Black History Month 2003

by sableindian 90 Replies latest forum announcements

• 

  bigboi

  In my opinion the civil rights movement was more about the right to a quality education that was denied from the vast majority of blacks and other minorities through various means. The golden rule of Jim Crow was Separate But Equal. However, under Jim Crow the separation of the races was anything but equal. Even in today's supposedly integrated society a huge disparity still exists in the quality of education available to the respective races.

  To be honest I would have no problem living in a society that promoted a separation of the races if there were some assurance of fair and equitable treatmeant and opportunity. However, that is almost never the case, since the main objective of the majority in such societies is always to exploit the minority.
• 

  teejay

  Madam C. J. Walker
  

  "I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South.
  From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was
  promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself
  into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations....
  I have built my own factory on my own ground"

  http://www.indianahistory.org/heritage/madam.html
• 

  LDH

  Ahhhh...Madame Walker.

  The first self-made woman millionaire. Cool Chick.

  Lisa

  No-Lye Class
• 

  sableindian

  black history for 2/4/03

  france

  

  THE 3 MUSKETEERS, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, THE CORSICAN TWINS, THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK

  Dumas, Alexandre (pre)

  1802 -- 1870

  D ramatist, novelist. Born July 24, 1802, in the village of Villers-Cotterets in the department of Aisne to the west of Paris. His mother, Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Labouret, was the offspring of a local innkeeper, while his father, Thomas- Alexandre Dumas, had been born in Haiti, son of a French marquis, Antoine- Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, and of a black slave woman, Louise- Cessette Dumas. Generally called Dumas pre to distinguish him from his illustrious son Alexandre (known as Dumas fils, also a dramatist and novelist). Alexandre Dumas is best known for his novels The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas was brought up by his mother in straitened circumstances after his father's death. While still young, he began to write "vaudeville" plays (light musical comedies) and then historical plays in collaboration with a friend, Adolphe de Leuven. Historical themes, as well as the use of a collaborator, were to be permanent aspects of Dumas's style throughout his career. After reading William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Friedrich von Schiller, and Lord Byron, and while employed as a secretary to the Duke of Orlans (later King Louis Philippe), Dumas wrote his first plays in 1825 and 1826. Others followed, with Henri III et sa cour (1829) bringing him great success and recognition. It seemed to the theatergoers of Dumas's time that here at last was serious theater, which presented an alternative to effete neoclassical drama. The Revolution of 1830 temporarily diverted Dumas from his writing, and he became an ardent supporter of the Marquis de Lafayette. His liberal activities were viewed unfavorably by the new king, his former employer, and he traveled for a time outside France. A series of amusing travel books resulted from this period of exile. His Fiction When Dumas returned to Paris, a new series of historical plays flowed from his pen. By 1851 he had written alone or in collaboration more than 20 plays, among the most outstanding of which are Richard Darlington (1831), La Tour de Nesle (1832), Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (1839), and La Reine Margot (1845). He also began writing fiction at this time, first composing short stories and then novels. In collaboration with Auguste Maquet he wrote the trilogy: Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844;The Three Musketeers), Vingt Ans aprs (1845; Twenty Years After), and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (1850). Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1846; The Count of Monte Cristo) was also a product of this period. Dumas had many collaborators (Auguste Maquet, Paul Lacroix, Paul Bocage, and P.A. Fiorentino, to name only a few), but it was undoubtedly with Maquet that he produced his best novels. He had assistants who supplied him with the outlines of romances whose original form he had already drawn up; then he wrote the work himself. The scale of his "fiction factory" has often been exaggerated. Although at least a thousand works were published under his own name, most were due to his own industry and the amazing fertility of his imagination. Dumas grasped at any possible subject; he borrowed plots and material from all periods and all countries, then transformed them with ingenuity. The historian Jules Michelet once wrote admiringly to him, "You are like a force of elemental nature." Dumas does not penetrate deeply into the psychology of his characters; he is content to identify them by characteristic tags (the lean acerbity of Athos, the spunk of D'Artagnan) and hurl them into a thicket of wild and improbable adventures where, after heroic efforts, they will at last succumb to noble and romantic deaths. His heroes and heroines, strong-willed and courageous beings with sonorous names, are carried along in the rapid movement of the dramas, in the flow of adventure and suspenseful plots. Dumas adhered to no literary theory, except to write as the spirit moved him, which it did often. Dumas's works were received with enthusiasm by his loyal readers, and he amassed a considerable fortune. It was not sufficient, however, to meet the demands of his extravagant way of life. Among his follies was his estate of Monte-Cristo in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a Renaissance house with a Gothic pavilion, situated in an English garden. This estate housed a horde of parasitical guests and lady admirers who lived at the author's expense. Later Life Dumas, who had never changed his republican opinions, greeted the Revolution of 1848 with enthusiasm and even ran as a candidate for the Assembly. In 1850 the Thetre-Historique, which he had founded to present his plays, failed. After the coup d'tat in 1851 and the seizure of power by Napoleon III, Dumas went to Brussels, where his secretary managed to restore some semblance of order to his affairs; here he continued to write prodigiously. In 1853 Dumas returned to Paris and began the daily paper Le Mousquetaire. It was devoted to art and literature, and in it he first published his Mmoires. The paper survived until 1857, and Dumas then published the weekly paper Monte-Cristo. This in turn folded after three years. In 1858 Dumas traveled to Russia. He then joined Giuseppe Garibaldi in Sicily, and in 1860 Garibaldi named him keeper of museums in Naples. After remaining there for four years, he returned to Paris, where he found himself deep in debt and at the mercy of a host of creditors. His affairs were not helped by a succession of parasitical mistresses who expected--and received--lavish gifts from Dumas. Working compulsively to pay his debts , Dumas produced a number of rather contrived works, among them Madame de Chamblay (1863) and Les Mohicans de Paris (1864), which were not received with great enthusiasm. His last years were softened by the presence of his son, Alexandre, and his devoted daughter, Madame Petel. He died in comparative poverty and obscurity on December 5, 1870
• 

