Transcript The Black Power Movement and the Nation of Islam

The Black Power Movement
and the Nation of Islam
Malcolm X: Early Life
• May 19, 1925: Born in Omaha, Nebraska; one of 11 children
of a preacher
• In his youth, his house was burned by the KKK and his
family was harassed, threatened, and shot at
• Father was killed by Whites due to his outspokenness about
Black rights
• Malcolm dropped out of school at the age of 15
• His family eventually moved to New York, where Malcolm
became involved in criminal activities
– Con activities, selling drugs, armed robbery
Prison Term
• Feb 1946: Convicted of burglary in Boston and sentenced to ten years in the
Massachusetts State Prison at the age of 21
• Educated himself while in prison, especially about White civilization and
oppression
• Learned about Islam while in prison
• Released in 1952
• Once he was released, he caught the attention of the Nation of Islam leader
Elijah Muhammad and became a spokesperson/leader
– His favorite sermon topic = “Christianity and the horrors of slavery”
Nation of Islam (NOI)
• Founded in the 1930s by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad
• Led by Elijah Muhammad after Fard mysteriously “disappeared”
• Members of the Nation of Islam read the “Koran,” worshipped Allah
as their God, and accepted Muhammad as their chief prophet
• Mixed with the religious tenets of Islam were BLACK PRIDE and
BLACK NATIONALISM (an ideology advocating for a racial definition
of national identity)
• The followers of the NOI = Black Muslims
The NOI’s Mission
• The Nation of Islam attracted many followers, especially in
prisons
• Preached adherence to a strict moral code and reliance on
other African Americans
• Integration was NOT a goal
• Wanted Blacks to set up their own schools, churches,
communities and support networks without the
involvement of Whites
• Oppositional to the “non-violence” movement being
preached by Dr. King at the time
Malcolm X and the NOI
• Malcolm X vs. Dr. King: Violence was not the only
answer, but violence was justified in self-defense.
Blacks should achieve what was rightfully theirs
"by any means necessary.”
• "If you live in a society... and it doesn't enforce
its own law because of the color of a man's
skin... then... people are justified to resort to any
means necessary to bring about justice...” —
Malcolm X, Nation of Islam spokesman
• Video: Civil Rights Movement Footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBPeCQzHu
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• Video: Malcolm X on Violence/MLK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIdfVxCttZQ
Video: MLK on Malcolm X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwKIUMbi9
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NOI and Christianity
• Goal of the NOI = convince Black people to
leave Christian churches (including Black
churches) and bring the entire Black
population into the Nation of Islam
• Saw Black churches as part of the problem
due to their attempts to integrate and create
peace with White society/churches
NOI on Christianity
• Christianity = a white religion
• A hypocritical religion that did not follow its own moral
code
• No Black person could be Christian without betraying the
cause of Black dignity and self-determination
• The Bible = “a poisoned book” of a “slave religion”
– Main purpose: to teach Blacks that a white man named Jesus
was God
– To tell Black people to love their oppressors and “turn the other
cheek” to brutality so they could get “into heaven after a life of
hell on earth”
Sunni Muslims on the NOI
1. Allah did not appear in the person of Fard and Fard is
not the Messiah/Mahdi
2. Disagree with the NOI that people will experience a
mental, rather than physical, resurrection and that
Black people will resurrect first
3. The NOI wants to re-interpret the Bible but
Muhammad said to neither accept nor reject it
4. The NOI does not want to be forced by America to go
to war, but the Qur’an and Sunnah demand the
necessity of going to war when the situation calls for it
Malcolm X’s Fatal Split with the NOI
• Malcolm made the hajj to Mecca in 1964
• At the hajj, he saw people of all races come together
peacefully and began having doubts about the NOI’s call for
separatism
• Showed signs of softening his stance on violence and met
with Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Ultimately, Malcolm X decided to leave the NOI
• Feb 21, 1965: As Malcolm X led a mass rally in Harlem rival
Black Muslims gunned him down and killed him
“My pilgrimage broadened my scope. It blessed me with a new
insight. In two weeks in the Holy Land, I saw what I never had
seen in thirty-nine years here in America. I saw all races, all
colors, -- blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans -- in true
brotherhood! In unity! Living as one! Worshipping as one!
In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white
people. I will never be guilty of that again -- as I know now that
some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are
capable of being brotherly toward a black man.
The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all
white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket
indictments against blacks.
True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political,
economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or
characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human
Society complete.” – Malcolm X
• Video: Segregated Prom in 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfSr49m9BQ
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Video: Clark Doll Experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG7U1QsU
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1. Many Sunni Muslims denounce certain core beliefs of the Nation of
Islam as “un-Islamic,” and even Malcolm X himself differentiated
between “True Islam” and the NOI.
Do you think it is accurate to consider the NOI a true Islamic group and its
followers true Muslims? Why or why not?
2. The importance of Malcolm X to U.S. Civil Rights History has often taken
a “back seat” to the importance that the nation places upon MLK. For
example, MLK has a national holiday while Malcolm X does not.
A. Why do you think this has been the case? (If you disagree, explain.)
B. Do you think more emphasis should be placed on Malcolm X and
his religious and political ideologies? Why or why not?
3. Do you think the dichotomy often perpetuated in the nation’s historical
macro-narrative between MLK/Christianity/non-violence and Malcolm
X/Islam/violence has contributed to the way in which Americans view
Muslims/Islam and violence today? Why or why not?