Author
Ytzhak
Today we celebrate the life and times of Malcolm X. Included in this 30 minute audio mix are excerpts from his speeches which underscore is outlook and philosophy. We also have keen commentary from people like Sista Souljah and the late Ossie Davis..
http://media.odeo.com/3/3/6/Breakdown_FM-MalcolmB-Day06.mp3
or
http://ender.indymedia.org/?q=node/88
or
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/50086.php
Today we celebrate the life and times of Malcolm X. Included in this 30 minute audio mix are excerpts from his speeches which underscore is outlook and philosophy. We also have keen commentary from people like Sista Souljah and the late Ossie Davis..
Below is some good information about Malcolm X
Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Louise and Earl Little. Louise Little, born of biracial heritage, was a native of Grenada in the British West Indies. Earl Little, a six-foot described as very powerful in appearance, was born Georgia where he worked as a Baptist minister and organizer for Marcus Garvey. A staunch Garveyite, Earl Little believed strongly in ideas of black-nationalism and pan-Africanism. Louise, his second wife, bore six children: Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Yvonne, and Reginald. Earl Little also had three children by a first wife: Ella, Earl, and Mary. Because of Little’s advocacy for Garvey’s movement, his family was terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan and other whites. To avoid any more violent harassment by these elements Little moved his family to Lansing, Michigan. However the racism proved impossible to escape. In Lansing white racists placed a beaten Earl Little on a railway track where he was killed by an oncoming train. They claimed he committed suicide.
His father’s early death at the hands of whites would leave he and his seven siblings alone with their mother. The stress of the times placed his mother in a mental institution and Malcolm was sent to a foster home. Malcolm attended school until eighth grade living with different families. When a white teacher stopped him from trying to become a lawyer, he dropped out of school entirely. After years of transfers to state institutions and boarding houses, Malcolm moved to live with his sister Ella in Boston. Here, he took a job as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom. But such a lowly status did not suit Malcolm and he soon took up the role of a hustler, peddling narcotics and engaging in petty thefts. Malcolm even took to straightening his hair and dating white women. But Roxbury proved to be too small for him, and in 1942 he took a job as a railroad dining car porter, working out of Roxbury and New York. Settling in Harlem, New York, he became more involved in criminal activities: robbing, selling narcotics and even working as a pimp. In Harlem he also got his nickname “Detroit Red”, because his hometown Lansing was close to Detroit and his hair was red. After a year in Harlem, Malcolm was officially initiated into hustler society. He returned to Boston in 1945 after falling out with another hustler, and continued a life of crime, forming his own house robbing gang. Arrested for robbery in February 1946, he was convicted and sentenced to prison for seven years.
While in prison, Malcolm became a follower of Elijah Muhammad, the then leader of the Lost Found Nation of Islam, with branches in Detroit, Chicago and New York. Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad corresponded by mail while in prison. Malcolm’s brothers Philbert and Reginald, visiting him in jail, convinced him to join the NOI and follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Following NOI policies, Malcolm soon discarded what he deemed his “slave name”, Little, and took the new name “X” to symbolize his lost and unknown name. He improved his knowledge base by reading extensively while in jail as well as studying from the Qu’ran and following strictly the Nation of Islam’s dietary laws and moral codes.
After his parole in 1952, Malcolm X undertook organizational work for the Nation of Islam under the guidance of Elijah Muhammad. As a minister Malcolm founded mosques in Boston, Philadelphia, Harlem and elsewhere and made the national expansion of the movement possible. Malcolm’s ideology was expressed in his fiery orations, newspaper columns as well as radio and television interviews. In addition, he helped to found the NOI newspaper Muhammad Speaks. Malcolm was said to be the only black man who “could stop a race riot – or start one”. Due to his influences, NOI membership reached approximately 30,000 by 1963. In January 1958 he married Betty X, who was also a member of the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm’s rise in power became a threat to competing NOI ministers and especially to the U.S. government who, through the FBI, kept extensive files upon him. Disobeying direct NOI orders to remain silent on the matter of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Malcolm stated it was a case of “chickens coming home to roost”. This resulted in his suspension from his NOI post and his eventual split with the organization and his father figure, Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm went on to form his own groups, Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Outside of the NOI Malcolm continued his messages of Black Nationalism, independence, and self-defense. His ideas of racial separation were modified but his ideas of white society and racism were by no means drastically altered in his last few years. As one scholar put it, “Malcolm never let white people off the hook”. He did however see the possibility of working with other progressive black groups.
During this time Malcolm began to advocate a more pragmatic black nationalism, stating that blacks should control the politics within their own community. At the height of his power Malcolm was one of black America’s most powerful voices. He traveled widely in Europe and Africa attempting to link the black struggle in America with those abroad. At one point he even advocated and prepared to take the United States before the United Nations for charges of “genocide” against its black citizens. In 1964 Malcolm made a pilgrimage to Mecca, obligatory for orthodox Muslims, where upon he changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
On February 21, 1964 in front of a crowd in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, Malcolm X was shot to death by three men. Labeled as angry NOI members, the three were convicted with Malcolm’s death. However a host of suspicious events and contradictory information presented at the trial have led many to speculate whether more sinister forces, namely the US government, may have been behind his death. The only acquaintance of Malcolm to attempt to prove this point immediately following death, Leon Ameer, died of a sleeping pill overdose before his case could be presented. Thus Malcolm’s life, like his death, has remained shrouded in mystery. But even beyond death, El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz inspired generations for decades to come. His views and ideologies on black nationalism and Pan-Africanism would be picked up by many. His fascinating life, teachings, and tragic death would make him both a martyr and a model for the era of Black Power that was soon to come.
