On 21 February 1965, Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X was assassinated.
The following is a short film by Liam Donovon featuring a recording of The Ballot or the Bullet speech, set to music by the film’s director.Malcolm X was born in Omaha in 1925 as Malcolm Little. His father, a Baptist minister, was an outspoken follower of Marcus Garvey, the Black Nationalist leader of the 1920s.
The family moved to Lansing, Michigan, and when Malcolm was six years old his father was murdered after receiving death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm’s mother suffered a nervous breakdown and he and his eight siblings were taken into care by the welfare department.
He was sent first to a foster home and then to a reform school. After the eighth grade, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked at various jobs, eventually becoming involved in criminal activity. In 1946 he received a prison sentence for burglary.
Inside he became interested in the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Black Muslims, also known as The Nation of Islam. He subsequently spent his time in prison educating himself and learning more about the Black Muslims, who advocated racial separation.
On his release in 1952, he joined a Black Muslim temple in Detroit and changed his surname from Little to X, symbolically replacing the name derived from the heritage of slavery to represent the unknown name of his African ancestors.
By the early 1960s, the Nation of Islam had become well known and Malcolm was their most prominent spokesperson. In 1963, however, he was suspended from the organisation for his remark that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was like “the chickens coming home to roost”. In the following year, he broke with the Nation of Islam altogether and formed a secular black nationalist group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).
In 1964 Malcolm made a hajj (pilgrimage) to the Islamic holy city of Mecca. As a result of this trip and other travels to Africa and Europe he adopted the Arabic name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and renounced his previous teaching that all whites are evil.
He was assassinated by three Black Muslim members while addressing an OAAU rally in New York.
Brilliant. Thanks. I’m citing you as my concise Malcolm X authority from now on.
My Shining Prince is what I call him.
What you have is mostly correct – thank you. What can not be made concise is what he brought into the hearts and minds of those, like me, that found his message of dignity and responsibility wondrous and life giving.
I originally began reading your blog to provoke a discussion about god and the what there is to believe life should be. I joined your link exchange for selfish reasons, wanting you to improve my standing with technorati. I had to review your use of Malcolm’s story. I still want you to read my “3 convictions” in my blog http://oldude59.wordpress.com – but I’m less concerned with provoking you know because I take away from your blog a sense different than when I arrived.
Thanks
OK! So he was a devil possessed ‘cult leader’ excommunicated from his own group! Wow, I knew someone like that! My dad, and my big brother! Yikes! Are you sure you want to Blog around with me? Well, I do know what prejudice is because of who my family members were even if I hung out with them or not! Maybe you should quit being so nice to me! I am not allowed to have children because of who I had as a relative! You should go see how Malcolm X’s prodigy is doing. Should we hunt them down and take their children’s children like the DHS is threatening to do to me…. SOS
dogettydoggonedo
They finally left me alone…
Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925. This weekend we celebrate what would have been his 82nd birthday. Please join us on the Electronic Village and share your thoughts on this African American hero. Let your voice be heard. peace, Villager
I have quit YouTube and will be committing ritual suicide online.
The Rock Star life is just too much for me.
Here is my farewell video:
There are many versions, in many cities of the Ballot or the Bullet speech. What city and what date is this from?
Inez:
April 12, 1964, Detroit, MI.
Any more questions?
Indeed, black is brave
i think that he had a bigf part in the Civil Rights Movement, but he should have gone the same way Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. did. in his ballot or bullet speech he says “It’ll be Molotov Cocktails this month, hand grenades next month and something else the next month” that is awful, all of the violence he said that he was willing to do is wrong VIOLENCE IS BAD