Malcolm X

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Malcolm X: Deviant or Hero?

Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925, and he was assassinated on February 21, 1965. Malcolm X was a Muslim leader and Civil Rights leader. He was born Malcolm Little to Earl Little and Louise Norton, who were both activists in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Malcolm X was a bright student but was very bitter towards white authority figures. X quit school after a teacher said that his desire to become a lawyer was not a “realistic goal for a nigger.”

In 1941, he went to live with his half sister, Ella Collins, in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston he worked a variety of railroad jobs but he also became increasingly involved in selling drugs and running numbers. Malcolm X was arrested in 1946 for larceny as well as breaking and entering; he was sent to prison in February 1946. While incarcerated, Malcolm X became a follower of Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Temple of Islam. After X’s parole in 1952, he became Minister Malcolm X, using X in place of the African name that was taken from his slave ancestors.

Malcolm X’s forceful declamations attracted a lot of publicity as well as a large personal following. In his speeches he implored black people to separate from the whites and gain their freedom “by any means necessary.” This became his “motto.” Through many public political and religious protests Malcolm X became notorious with the white community. He became the most well known figure in the Islam Nation.

Malcolm X was particularly firm in his opinions of the nonviolent strategies advocated by Martin Luther King, Jr. During a November 1963 address, Malcolm ridiculed the theory that African Americans could achieve their freedom nonviolently. "The only revolution in which the goa...

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...uraged freedom of thought, speech, and choice. He was more than just a hero for the African-American community of that time; he was a hero for all communities. Malcolm X was not just a hero for the civil rights movement; he was a hero for the human rights movement. He was not just a hero for the communities of that time; he was a hero for communities of the future and times to come.

Malcolm X was a hero for his time and beyond. I believe that a true hero deviates from society, and follows his own compass. A hero fights against all odds, and makes new ones. He fights for more than his own struggles but the struggles of every single person, and for generations to come. Malcolm X was a hero in more ways than one. He was a true hero.

Works Cited

http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-01846.html?from=../15/15-00382.html&from_nm=King%2C%20Martin%20Luther%2C%20Jr.

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