For More Information See:
Malcolm X. The Autobiography Of Malcolm X Ballantine Books, 1992, c.1965.
Arnold Adoff, et al. Malcolm X 2000.
Malcolm X. February 1965: The Final Speeches Pathfinder, 1992.
Malcolm A To X: The Man And His Ideas edited by David Gallen. Pathfinder, 1992
Walter Dean Myers, Leonard Jenkins. Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly
The End Of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X. Arcade Pub., 1989
Michael Eric Dyson. Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X 1996
Walter Dean Myers. Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary: A Biography Scholastic, 1993.
Clayborne Carson. Malcolm X: The FBI File Carroll & Graf, 1991.
see also:
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/41040.php
Our own Black Shining Prince: 80th anniversary of Malik Shabazz's birthday
Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did, you would know him. And if you knew him, you would know why we must honor him: Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood!--ossie davis
"We have a common enemy. We have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. But once we all realize that we have this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy..."-- Malcolm X: "Message To The Grass Roots"
from 'message to the grassroots
"We all agree tonight, all of the speakers have agreed, that America has a very serious problem. Not only does America have a very serious problem, but our people have a very serious problem. America's problem is us. We're her problem. The only reason she has a problem is she doesn't want us here. And every time you look at yourself, be you black, brown, red, or yellow -- a so-called Negro -- you represent a person who poses such a serious problem for America because you're not wanted."
"I would like to make a few comments concerning the difference between the black revolution and the Negro revolution. There's a difference. Are they both the same? And if they're not, what is the difference? What is the difference between a black revolution and a Negro revolution? First, what is a revolution? Sometimes I'm inclined to believe that many of our people are using this word "revolution" loosely, without taking careful consideration [of] what this word actually means, and what its historic characteristics are. When you study the historic nature of revolutions, the motive of a revolution, the objective of a revolution, and the result of a revolution, and the methods used in a revolution, you may change words. You may devise another program. You may change your goal and you may change your mind."
"If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it's wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it's wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country."
see also:
Shabazz, Hajj Bahiyah Betty (1936-1997)
http://www.africanaonline.com/malcom_x_shabazz.htm
and
http://www.africanaonline.com/malcom_x.htm
and
Speeches:
http://www.brothermalcolm.net/mxwords/whathesaidarchive.html
and:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/19/1330226
http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/home.php
By Any Means Necessasry
by Ytzhak •
audio: MP3 at 9.7 MB
http://victoria.indymedia.org/uploads/by_any_means_necessary.mp3
"We have a common enemy. We have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. But once we all realize that we have this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy..."-- Malcolm X: "Message To The Grass Roots"
and
see also:
“When I told him that my political, social, and economic philosophy was Black nationalism, he asked me very frankly: Well, where did that leave him? Because he was white. He was an African, but he was Algerian, and to all appearances, he was a white man. And he said if I define my objective as the victory of Black nationalism, where does that leave him? Where does that leave revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania? So he showed me where I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any means necessary.”-- malik el shabazz -- Larry Hales -- "A tribute to Malcolm X"
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/49062.php
and
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/malcolm-x-0223/
and
The Islamic-Arab world ...provided Malcolm with a pastoral vision of a world morally superior to America, at least insofar as human and racial relationships are concerned. By returning to America to realize his new vision through social action, Malcolm showed that he belonged to the tradition of historical revolutionaries who want to alter reality, not by transcending or breaking away from it, but by reshaping it according to their vision of the "good life." ...Allah in the Koran says that His hand is always with the community rather than with the individual. -- Abdelwahab Elmessiri -- "Islam as a Pastoral in the Life of Malcolm X "
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/47473.php
and
http://www.worldbulletin.net/yazi_detay.php?id=17&yazar=15
and
Malcolm X reminds us all, of the ongoing war at home. He reminds us that voting is but one (and that a minor) part of politics. That it is important to speak truth to power. That is important, indeed vital, to dissent. That it is necessary, sometimes, to step outside of a thing to see it clearly. And that political organizations have different interests from those who vote for them. -- Mumia Abu-Jamal -- "MALCOLM X'S RAP OF DEMOCRATS"
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/43499.php
and
"Malcolm X was not murdered because he called white people devils (others had done that) or because he had a public falling out with Elijah Muhammad, (although the US government through its COINTELPRO used that situation to promote his "neutralization") Malcolm X was murdered because he had the courage boldness and audacity to attempt to bring the United States of AmeriKKKa before the United Nations’ World Court for its crimes of genocide, human rights violations and its racist imperialist foreign policies." -- Junious Ricardo Stanton -- "Malcolm X vs. US Imperialism"
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/40850.php
The Malcolm X who lived, struggled, was imprisoned, followed by the FBI (and other government agencies), whose words were like pepper in the bloody scars of America, became transformed, over time, into someone that he would barely recognize: a 'civil rights' activist; instead of a nationalist, a freedom fighter, a rebel to white nationalism, and, in his own words, one who fought for 'human rights.'... But while the Black bourgeoisie 'couldn't understand' the meaning of Malcolm's loss, Black poor and working class people certainly could. He was one of *us*, they reasoned, and his loss was our loss. -- Mumia Abu-Jamal -- "IN MALCOLMS MEMORY"
http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2005/03/38800.php
To come right down to it, if I take the kind of things in which I believe, then add to that the kind of temperament that I have, plus the one hundred per cent dedication that I have to whatever I believe in- these are ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age ... I know that societies have often killed the people who have helped to change those societies."--Malik Shabazz -- "The Legacy of Malik Shabazz"
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