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| Malcolm X |
"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for today."
-Malcolm X
Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. His father, an avid civil rights activist, was murdered by white supremacists in 1931, forcing his mother to admit herself in a psychiatric ward.
Despite the hardships in school, Little was extremely intelligent. However, his perspective changed when his teacher told him he could not become a lawyer because he was black.
It was in prison, in 1946, where he regained his loved for learning and began devouring books . In 1952 Malcolm dropped “Little” as his last name and replaced it with “X”. This was a tribute to his African ancestors, and in the same year, he officially joined the Nation of Islam.
X’s powerful rhetoric for blacks such as ending racism “by any means necessary” and “you don’t have a peaceful revolution, you have a turn the cheek revolution”, helped the Nation of Islam accumulate 399,600 members in eight years.
After leaving the Nation of Islam, on bitter terms in 1964, he traveled to North Africa and the Middle East to regain a since of focus and deeper self understanding.
On February 21, 1965, at the age of 39 years old, Malcolm X was shot 15 times at point blank range by three Nation of Islam members.
Throughout his life, Malcolm X was constantly reinventing himself. Like X, our students, should take note that we are not written off by our past, but creators of our future. Malcolm went from a childhood of dreams, to a young man embraced by prison, to one of the most respected and controversial voices in the civl rights movement; and finally, a man who ended his life believing all men and women in this country had a place to live together in harmony.
Malcolm X shows our students that we can use our voice to change the world and more importantly, change ourselves!
-Rodney S. Lewis, Ed.D.