  jst_me

  Where they are lovingly welcomed with open arms, right? LOL.

  Lisa

  Isn't that the POINT?? How do you think it is for minorities on predominately white colleges?

  And who ever said that one race had the monopoly on being racist?? Not everyone feels like the people that brought the lawsuit in Alabama, the same as not everyone in the South opposed integrating the schools back in the sixties.

  But, kinda on a tangent...did you know military universities aggressively recruit to meet racial quotas?

  Check it out......

  http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/033/nation/West_Point_and_White_House_go_opposite_ways_on_diversity+.shtml

  West Point and White House go opposite ways on diversity

  By Wayne Washington, Globe Staff, 2/2/2003

  ASHINGTON - The United States Military Academy at West Point sets goals to achieve racial diversity in its student body, a practice that the Bush administration has opposed in legal briefs filed in the affirmative action case at the University of Michigan.

  Colonel Michael L. Jones, director of admissions at West Point, said the academy, which has trained such military luminaries as Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton, sets a goal of having blacks make up 10 percent to 12 percent of its student population.

  Bush administration lawyers said the effort for a targeted range of minority student enrollment at Michigan was akin to a quota system. Although West Point likewise sets specific recruitment goals, a White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, denied the two systems were similar.

  ''What we're addressing in the Michigan case is the University of Michigan's policies,'' McClellan said. ''It is a race-based policy. That was the wrong way to achieve diversity.''

  There were no plans, he said, to challenge the admissions policies at West Point or any of the other service academies.

  Unlike admissions officials at the University of Michigan, those at West Point offer no extra points in considering the applications of minority students. The Bush administration says that awarding points based on an applicant's race amounts to the establishment of a quota system, McClellan said.

  At West Point, Jones said, admissions officials rely on aggressive, targeted recruiting that would increase the number of minority applicants who meet the school's rigorous academic and physical standards.

  But supporters of affirmative action have said that even the stated goal of having African-Americans make up 10 percent to 12 percent of the student population at West Point would probably be impermissible if the courts rule the way the Bush administration urges them to in its briefs.

