How Did Malcolm X Impact The Civil Rights Movement

Superior Essays
The fight for equality and against segregation has always been a noble fight. But is inflicting your rage onto those who have inflicted theirs upon you keep your nobility or just bring yours down to their level? Especially when there is a great deal of violence being used. This never-ending battle between the blacks and the whites has tormented the U.S. for years and still goes on in some areas. During the 1950’s –1960’s the civil rights movement was at its peek. This was when the African-Americans were growing impatient and could not wait a minute longer before they had their constitutional and God given rights. Many peaceful marches, sit-ins, and boycotts were usually always greeted at the end with police, attack dogs, firemen, and ambulances. …show more content…
While he was in prison he learned about the Black Muslims and grew interested in them. On his release in 1952 he joined a Black Muslim temple in Detroit and received his name Malcolm X. He became well known and one of their most prominent spokesperson. A year later he broke off the Nation of Islam and started his own secular Black Nationalist group called the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). He made a hajj in 1964 and upon his arrival he went back to his previous teachings that all whites are evil. Malcolm X held many speeches, which made the poor people in the ghettos, believe in him he once said: “We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for the right to live as free humans in this society. In fact, we are actually fighting for rights that are even greater than civil rights and that is human rights. We must have human rights before we can secure civil rights. We must be respected as humans before we can be recognized as citizens.” At first many people respected him and followed his beliefs.
Sometimes things would get out of control, many riots would occur, and hatred between the two races grew higher. However after a while people began to realize what he was saying and gradually lost interest in him or grew afraid of him. In 1965 he was assassinated by another Muslim
…show more content…
Martin Luther King. He was assassinated April 4, 1968 by an escaped convict. King was a man who always spoke in peace and believed in the good doing so not surprisingly the whole nation mourned his death. The same day over 711 fires were set in Washington D.C. and ten people were killed. Nearly 21,270 people were injured and 3,000 arrested, 98 percent of them were involving blacks.

As a result of all this violence and tragic loss the black race was finally given their rights which they respectfully owned as humans even though they had to wait for 300 years. The process of achieving it was a long harsh road that did not always have a good ending. Many famous leaders were born during this era such as Martin Luther King who touched the lives of many and remains in the hearts of all. Chaos, destruction, pain, and confusion are some of the words that many African-Americans felt during this time.
They were free by law and given human rights but what was the purpose if no one bothered to follow them. They have suffered since the day they landed in America and it continued to the 60’s. If you have tried to hold peace marches or tried to talk out the problem peacefully and nothing seems to work, what would be your reaction to all your pain and loose? Mine would have certainly been the same as the African-Americans.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Malcolm X Research Paper

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages

    According to the article, Malcolm was a very smart child, however, lost faith in the school system. He was told because of the color of his skin, he wouldn’t accomplish anything in life. After dropping out of school, Malcolm became another statistic of a black man living in American. He was involved in a series of crimes, which led to his imprisonment for ten years. According to the article, while incarcerated he learn the teaching of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    He found Nation of Islam Boston, Philadelphia, and Harlem. Malcolm believed that violence was justified. However Malcolm made a decision to turn away Nation of Islam. Later on finding out that his spiritual leader wanted him dead, because his popularity bothered his leadership…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How the 2008 election affected African American History in this country. On november 4, 2008 the election had taken a great turn in of events, the history of the African American history. Our newly elected president is a black man for the first time ever, and the forty-fourth. President Barack Obama was elected by 192 more electoral votes than Senator John McCain of Arizona.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Malcolm went on the required Islamic Pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca. Here, he learned about the true peacefulness of Islam, and what the religion actually practices. During his time in Mecca, Malcolm saw the complete integration of all races and colors. Seeing this, Malcolm was able to see how much more systemic oppression America had than the Middle East. Malcolm was able to see that if there was absolutely no problem with race, than maybe America would be able to have this.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    We must never forget Malcolm’s difficult childhood growing up. Malcolm X was effectively orphaned early in his life. His father was killed and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was a child, after which he lived in a series of foster homes. When he was a young adult he went to prison for a few felonies he had committed. While in prison, Malcolm X educated himself on the Muslim religion and politics.…

    • 2242 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Reconstruction is a time marked by many positive reforms in the favor of the African American community as well as one met by strong resistance from the people of the South. This document from The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism by various authors details the progress made by freedmen and how they went about achieving this. This excerpt discusses many events in which African Americans protested for their rights, such as sit-ins and strikes, demonstrating to the reader that they had to use various means to achieve higher levels of social, political, and economic equality due to resistance primarily from the South. In this reading, a civil rights march is also discussed. This march took place in New Orleans and was met with strong and violent…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dbq Civil Rights Movement

