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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Malcolm X's birthday |
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by O. Ricks
Email: omarricks (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Phone: 355-2813 |
19 May 2001
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One guy's encyclopedic sketch of Malcolm X. |
Today is the 76th anniversary of the birthday of radical black activist Malcolm X.
He was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. One common theme throughout his life was that he sought to be a leader, mentor, and friend to working class African Americans who were alienated by the moderate politics of middle class southern civil rights leaders. He made greater use of his Muslim name, El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, after making his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. He said that experiencing this most quintessential of Islamic pillars had shown him the potential for human unity, and he began to distance himself from his previous separatist and racialist politics. While never completely advocating integration, in his later years his politics became increasingly socialistic and focused on the struggles of Africans and African Americans as part of the worldwide struggles for human rights. He began to align himself with international labor and socialist activists and leaders. At the age of 39, he was assassinated while speaking in New York’s Audobon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. |