  ''It's remarkable that this administration hasn't questioned the affirmative action programs for our military academies,'' said Senator Edward M. Kennedy. ''Clearly, diversity in our military is a national priority. But it's also a national priority for our colleges and universities, which are the gateways to opportunity. If we followed the administration's policies, we'd be a lesser nation, a lesser society.''

  The US Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., are in unique positions. While public universities tend to be state entities that draw students from their area, the military academies take in students from across the country. And they serve as a major source of officers for the armed services.

  In addition, military leaders have long stressed the importance of having the armed services reflect the diversity of the country they protect.

  None of the military academies come close in that regard, and the Bush administration's brief makes it clear that the administration prefers race-neutral efforts.

  That emphasis might seem like a conflict with having a stated percentage goal for a minority group, but Jones said West Point simply wants a diverse corps of officers. The extra recruiting efforts that target minority students have not drawn criticism from whites, Jones said, because they already know about opportunities at the academy.

  Admissions officials at each of the academies have said they want a student body that is diverse, but only those at West Point have a specific range they want to reach.

  ''There's no need to have a target,'' said Rollie Stoneman, the associate dean of admissions at the Air Force Academy.

  Stoneman said he and his colleagues also try to increase the number of applications they receive from minority students. But when he was asked why the Air Force Academy does not set goals in an effort to have its student population reflect the population, he said: ''We haven't needed it.''

  Blacks, who make up slightly less than 13 percent of the US population, account for 5.6 percent of the student population at the Air Force Academy. Hispanics, 13 percent of the US population, are just under 6 percent of the student population.

  At West Point, Hispanics are reported to involve 6.3 percent of the student population. Just over 8 percent are black.

  Hispanics make up 8.2 percent of the student body at the Naval Academy. Blacks are reported to account for 6.1 percent of students.

  Affirmative action supporters and even some who oppose focusing on race to achieve diversity say the Bush administration's briefs in the Michigan case tends only to confuse things.

  ''It's hardly a brief that a lot of conservatives wanted,'' said Abigail Thernstrom, a conservative member of the US Commission on Civil Rights. ''I think they've done something odd, which is to jump in but not really tackle the central issue.''

  The briefs, one of which challenges the admissions policies at Michigan's law school and another that disputes its undergraduate admissions system, offers some comfort for both supporters and opponents of affirmative action.

  At one point, Bush administration lawyers write: ''Measures that ensure diversity, accessibility, and opportunity are important components of government's responsibilities.''

  But the lawyers also voiced criticism of race-based affirmative action programs, even those that would set goals rather than fixed targets. ''Like a quota,'' they said, ''a range ensures that a certain share of spaces will be allocated to a racial group, and that other students will not be eligible to compete meaningfully for those spaces solely because of their race.''

  Debra Humphreys, who is vice president for communications and public affairs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, said the Bush administration is trying to have it both ways: They tend to want to be seen as embracing diversity while striking at the heart of programs that achieve it.

  ''They've been boxed into a corner here,'' Humphreys said. ''The brief was a legal document but also a political one. They got out there and made both arguments.''

  McClellan said Bush's position isn't contradictory: He wants diversity, but he doesn't want quotas to be used to achieve it.

  As an example of how schools might reach diversity without the use of quotas, the briefs refer to the admissions policies at the state university systems in Florida, California, and Texas. Those systems guarantee admittance to students who finish at or near the top of their high school class.

  Humphreys said such a program ''only works if you have segregated high schools. It's a very ironic argument to make.''

  If colleges and universities took a percentage of the top high school students at racially diverse schools, they would get fewer minorities than they do now, Humphreys argued. With the continued segregation of many high schools, the top 10 or 20 percent of the graduating class will have little racial diversity. But if the school is mostly black or Hispanic, it could guarantee a college or university a large number of minority students.

  McClellan said that argument has not been borne out by the results highlighted in the administration's briefs. Since Florida, California, and Texas modified their admissions programs to take the top students at their high schools in the states, the percentages of racial minorities they are enrolling has remained roughly the same, or has increased.

  Jones said much more focus should be placed on the fact that all colleges and universities - not just military academies - are having too hard a time finding minority students who are prepared for college.

  ''Two years ago, less than 3,000 black males scored 1,200 on the SAT,'' he said.

