The 1960's was the heart of the civil rights movement. Amidst the chaos, nonviolence policies, the marches and the police brutalities, many black leaders strove to unite the blacks and win them their rights. Among these leaders one of the most well known names in fighting for black civil rights was a man named El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X. The most common response to his legacy revolves around what he did wrong. Malcolm X was seen as an aggressor of violence and promoter for hate towards the "white" race. However, the truth is that Malcolm wanted what all blacks in the United States wanted, freedom and equality. Throughout this paper we will examine the events of Malcolm X's life, why he was driven towards hate and his contribution to the civil rights movement. As well as, see his involvement with Islam and how it was the key factor in his ability to have influential power over so many people during the 1960's.
To understand Malcolm's views, to comprehend his feelings against the oppressive acts of white people, one must take a look at his past, his life story and his struggles. Malcolm Little was born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, reverend Earl Little, who was a Baptist minister and an organizer for Marcus Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association, with his wife Louise Little both believed and worked towards the unity and rights of the black people in their communities. Growing up in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm knew before he could explain it to others that he was living in a society that engaged in the systematic destruction of his people's self-respect. Malcolm first observed hatred when he was four years old and saw his house get burned down in the hands of a white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan. This incident was initially the event that opened Malcolm's eyes to the massive hatred towards the black race. Two years later Malcolm X's father was killed while he was fighting against having a restricted place that was assigned to his people in this country.
