Malcolm X: Achanged Man
Malcolm X is most widely known as a civil rights activist. He was a leader of black people in America who is now generally known as being an anti-white activist. Many of his speaking years were spent preaching the teachings of Elijah Muhammad who proclaims that black people are righteous and white people are genetically altered from blacks to be devils. But, the last of his years were spent trying to counter this message and teach true Muslim beliefs in which people are equal. Such a radical change is stance makes Malcolm X unique among other civil rights activists of his time. Malcolm spent his child years in Michigan where his father, Earl Little, was killed by white racists and his mother, breaking under the pressure of raising eight children alone, was institutionalized. Because he was without parents, Malcolm was moved through a number of small towns in Michigan. He was an achieving student, earning high grades in all of his classes and got along well with the other students, black and white alike. He made such a good impression on the other students that he was elected class president. Although, he always felt that the white people in school viewed him as inferior. He was once told by his English teacher, "We a
Malcolm planned to start his own organization of Muslims. But first he decided to make the pilgrimage to Mecca to fulfill his Muslim obligations. He was met, while in Mecca, by nothing but generosity by everyone he came in contact with, regardless of their skin color. Malcolm was astonished by the Muslims' lack of color separation. He saw how people of all races and colors came together to give praise to one creator. Malcolm had again changed his way of thinking. He returned to America with a new message. He began preaching that not all white people are devils, and that racism was the problem, not the white man. Malcolm attempted to change his public view as a white hating black preacher. Before he could accomplish his new goal, Malcolm was assassinated while speaking at the Audubon Ballroom. His murder has since been largely credited to the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. The Nation of Islam is a sect of the Islamic religion that teaches black people are gods and are Allah's chosen people. According to its teachings, white people are a genetic mutation of blacks, created by a mad scientist to exact revenge on the black world who exiled him for different beliefs. Through a process of selective breeding, this scientist created a community of white people who were then instructed to riot loot and cause war among the blacks. The black communities, realizing that the white race was the cause of their problems, exiled them out of Africa and into the caves of Europe where they lived, savagely and unorganized, for two thousand years. After this time had passed, Allah raised up Moses to organize and civilize them. The white people were then to take control of the world for the next six thousand years. The Civil Rights movement was supposed to represent the end of that six thousand years and the beginning of the blacks rise to power. Elijah Muhammad received this message from a man called W. D. Fard who claimed to be a more powerful god, manifested in human form to assist the blacks in America in their rise for power. (Haley 190-93) While in prison, at the lowest point in his life, Malcolm underwent yet another personal change that would turn his life drastically. Malcolm's bad temper and foul mouth earner him the nickname Satan in prison. He would go on fits, cursing the Bible, God and the prison guards. This behavior stopped when he met an inmate who was called Bimbe. Bimbe spent much of his time in prison reading books and speaking on various topics. He was respected by the other inmates because of his knowledge and speaking abilities. This respect was what inspired Malcolm to improve his own vocabulary as well as his writing and speaking abilities. Malcolm now devoted all of his time to reading books. He read any book he could get his hands on from the prison library. Although, he had no particular interest and, due to his limited vocabulary, could not understand everything he read, so he read random books. Realizing that his vocabulary kept him from understanding all that he read, he began to study from a dictionary. One page at a time, Malcolm would copy then recite the entire dictionary, improving his vocabulary and his penmanship. For the next twelve years, Malcolm preached daily the messages of Elijah, always giving Elijah credit for saving him from his cr
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2250
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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