  ''It is heartbreaking for me when I travel to see the lack of opportunity and lack of desire that engenders in some of these large inner-city schools. That's what has to be fixed in our country, to make this issue of goals go away.''

  This story ran on page A12 of the Boston Globe on 2/2/2003.
• 

  funkyderek

  White history for 2/5/03

  USA

  Biography of Frederick Douglass

  
  

  Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Tuckahoe, Maryland, sometime in either 1817 or 1818, to a black slave named Harriet Bailey, and an unnamed white father. Harriet was the daughter of Isaac and Betsy Bailey. Douglass lived with Betsy during his early childhood and therefore she was the prominent figure in his early life. As a result of Betsys influence, the author demonstrated a great respect for women throughout his life.

  Although he admitted that he was not very close to his own mother, he put the blame explicitly on slavery, later writing, The slave mother can be spared long enough from the field to endure all the bitterness of a mothers anguish, when it adds another name to a masters ledger, but not long enough to receive the joyous reward afforded by the intelligent smiles of her child. At seven years old, he was separated from his grandmother and relocated to work at the Wye House, twelve miles away from Betsys cabin.

  Douglass was an intelligent, curious child. While working as a house servant in Baltimore, he learned to read and write. Because of the abundance of free, former slaves living in the city, Baltimore gave him confidence and hopehope that he would one day be one of the free people of color. In his relatively short time as a slave, he experienced slavery in all its varieties, from its most brutal to its most complaisant. Although his first attempted escape in 1836 failed, he tried again, and succeeded in 1838.

  As a free man, Douglass moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, changed his name, and worked as a common day-laborer. Six months after moving to New Bedford, a salesperson for William Lloyd Garrisons The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper, convinced Douglass to accept a free trial subscription. Douglass later noted, I was brought in contact with the mind of William Lloyd Garrison. Douglass became an activist. He began speaking against slavery at his church, the New Bedford Zion Chapel. There he was heard by William C. Coffin, a dedicated abolitionist.

  Coffin thought that people should hear what the earnest young black man had to say; thus, three years after his escape, Douglass was urged to lecture at a convention of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Nantucket. He spoke of his life. It was an electrifying story about a runaway slave. Before the convention was over, he was asked to join the Society and go out on the lecture circuit to tell the world about his experiences of slavery. Although he was often humiliated and assaulted at his speaking engagements, he was always a proud and impassioned speaker.

  Douglass then traveled to Europe to tell the British and Irish abolitionists about his story. When he came back to America, he worked on The Liberator. Concerned with growing doubts about Garrisons approach toward eliminating slavery Douglass began publish his own anti-slavery newspaper, the North Star, which became a leading journal of the abolitionist movement. The pages of the North Star became a forum where he aggressively communicated the difference between Americas Christian democratic values and its racial prejudice and discrimination.

  Through the North Star and his associations with the Liberty and Radical Abolition parties, he supported industrial education for Negroes and championed the cause of equal rights for all, including women. Ironically, white abolitionists tended to prevent blacks from decision-making positions in their efforts against slavery, but Douglass energies could not be stifled. He played a prominent role in the Negro Convention movement of the 1840s and 1850s and in the first womens rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848.

  When the Civil War broke out, he used the pages of the North Star as a means to gather blacks to fight for the Union Army. After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Douglass personally recruited black soldiers for the Army, although he viewed these activities as only setting the groundwork for the larger task of obtaining full citizenship rights for Negroes, an achievement which he believed would mean the beginning of full freedom for his brothers and himself.

  Douglass continued to work for Negro equality during Reconstruction. He protested against the unethical growing patterns of segregation and mob violence. From 1871 to 1891 he held an number of government positions. During this time he distanced himself from the black community, but, inspired by Ida B. Wells, a leader in the anti-lynching crusade, he reemerged in 1894 to give what was called his last great speech, The Lesson of the Hour. Douglass died at the age of 77 on February 20, 1895.

  His early writings included Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, and My Bondage and My Freedom published in 1855, both of which were autobiographies. He also wrote numerous speeches. His last book, also an autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, was published in 1892.

