Submitted by: Submitted by lovingmyboys2
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Category: US History
Date Submitted: 02/26/2012 08:02 AM
MALCOLM X
12/12/2011
Malcolm X was a very intelligent man who had a vision as a young child to make a difference in the world. He saw a threat to society growing up in Nebraska. He knew with all the segregation and racism going on that he wanted to make a change in society. This essay will discuss the life of Malcolm X growing up, a born leader, and the legacy of his life.
Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925 at the University Hospital of Omaha Nebraska. His mother Louis Norton Little was a homemaker with eight children. Earl Little was a Baptist minister and a supporter of Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Mr. Little’s civil rights activism prompted death threats from white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing Mr. and Mrs. Little to relocate several times before Malcolm was four (“Biography of Malcolm X,” 2001).
The Little family had moved to Lansing, Michigan to avoid the Black Legion. In 1929, Malcolm remembered his home being burned down to the ground while the white police and fireman stand and watched. Earl Little body was found laid out on the municipal by streetcar tracks. Although Malcolm’s father was very likely murdered by white supremacists, from which he had received frequent death threats, the police officially ruled his death a suicide, thereby void the large life insurance policy he had purchased in order to provide for his family in the event of his death. Malcolm X's mother never recovered from the shock and grief of her husband's death. In 1937, she was committed to a mental institution and Malcolm X left home to live with family friends while his siblings where split up among varies foster homes and orphanages. This is what led up to his troubled youth (Biography of Malcolm X, 2001).
Malcolm Little attended West Junior High School, where he was the school's only black student. He excelled academically and was well liked by his classmates, who elected him class president. However, he later said that he felt that his...