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Today in History: Malcolm X Is Born
05/19/10
The influential African-American leader Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925. He became a member of the Nation of Islam around 1950, while serving time in prison on burglary charges, and changed his surname to “X” upon his release in 1952.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Malcolm X emerged as a prominent spokesman for the Nation of Islam and the Black Nationalist movement. In speeches like his 1963 Message to the Grass Roots, he charged that white society actively worked to prevent African Americans from gaining economic, political, and social equality. “We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator,” he stated. “But once we all realize that we have this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy—the white man. He’s an enemy to all of us.”
Malcolm X’s support for racial separatism and refusal to renounce violence made him a controversial figure during the civil rights protests of the 1960s. After leaving the Nation of Islam in early 1964, however, he moderated his position and expressed an interest in cooperating with the mainstream civil rights movement. In his famous The Ballot or the Bullet speech, delivered in April 1964, he encouraged African Americans to demand equal voting rights in order to change the system from within. Malcolm X was killed by rivals from the Nation of Islam on February 21, 1965.
Read MALCOLM X’S MESSAGE TO THE GRASS ROOTS
Read MALCOLM X’S THE BALLOT OR THE BULLET SPEECH