  Edited by - funkyderek on 5 February 2003 6:21:46
• 

  sableindian

  black history month

  Russia

  Read more http://www.websn.com/Pride/Pride/alexander_pushkin.htm.

  Alexander Pushkin was born May 26th, 1799. He was the son of a family of nobility. On his father's side, he was the descendent of one of the oldest lines of Russian nobility. On his mother's side, he was related to Abraham Petrovich Hannibal, a pure Songhaian who had been kidnapped from Songhai,(West Africa), brought to Constantinople and sent as a gift to Peter the Great.

  Between 1811 and 1817 he attended a special school for children of nobility. Pushkin was indifferent to most subjects, but he performed brilliantly in French and Russian literature. He wrote about 130 poems during this period.

  Pushkin was exiled to the south of Russia because of his political sentiments

  and the boldness he expressed in his poems. His "Ode to Liberty" contained a politically sensitive reference to the father of Czar Alexander I. He left and did not return for six years, glad to be free of the artificialities of life in the capital. Always short of money he began to write to earn extra money . He fell in love with a woman who inspired some of his best poems such as "Night" and "Beneath the Blue Sky of Her Native Land."

  At the end of his exile in 1826, Pushkin was received by the new Czar, Nicholas I. Pushkin was charmed by his reasonableness and kindness. However he was placed under what is called a "privileged tyranny" in which the Czar himself would censor his works.

  After 1830 Pushkin wrote less poetry. His poem "The Bronze Horseman" was considered his greatest work. Many of Pushkin's works provided the bases for operas.

  Edited by - sableindian on 5 February 2003 16:22:57
• 

  sableindian

  Thought this was interesting for Black History Month. This is by a Catholic Nun. Circa: 1945. Note the terminology. WBTS was not this intuned in 1945. Njoy

  ChickenBones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

  Home

  Negro Catholic Writers (1900-1943): A Bio-Bibliography (1945) By Sister Mary Anthony Scally, R.S.M. Librarian, Mount St. Agnes College Baltimore Preface

