Malcolm X

Salvador Solorio

Period 2

11/21/03

Malcolm X

In the U.S there have been a lot of people who've had political influence in our government, and the person that interested me the most was Malcolm X. Malcolm X was a African American civil rights leader who fought so African Americans could get the same rights like everyone else. Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Before, his name was Malcolm Little, but later changed it to Malcolm X when he joined the Nation of Islam. Like many political leaders, Malcolm X had his own method of how he thought was the right action to use to get his objective. To accomplish the goal of desegregation and equality of black people, "he believed that black people should get their rights by any means necessary"# He criticized nonviolence and opposed those who favored or used it. Malcolm X went throughout the North and the South making speeches about his ideas and what he thought was right, and he encouraged all black people to fight for their rights and protection. As he became more popular and well known by everyone, he influenced people by giving black people the courage to stand up for themselves and fight back, made a lot of them join him with his ideas, and criticized the government for all the bad things it was doing.

In his speeches, Malcolm X spoke about fighting back against those who were hurting them or were in the way. One way that he enlightened them was, "Malcolm made blacks feel good about themselves...he allowed them to have self-esteem and convinced them they had power."# In order for all black people to fight back and demand their rights, they had to have high self-esteem and make them feel they had power in order for them to put up a good fight and give them motivation to fight, and he did this through his speeches. He also made them fight against white people by "exposing the white man for the devil he was."# By making white people look bad, it would make more black people to want to fight for their rights and use violence if they were threatened. All this was part of his method of "any means necessary."

Another way he had political influence was, he convinced and made a lot of people to join him and his ideas as to accomplish their goals. One way he convinced people was by "preaching about his beliefs from the Nation of Islam and why they where the right ideas."# Another way he convinced people to join him is by telling them how white people were brutally oppressing black people, and that in order to stop that from going on, they had to fight back. Nonviolence and peaceful tactics were no good and it gave slow results. This made everyone see that the same thing would happen if they were to use violence. Another way he convinced people to join him with his ideas and struggle is by "establishing the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in June 1964."# The OAAU encouraged black people to seek civil rights and join in the movement with him. These are some of the ways he used to influence and convince black people to join him in the civil rights movement.

Another way he had political influence was, he criticized the government for all the bad things