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Through targeting the worst cases of injustices and discrimination, the members of the movement created media attention and made more people aware of the gross disrespect and prejudices African-Americans faced. They were extremely disciplined in using nonviolent direct action to protest in order to gain the moral high ground. This made the protesters look innocent and helpless, these acts affect the whole society and economy. Through boycotting public busses and getting arrested for sit-ins and marching in the streets peacefully the government was pressured into acting. For example, in Birmingham, Alabama police used high-pressure water hoses and police attack dogs on children and adult protesters.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Once African Americans gained citizenship rights, the white southerners were not pleased by that decision and they could not imagine the blacks having supremacy in the states. As a result, they waged a war and targeted African Americans and even people who supported the cause of African Americans having citizenship rights by killing, hanging, and abusing them (Reconstruction, Chapter 15, Section V, www.americanawp.com). The Ku Klux Klan was fighting for white supremacy to take place in the states and due to the government not enforcing the 14th Amendment, they were able to attack African Americans. As a result, many African Americans died, lost their homes and families and continued to live in a world where they had limited…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ever since the year 1619 the African-American population has been oppressed to belonging to the lower class of the society. As time has gone on the perspective of these people has changed from slaves to useless vermin to thugs, but they were the ones losing their rights as humans. To be an individual was their first right stripped away, second was their right to vote, and finally their right to speak freely. To triumph after 300 years of oppression the African-American people would have to speak loud and be heard starting with the civil rights movement. As slavery ended around 1890 racial laws were put into place called the Jim Crow Laws increasing black oppression.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Nation of Islam silenced him for 90 days because of the comments made about President John F Kennedy. Malcolm X then left the NOI, the organization that he worked so hard for and to get in. Also Malcolm X created his own religious organization later after the incident. He became so feared that the FBI decided to tap his phones because they thought something big like a racial war was going to begin. Malcolm X did plenty of interviews and did the historical march on Washington.…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Malcolm X

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    He used a lot of violence to try and get the African Americans equal rights. The tactics that Malcolm liked to use to get his point across was starting riots and giving very intense speeches promoting violent behavior to stop racism. He would say in his speeches that the violence that they used in the riots was just self-defense against the white man. He would refer to the American constitution, saying that every American has the right to bear arms. He would also say that they should not have to give up their rights just for being another color.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tactics Of Malcolm X

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Therefore he wasn’t able to work with governments to gain rights through the use of legal means. Despite not having connections to white governments, he did appear on various radio and TV programs and was invited to numerous University debates across the country due to his controversial views and radical methods of achieving these. His personality, opinionated and outspoken along with his oratorical gifts was a reason he had so many followers. What he was preaching made sense to not only to black muslims but to people tired of being denied their rights as American citizens.. He openly criticized President Kennedy in how he dealt with certain situations such as the Birmingham Crisis in 1963 by saying “he is wrong because his motivation is wrong.”…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans play a vitally important role in the United States today, but how can we image how they have suffered countless oppressions for a long time in the twentieth century. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was published for a long time, the genuine equality was not being achieved by countless black people (Goodheart). Some of them were still segregated by white people just because of racism. What we should give attention to is that black people still lived in the bottom of the American society. The society had completely divided human beings into two categories at that time.…

    • 2074 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    African Americans faced severe discrimination during the 1950s and 60s even though this has improved now and they are now considered equal, there are still scars that have been left etched into their history. The African American population was the victim of prolonged cruel and unjust treatment from white people. White people exercised their authority over African Americans through beatings, not allowing them things they rightly deserved and through serve segregation over centuries. Events took place throughout the Civil Rights Movement that were crucial for its success, these include the Nashville Sit-ins, Freedom Rides and The Bloody Sunday marches. All of these events were linked to or organised to Martin Luther King Jr. who is possibly…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The three American activists, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, are all widely known to Americans today well beyond their influence on the occasional street name or bank holiday. These are activists who were highly influential and charismatic, able to cultivate followers and establish social movement to realize their ideological agendas. Perhaps not as widely known as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez was essential in not only the negotiation of hundreds of labor contracts but a landmark case in California which made farmworkers the only ones in the nation protected by union activity (Smithsonian para. 5). Out of his policies and promotion of boycotts, he gave farmworkers a sense of dignity and the right to fair wages.…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays