and favoring the unity of all oppressed and exploited people across national boundaries. Moreover with his return to America he had become involved in the global struggles of all the blacks and had demanded black Americans to turn to the United Nations to have their civil rights back. In June 1964 the Organization of Afro-American Unity was formed: a non-religious group among Afro-Americans and Africans that promoted Black Nationalism worldwide (a sort of Pan-Africanism). He stated: “I am glad that I’ve been the first to establish official ties between Afro-Americans and our blood brothers in Africa”. His emergence as an independent, revolutionary leader of the black mass movement made Malcolm the object of death threats from a number of forces--notably the Nation of Islam leadership and white supremacists--as well as harassment and infiltration of his organizations by local police and federal intelligence bodies. Any one of these could have been responsible on Sunday, February 21, 1965, when Malcolm X was shot

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