February Post: Autobiography of Malcom X (Black History Month)

As many may know the month of February is "Black History Month", and during this month people take the time to remember the extraordinary accomplishments that the black race has brought to this world. One of the biggest accomplishments was during the Civil Rights Movement, where many strong-opinionated, intelligent, dedicated people risked their lives in many ways for what they believed for. I feel that the word "risk" still does not equal to how dangerous their efforts were to fight for what they believed for.

One person that many of us know and celebrate is Martin Luther King Jr. a man that took these extraordinary risks in order to make a better life for an entire race. A man who preached non-violence, a beloved community and help guide people to achieve the non-violence philosophy. On the other hand, there a person that some of us know, but not necessary know completely about, who is Malcolm X. Malcolm X was a man who believed that African Americans should try to become independent among white Americans with things such as businesses and etc; and a part of this was the back to Africa movement. Malcolm X thought that by moving back to Africa, it would allow the race to become completely independent without the white Americans.


With Malcolm x being so anti-White Americans, people may wonder why he had so much anger towards the "White Americans". Well while gradually reading through some of the autobiography I found some very interesting things that might have explained his actions/feelings towards the white race. When Malcolm's mother was pregnant with Malcolm, the KKK or Ku Klux Klan members broke into the windows of his family’s house in Omaha, Nebraska. They targeted Malcolm’s father, Earl Little, a black Baptist preacher from Georgia. When they found out that he works for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which supports the return of American blacks to Africa, they attacked him and beat him. In 1929 after they had moved to Lansing, Michigan from Nebraska another white supremacist group burned down his house. He supposively watched it burn down and he said it had taught him a valuable lesson about being black in America.

These situations are just a small part of what I remember in the Autobiography of Malcolm X. The things that he had went through as a child, kind of explains some of philosophies and it also explains such actions that he made in his older days.