Malcolm+X

History Day “The Black Prince… Malcolm X”   By: Kaylah Gilliam, Jasira Ziglar, and Taylor West April, 22th, 2009 **// Kaylah: //** Where have you guys been? **// Taylor: //** We were out expressing the right of freedom of speech. **// Kaylah //**// : // What does that mean? **// Jasira: //** Well, we have abolished slavery, but segregation is still at large, so we decided to leave a piece of our heritage behind so they’ll never forget. We painted “Black is Beautiful” over a mural down town! You gotta check it out!!! **// Kaylah: //** I know ya’ll are truly activists’, but ya’ll always getting into something to express yourselves, whether it is vocally, or a silent march you skipped school for! It’s always something. But be careful, especially as young black women with a passion and fire as deep as Malcolm’s. **// Taylor: //** Look, I know you get worried, but if we don’t stand up who will??? I plan to make Malcolm X proud. Our project for Black History Month is crucial. Who knows if this holiday will be around long enough before its cut out of the school system??? **// Kaylah: //** I dig ya. I think we could make out project so much better! There was so much about him that people don’t know, like what he had a passion for. He went from being a drug dealer, junkie, having a cell mate in prison, to a minster in the Holy Nation of Islam. But what did he truly stand for? How many people truly know the answer? **// Jasira: //** Through our project we should make it known. Once he became a part of the Nation of Islam while incarcerated, he really started to get his life together. He became passionate about black power and determined to help African Americans understand their true culture and background. **// Taylor: //** Malcolm’s life experiences helped to shape his beliefs. He went to jail because he began to give up on his dreams. In junior high school, Malcolm was the best student in his class. He told his white teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer, but soon dropped out after being told that wanting to become a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a negro” **// Kaylah: //** His parents were also a big influence on him. I know that his father Earl Little was a Baptist minister who supported Marcus Garvey who was the leader of the Black Nationalist Party. Malcolm liked to use one of Garvey’s famous quotes, “Black is Beautiful”. **(Kaylah looks at Taylor and Jasira)** His mother Louise Little, was born in Grenada, but had a Scottish white father. Malcolm once said, he “hated every drop of that white rapist blood” that was in him. **// Taylor: //** I think he’d even begun to feel that his light skin was a curse because he resented the white blood that was in him. But he stood for Black Power. **// Jasira: //** He was also a Black Nationalist. His beliefs are different from civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King. Kaylah: How? **// Jasira: //** Black Nationalists believe that black people could never be fully accepted in to the white society that we live in today. Black people as a race need to come together and move to a place that we can govern ourselves without the influence of white people. You know Malcolm was often wrongly associated with the Black Panthers, who were also Black Nationalists. **// Tylora: //** But I thought Malcolm’s view changed? **// Jasira: //** At first Malcolm believed that we should use any method of violence in order to free the black race of oppression and racism, but towards the end of his life he began to think that non violent methods may have been more effective. **// Kaylah: //** Like Martin Luther King right? **// Jasira //** : Yeah, It was after his journey to Mecca that he discovered that white people could also be Muslims and respect him. **(Taylor and Kay roll their eyes)** Respect is hard to come by, and it changed his entire outlook on life. **// Taylor: //** You’re not the only one who knows a little something about our “Black Prince”. **// Kaylah: //** Yeah, (with attitude) who said you to are the only ones who know something about? **// Jasira: //** Well what do you know? **// Taylor: //** That on May 19th, 1925 a legacy was born. It was the day History was forever changed. His birth insured hope and future for black people. **// Kaylah: //** He created a religious organization he named the Muslim Mosque Incorporated and in 1964 a Black Nationalist Group he founded called the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He preached to Cassius Clay who became a Muslim because of Malcolm ministering him and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Converting people to the Muslim faith and created organization was only few of his accomplishments in his life time. **// Taylor: //** He spread his message to all people to end the segregation and prejudice that is a result of slavery. He even held his first rally for the Organization of Afro- American Unity after he returned from Mecca. The New York Times printed an article stating that Malcolm X was the second most sought after speaker in the United States in 1963. **// Jasira: //** That was the same year that he led the Unity Rally on June 29, 1963. They still talk about that rally as one of the largest civil rights events in history! Malcolm was a major influence in the Civil Right’s Movement. **// Kaylah: //** History has, and always will be important. Malcolm’s past helped shape the legacy that he has today. **// Taylor: //** As a child Malcolm X and his family received constant death threats from the KKK and the Black Legion. They moved several times, and at one point their house was burned down. His father was later found dead on streetcar tracks. **// Kaylah: //** After the death of her husband, Louise Little was admitted to a State Mental Hospital where she was to stay for 26 years while Malcolm and his eight brothers and sisters were sent to foster care. **// Taylor: //** The segregation and oppression that Malcolm experienced with his family at a young age only inspired him to make the change that he strived for. **// Jasira: //** After being released from prison in 1952 Malcolm served under Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam. He was appointed minister of several mosques at one point, one in Detroit, and the other in Harlem. Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964. **// Kaylah: //** He married Betty Sanders in 1958, who later took the name Betty Shabazz when she converted to the Muslim faith. They had 6 daughters, four who were alive to see their father’s greatness. His oldest daughter was six when he died, and his wife was pregnant with twins. **// Taylor: //** Ending all relationships with the Nation of Islam caused death threats and caution to Malcolm X and his family. **// Jasira: //** On February 21st, 1965 at on Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan, Malcolm X was gunned down by 3 men. **// Kaylah: //** He was shot 16 times **// Taylor: //** He died before he reached the hospital **// Jasira: //** Over 100 people saw him bleed to death **// Kaylah: //** Three Black Muslim men were charged and convicted with the shooting and death of Malcolm X. All who reportedly belonged to the Nation of Islam **// Taylor: //** His death caused uproar among white and black people alike. His memory continues to be carried on within each one of us today. **// Kaylah: //** By any means necessary **// Jasira: //** We, just like Malcolm X can become great, despite people doubting us because of the color of our skin. **// Kaylah: //** By any means necessary **// Taylor: //** Life for black people is no longer the same, because we have the opportunity to become a lawyer, instead of a carpenter. **// Kaylah: //** Young black men, of every generation will forever be reminded of Malcolm, a “black man whose life and words were the embodiment of life and evolution” **// Jasira: //** By **ANY** means necessary **// Kaylah: //** His legacy continues…..Malcolm X  **// Taylor, Kaylah, and Jasira: //** By any means necessary