  The American Negro in the past decade has become more and more eager for educational advantages. He has seen the possibilities opening out to him in the development of his talents and the cultivation of the qualities of his mind. Each year within the last decade thousands of names have been added to the ever-growing list of Negro men and women with degrees. The results of this educational effort are to be seen in the advances made by Negroes in the fields of literature and art. Outstanding names are included in the latest histories of American literature,and books by Negroes are accepted by the most important publishing firms and reviewed in the best book reviewing periodicals. Negro magazines in the fields of literature, education, and medicine are of the highest type in make-up and content. The Church, who has ever given her approval to the pursuit of learning and to the cultivation of those gifts of the mind bestowed by God, recognizes the justice of the Negroes' desire for education and grieves that her facilities are still too limited to satisfy this desire completely. "Education with religion is the hope of our people" are words which were addressed to the Fraternal Council of Negro Churches of America. Although not stated by a Catholic, they are words which every Catholic should take deeply to heart. To achieve the objective implied and to make it a reality rather than an ideal, the Church, against the ever-pressing handicap of financial shortages, and the greater handicap of indifference and lack of cooperation among many of its members best qualified to help, has labored steadily to establish churches and schools and to increase its membership among the colored population of the country. Several northern Catholic colleges and universities have thrown open their doors to admit Negro students; and Xavier University, New Orleans, and the Catholic College for Colored, Guthrie, Oklahoma, are educating Negro students exclusively. St. Augustine's Seminary, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, is educating Negro students for the priesthood as members of the Society of the Divine Word. One unmistakable indication of the advance that Catholic education has made among the Negroes of the United States is the constantly increasing number of ordained colored priests. The ordination of Negroes for the priesthood is not untraditional in the history of the Church. Rather it is the background of prejudice that has developed in this country which, to some, gives it the appearance of the extraordinary. The late Dr. Arthur A. Schomburg, a non-Catholic, in an article in Interracial Review, August, 1937 , gives an account of the first native Archbishop in America. This was Archbishop Victoria, a Negro, founder of the noted University of St. Francis Xavier at Panama. He was created Bishop of Panama in August, 1751 , and Archbishop of Truxillo in Peru in 1758. Further indication of the progress of Catholic education among the Negroes of this country is the participation of the Catholic Negro in the literary movement of the present day and in every activity for the betterment of his group by interracial justice and cooperation. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine accurately the exact contribution of the Catholic Negro. The appearance of an article by a Negro in a Catholic periodical is no guarantee that the writer is a Catholic, Dr. Schomburg and George Streator have written extensively for Catholic magazines and both are non-Catholic. The presence of a Negro in a Catholic institution is no indication of his religious affiliation, nor is the opposite true, a very large proportion of Catholic high school graduates being forced into state institutions of higher learning because of the discrimination of Catholic colleges. Personal inquiry and investigation were necessary in every case in compiling' this bibliography, the purpose of which is to offer specific examples of the contribution of Negro Catholics in the field of published writings of whatever nature, to show what interests have stimulated them to write, what form their writings have taken, and by what agencies they were produced. All entries included have appeared in the United States since 1900; all the writers are colored Catholics. This limitation excludes some interesting items. One of the finest poems in the Spanish language, "La Austriada," by Juan Latino, is omitted on the basis of nationality. It is concerned chiefly with Don John of Austria and the victory of Lepanto. An account of Juan Latino can be found in the Spanish encyclopedia, Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada, under the entry Latino (El maestro Juan). Also Antonio Mann Octete in 1925 published an account of him in Granada entitled El Negro. He had been a slave but earned his freedom and became a professor at the University of Granada where he taught for sixty years. Under him the famous Jesuit, Francis Suarez, studied rhetoric as a boy. Chiefly on the basis of time is excluded the earliest anthology of Negro poetry to be produced in this country, Les Cenelles. Its editor, Arnold Lanusse, was undoubtedly Catholic; and probably most of the contributors were Catholic also, this was the prevailing religion in New Orleans at the time of the publication of the book. The story of this little volume is very interesting and deserves to be better known. A group of seventeen free colored Creoles of New Orleans, educated in France, disgusted at the treatment received from the white population of the city, and excluded from association with other groups of equal cultivation, organized their own literary circle where they discussed congenial topics and criticized one another's poetry. The result was Les Cenelles; Choix de Poesies Indigezies published in "Nouvelle Orleans by H. Lauve et Compagnie" in 1845. Arnold Lanusee, the editor of the volume, later became the founder of a Catholic orphanage in New Orleans. Victor Sejour, one of the contributors, is better known as a dramatist. He left the United States for France where he made his home and produced many plays. He established a reputation for remarkable energy and for revising each drama at the last minute before the actors appeared on the stage. Journalists have not been included in the bibliography unless specific data could be located for each individual contribution. This has led to the exclusion of Noah D. Thompson, for several years secretary to Booker T. Washington and member of the Tuskegee faculty.
• 

  sableindian

  Black history 2/7/0 3

  Brazil

  a brief history of the capoeira dance

  http://www.bantus.asn.au/history.html
• 

  funkyderek

  More white history:

  Malcom X

  Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little on 19th of May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, to Earl and Louise Little. Earl Little was a Baptist minister, who fought for improvement in black communities. Louise Little was half white. Her mother was raped by a white man and therefore she looked like a white woman. Malcolm knew nothing except for his mother's shame about her father, and later on, Malcolm would feel the same:" It was, of course, because of my white grandfather, that I got my reddish-brown, marriny color of skin and my hair was of the same color. Because of being a light-complexioned Negro- I learned to hate every drop of that white rapist's blood in me." (2-1) And before even being born, Malcolm felt what it meant to be black: When his mother was pregnant with him, a group of hooded KKK riders attacked their home shouting for Earl to come out. Louise was alone with 3 small children. The Klansmen shouted threats that they better move out of town, because "the good white Christian people" were not going to stand for Earl's preachings. The next violent event that followed was when Malcolm was 4. His childhood home burned to the ground. When Malcolm was 6, his father was murdered. The family heard two stories. The first one was that the members of Black Legion, similar to KKK, killed Earl for his work at UNIA. The other, police one, was that Earl committed suicide. Who was telling the truth? Were the police covering up for the white racists again? It was hard for Malcolm to find the truth.

