Malcolm X
Malcolm X was a revolutionary hero for many born at a time of extreme racial injustices in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925 to James Earl Little and mama Louise Little.
Mr. Little advocated for black nationalists and followed the teachings and ideals of Marcus Garvey that quickly brought white supremacists organization, the Ku Klux Klan to their door step and threats of death, Malcolm’s father ended up being ferociously murdered in 1931, by white supremacists.
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By 1946, a young and distracted Malcolm was in prison. There he met an agent of Elijah Muhammad from the Nation of Islam (NOI). Upon his release, Elijah officially brought Malcolm X to the NOI. A conscious Malcolm began speaking publicly about Black pride, self-sufficiency, self-defense, and economic empowerment for Black people.
In April of 1964, Malcolm X embarked on the Mecca pilgrimage Muslims are obliged to take. He would visit other African nations too including Ghana and Egypt. Following the Mecca journey, he converted to Orthodox Islam and decided to leave the Nation of Islam. His journey to Mecca gave him international recognition and his Pan-Africanist views and utterances didn’t sit well with the Nation of Islam. When Malcolm X exposed Elijah Muhammad for being a pedophile and about Elijah Muhammad having eight children with four different teenage personal secretaries and collaborating with anti-black agents who didn’t have Black peoples best interest at heart, the die was cast.
In his autobiography, he submitted: “Every morning when I wake now, I regard it as having another borrowed day. In any city, wherever I go, making speeches, holding meetings of my organization, or attending to other businesses, Black men are watching every move I make, awaiting their chance to kill me. I have said publicly, many times that I know that they have their own orders. Anyone who chooses not to believe what I am saying doesn’t know the Muslims in the Nation of Islam.”
Malcolm X also called El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz on February 21, 1965 was killed better still assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York aged just 39. He was giving a speech when three Nation of Islam gunmen drew guns and shot at him multiple times on stage. While Malcolm had himself prophesied that the nation had sent a kill order, observers reckon the U.S law enforcement failed the human rights activist and the civil rights movement notable, especially when security personnel at the ballroom were not on hand when the NOI goons struck.
Many believe Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah’s partnership resulting in the former’s founding of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OOAU), a Pan-Africanist organization founded in 1964 was what made the U.S government turn a blind eye even though the security had Intel on the kill order. Aside the NOI, Malcolm X endured intense harassment instigated by the U.S. government.
