Why is malcolm x remembered

In 'The Ballot or the Bullet' Malcolm X advised black Americans to use their votes carefully and wisely and issued a warning to the government that if blacks were not given full equality it would become necessary for them to take up arms against the government and white supremacy. Younger Americans are much more receptive to the idea behind the speech, encapsulated by a quote from the speech which talked about how freedom was conditional on being willing to make the only choice one between liberty and death.

Full poll results can be found here and topline results and margin of error here. US About For business. He preached the need to overthrow oppression by any means necessary and to build a separate black nation. Most whites and some African Americans, who were struggling for racial integration, viewed his teachings as dangerous. Malcolm X spent twelve years preaching the beliefs of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

Following his travels, and discourses and discussions with people of various cultures, Malcolm returned a changed man with a changed message of self-empowerment tempered by tolerance toward all, preaching this not just to African Americans, but to people of all races. They managed to escape safely. Even though Malcolm firmly believed the perpetrators to be NOI members, their identities were never discovered. I had blind faith in [Elijah Muhammad], the same as many of you have had and still have blind faith in me or blind faith in Moses or blind faith in somebody else.

My faith in Elijah Muhammad was more blind and more uncompromising than any faith that any man has ever had for another man. But, being away, I could see him better, understand many things better.

So, I feel responsible for having played a major role in developing a criminal organization [the NOI]. It was not a criminal organization at the outset. It was an organization that had the power, the spiritual power, to reform the criminal…. I know because I went into the movement with more negative tendencies than anybody in the movement.

It was faith in what I taught that made it possible for me to stop doing anything that I was doing and everything that I was doing…. I, for one, disassociate myself from the movement completely. Islam, as a religion, judges a man by his intention, by his behavior, by his deeds. However, prior to his trip to Mecca, he had not recognized that unchecked racism can have a deleterious effect on any and all people subjected to it, not just African Americans.

Though he remained steadfast in his prioritization of the social, economic, political, and psychological liberation of blacks, he acknowledged that not all white people are evil, and in fact, many can be allies in the global struggle for equality and justice. He wrote to Betty Shabazz, his wife, while in Mecca about his initial realization:. Now, you may not believe this, but I have eaten from the same plate, drank from the same glass, and prayed to same god with fellow Muslims whose eyes were blue, whose hair was blonde, and whose skin was the whitest of white, and we were all brothers, truly.

People of all colors and races believing in one God with one humanity…. Each hour here in this sacred land enables me to have a greater spiritual insight into what is happening in America. The American Negro can never be blamed for his racial animosity. In the past I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. And these generalizations have caused injuries to some white folks who did not deserve them…. I am not a racist, and I do not subscribe to any of the tenets of racism.

In all honesty and sincerity, it can be stated that I wish nothing but freedom, justice, and equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. At a New York college where Malcolm was speaking a year before his death, a black student rose and began attacking Jews…with practiced viciousness. I judge you because of what you do and what you practice.

Malcolm challenged whites to examine the policies and practices of racial discrimination…. Malcolm spoke about the destructive effects of racism upon both its victims and its promulgators. Toward the end of his life he could image the destruction of racism itself….

In his final years, Malcolm certainly embraced a more open and accepting vision of humanity, but it was not without his characteristic firebrand approach to human rights and social change. Respect as human beings! The black masses want not to be shrunk from as though they are plague-ridden.

They want not to be walled up in slums, in the ghettoes, like animals. They want to live in an open, free society where they can walk with their heads up, like men and women. So the first step that has actually been taken, brothers and sisters, since Garvey died, to actually establish contact between the 22 million Black Americans with our brothers and sisters back home was done by two organizations….

So this has been the purpose of the [Organization of Afro-American Unity] and also the Muslim Mosque — to give us direct links, direct contact, direct communication and cooperation with our brothers and sisters all over the earth.

And once we are successful in uniting ourselves with our people all over the world, it puts us in a position where we no longer are a minority who can be abused and walked upon. The united front Malcolm proposed was meant to revolt against the cultural stranglehold of white Western colonial rule. In the same speech, Malcolm declared:. A worldwide revolution…. Malcolm became a vigorous advocate of this marginal movement that did not fully grasp the teachings of Islam, and advocated for the superiority of the Black race in reaction to white racism.

He said that white racist violence could be responded with violence if necessary, and soon came under close surveillance by the FBI. In , Malcolm traveled to many countries including Ghana, Sudan, Nigeria, Iran, Syria and Egypt to meet religious and political leaders. While the FBI and police pressure on Malcolm X and his family increased between and , a crucial time for the movement, differences emerged between leaders.

Renouncing the separatist beliefs of the Nation of Islam, he attempted to internationalize the plight of African Americans, and other oppressed. The Nation of Islam increased its threats and pressures on Malcolm and on Feb. He survived, but said the attack was carried out "on the orders of Elijah Muhammad. He was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on Feb. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted for the murder.