3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

terms of "`violence' versus `nonviolence"' also derived from the aleck difference in beliefs
between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. In the same way Booker T. Washington and
W.E.B . Du Hois represented two different approaches to the "uplift of the race" at the turn of
the century, so too did Martin and Malcolm come to represent a two-pronged attack on the
nation's racial dilemma . To many Americans, Malcolm X embodied a violent approach to
civil-rights activism .
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little, the son of a Baptist preacher in Omaha,
Nebraska . He believed that Black Legionnaires, members of a white racist organization akin
to the Ku Klux Klan, murdered his father when he was six years old. His mother went
insane, and authorities subsequently placed him and his siblings in foster homes. He dropped
out of school in Detroit after the eighth grade . Making his life on the street, he became a
hustler, a thief, and a pimp . Convicted of burglary at the age of twenty-one, he went to
prison, where he learned of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of
Islam . Muhammad preached an unorthodox mixture of Afrocentrism, nationalism, and
eschatology, all of which combined to harness Malcolm's formidable intellect . His anger and
eloquence quickly propelled him to the pulpit of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, where he became
minister.8
Malcolm X spoke best in Harlem before black audiences ; within the safety of his
mosque, he truly relaxed and let fly his most terrible harangues against whites . He
condemned white crimes against blacks, and lambasted the "blue-eyed, white devils" who
'For more, see Malcolm X with Alex Haley, The Autobio~Qhy of Malcolm X (New
York: Grove Press, 1964) .
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