Malcolm X :: essays research papers fc

The year was 1925, and someone special was born. His birth name was Malcolm Little, however there were big things in store for this child. Born in Omaha, Nebraska. The seventh of eleven children born to Earl Little, an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s "back-to-Africa" movement (Compton’s encyclopedia online). At age six Malcolm’s father was murdered. As a result his mother later suffered a nervous breakdown, and the family was separated by welfare agencies (Compton’s encyclopedia online). Later in life he would blame these same agencies for destroying his family. He was bounced around from boardinghouses and schools, and dreamed of becoming a lawyer only to be discouraged by his teachers. After leaving school, in the eighth grade, he lived with a relative in Boston, Mass. He shined shoes, worked in a restaurant and on a railroad kitchen crew. In 1942 he moved to a section in New York called Harlem. Where he lived as a hustler, cheating people to mak e money for himself. He also sold drugs and became a drug addict himself. A rival drug dealer named "West Indian Archie" ran him out of New York. And he ended up back in Boston. Where he started a burglary ring, which consisted of friend named Shorty, a pretty boy type of fellow named Rudy, a woman that Malcolm dealt with named Sophia and one of her friends (Alex Haley 168). He soon found out that crime does not pay, when he soon got arrested and stolen items were found in his possession. The Negroes of that group was sentenced to eight years, while the whites of the group were sentenced to only two. This put an image in Malcolm’s head on how the justice system was ran. While in prison. Malcolm was well known to the guards. One time he was asked to state his number, but instead he said he forgot his number. The guards beat him and sent him to the "darkroom". In the darkroom he met Brother Bains. Bains was a man everyone respected including guards. He was k nown as a real man and gave speeches about Islam. Malcolm did not listen at first; however it didn’t take him long to listen to the words of black empowerment, spoken by brother Bains. The black Muslims prediction that in the near future a great war would take place in which whites would be destroyed and black people would rule the world through the power of Allah, their creator.