  After Earl's death, the family started falling apart. Some of the children were killed which brought Louise to a mental illness. She was sent to a mental hospital and the rest of the children were helped by a state welfare agency in juvenile homes and foster families. Malcolm improved at school and was popular, but people were always ready to remind him of his color. He was openly ridiculed and heard a lot of "nigger" jokes. At that time, two events changed his life. The first one was his bitter experience with his English teacher, who asked Malcolm about his plans and when he replied that he wanted to be a lawyer, the teacher's response was that Malcolm should be realistic about being a nigger and consider something he can be. (36-37-1) The other event was the arrival of Ella, his stepsister, who gained custody of him and took him to Boston, where, for the first time, Malcolm ever saw sophisticated, wealthy black people, which he felt comfortable being among. Soon he began hustling and burglarizing homes with a group of street friends and two white women. In 1945. he was caught and was sentenced up to 10 years in prison. He has changed 3 prisons, but in the last one, Norfolk Rehab Prison colony, he had a chance to participate in debates and discussions with university instructors. At that time, he received letters from his brothers Philbert and Reginald, who explained to him that they have found a way to get him out of the prison, not physically, but mentally. They have joined a "natural religion for a black man", that was called "The Nation of Islam". It preached that the white man is the devil and that the God is a black man. The Nation was led by a man named Elijah Muhammad, who was often referred to as "The Prophet of Allah". Malcolm stopped smoking, eating pork and converted to the new religion.

  After he was paroled, in 1952, after spending more than 6 years in prison, he met Elijah Muhammad in person and a few months later, he changes his name into Malcolm X. "X "stood for the true African family name that has been lost during the time of slavery and each new member was given an X instead. In 1954, Malcolm became a minister of Temple #7 in New York. 4 years later, he married a Muslim sister named Betty Sanders. Over the years they had 6 female children. In 1959, a TV program called "The Hate That Hate Produced" aired in New York brought nationwide media attention to Malcolm X and the NOI members who were called "Black Muslims". 4 years later, Malcolm heard rumors that Elijah Muhammad, the so-called Prophet has committed adultery. Malcolm's trust in his leader was seriously shaken from ground. In Nov, 1963, President J. F. Kennedy was assassinated. Within hours, every minister received a directive- they were not to make any remarks on the assassination, or if pressed to say :"No comments." But Malcolm delivered a speech in which he said that the President's death was a case of "The chickens coming to the roost." (305-1) After that, he was silenced for 90 days by Elijah Muhammad.

  This brings me to the last main point and that is when Malcolm broke away from the NOI. At March 8th 1964, he announced that he will start and lead a new mosque, called Muslim Mosque, Inc. with headquarters in New York, and that the teachings will be from original, orthodox Islam. Therefore, he went to perform a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. He was made a guest of the state by Prince Faisal, where he spread the truth about the black people in the US. He changed his name into El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and totally converted to real Islam. For the first time in his life, he wasn't black:" The people of all races, colors, from all over the world came together as one. We were all the same- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, their behavior and their attitude." (143-2) " Never have I seen such a beautiful sight, nor witnessed such a scene, nor felt such an atmosphere." (339-1). In June he formed a group called Organization of Afro-American Unity and made a tour throughout newly independent African states. He also formulated his idea of the new America: he called Black and White America to the true religion of humanity, Islam. He saw Islam as the answer to individual and national problems such as racism, and perhaps the only hope for America. [America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases the race problem from its society." (144-2)] He was assassinated on Feb. 21 1965 in Audubon Ballroom in Harlem while speaking about the OAAU, by a group of Black Muslims, who are thought to be CIA or/and FBI agents. He was 39 years old.

  In conclusion, learning from his own mistakes, during his lifetime Malcolm has transformed himself into a deeply moral, spiritual person and lifted himself out of drug addiction, self-hatred and poverty. He restored a sense of pride in their African heritage to millions of black Americans. He offered his own view of civil rights issues- and it was totally different from the views held by other leaders, who were thought to be more moderate. If he had lived, many people think that he would have become one of the most powerful political figures this nation has known.