National Leader Malcolm X - Assignment Example

Malcolm X Malcolm X was one of the most important national leaders who fought for equal rights, racial equality and self-reliance. In his autobiography, Malcolm X vividly portrays casualties of life and hardship experienced during his childhood. Thesis A strong bond with his father had a great impact on personal values, national ideas and life philosophy of Malcolm X. His parents were active in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the largest 20th-century mass-based Black nationalist organization, which was created in 1914. Malcolm' father, Earl Little, a Baptist minister, headed UNIA chapters in midwestern cities like Omaha, Milwaukee, and Lansing. Malcolm writes: "My two other images of my father are two outside the home: he never pastured in any regular church of his own" (p. 7). Similar to his father, Malcolm created his own religion based on century-old traditions and values, morals and ideals. Malcolm's sister, Ella Collins, explained that Malcolm X was present at chapter meetings almost from birth. Political ideas and rebellious issues expressed in the meetings, formed personality of Malcolm and his life perception. Also, Malcolm admits that: "the image of him [father] that made me proudest was his crusading and militant campaigning with the words of Marcus Garvey (p. 8). Further, Malcolm became a militant leaders fighting for pride and self-determination of black people. Malcolm's childhood was filled with the emerging urban culture of Black America. Malcolm's rooting in the U.S. working class was incomplete. Riding the rails as a porter and later established in Harlem, the cultural capital of the Black world, Malcolm X developed a deep, if only partly conscious, sense of the peoplehood of the African American. Malcolm admits that: "it was only me that he sometimes tool with him to the Garvey UNIA meetings which he held quietly in different people's homes" (p. 8). Similar to his father, Malcolm supposed that no Black man at this time could be easily and unequivocally rooted in the working class. Malcolm's family and father was unusual in that it made the transition from the southern rural countryside to the northern urban city intact and started out as the nuclear family of the American Dream. During these years, Malcolm's father played both in the family and in the UNIA a strong leadership role. The "New Negro" concept embodied a new view of the role of Blacks in social change. It represented a further development of themes first seen in the Negro movement at the turn of the century. Malcolm's father was following a model of Black liberation popularized at this time. All these features have a great influence on Malcolm and his life aspirations. His father supposed that: "freedom, independence and self-respect could never be achieved by Negro in America" (p. 4). Further, Malcolm opposed this view fighting for racial equality and identity politics. To some extent, the full power of Malcolm's intellect was held in check due to the magnetism of his father's personality and the very special and personal role that he played in Malcolm's life. Political figure of his father had immense power and prestige, and obviously one that Malcolm X did not subject to his otherwise methodical scrutiny. It is possible to say that Malcolm used Black national ideas of his father and transform them into a separate national movement, but later expelled that nationalism from the NOI to protect its theology from internal criticism and to deflect an activist thrust which would lead to repression. For Malcolm, he embodied wisdom represented as a keeper of Negro's traditions and values. "I reflected many, many times to myself upon how the American Negro has been entirely brainwashed from ever seeing or thinking of himself, as he should, as a part of the nonwhite peoples of the world" (p. 56). These ideas helped Malcolm to create a framework for the reformulation of Black nationalism in a more internationalist and revolutionary manner and thus facilitated the linking of the Civil Rights movement with the movement toward continental African unity and the world revolutionary process. When his father died Malcolm was seven years old, and his teenage years were spent in Boston with Ella Collins, who retained her father's orientation to Garveyism. Driven into poverty by worsening economic conditions and White chicanery, Malcolm's father died under suspicious conditions, and his mother could not maintain her sanity in the harsh Depression era to which her children were subsequently subjected. It is possible to say that his father was a political figure who 'advised' and supported him in difficult situations. "I've had enough of someone else's propaganda.I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against" (p. 34). In January 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to ten years in prison for breaking and entering. Criminal and prison experience paralleled that of so many African Americans in the urban industrial order. Following the example of his father, Malcolm X learned how to help others and organized them to stand up for their rights. He learned the importance of using the skills Bimbi taught him to advocate for the rights of the dispossessed. Malcolm led the struggle of Muslim prisoners to get their religious and dietary needs respected. He wrote for the prison newspaper and made it a forum for the rights of prisoners. . It was in jail that Malcolm X found religion and the role model of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Through his new-found religion, he cleaned himself up, and gained self-respect, discipline, and a mission in life. "Some way, I had to start telling the white man about himself to his face. I decided to do this by putting my name down to debate" (p. 184). Since childhood, Malcolm acquired good rhetorical skills, and debating was the main tactics used by Malcolm X: "I was saying, and if I could sway them to my side by handling it right, then I had won the debate - once my feet got wet, I was gone on debating. (p. 184). In sum, life philosophy of Malcolm X was based on his father's ideas. He stated that while "whites" were universally proud of their background, contemporary African-Americans were still the target of discrimination and outright racism. The cause of this problem was in the fact that blacks were seen as a tool deprived of human rights and were unequal to masters. Similar to his father, Malcolm X persuaded his followers that all people are equal and racial discrimination is nothing more than echo of the past which should be overcome. He tries to persuade Americans to be tolerant to other races and nations and stop senseless oppression and discrimination against their neighbors. Works Cited Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books, 1992. Read More