Malcolm X- an alternative vision

Question 1

When was the Nation of Islam (organisation) established and who was it led by?

Answer 1

1930s

Elijah Muhammad

Question 2

How did Malcolm X describe the political message he preached?

Answer 2

‘Black Nationalsim’

Question 3

What did Malcolm X’s political message lead to the rise of?

Answer 3

Black Power

Question 4

When did Malcolm X leave the Nation of Islam and what did he do?

Answer 4

Mid 1960s

Established the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU)

Question 5

What did he begin to talk about in the final phase of his campaign?

Answer 5

Co-operation with other black civil rights leaders (although he continued to argue that African Americans could only be free if they controlled their own communities)

Question 6

Glossary term: Black Power

Answer 6

A political slogan that originated in the United States around which black radicals united. It emphasises racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural organisations in order to ensure black liberation and autonomy.

Question 7

Who was the Nation of Islam founded by? When was it founded?

Answer 7

Wallace Fard Muhammad

1930

Question 8

What did Fard do between 1930 and 1934?

Answer 8

He oulined a distinctive teaching which became the basis of the organisation

Question 9

What was Fard’s ‘distinctive teaching’

Answer 9

According to Fard:

• God (Allah) created man
• First humans were black
• 6000 years ago the evil scientist Yacub started selective breeding in order to create white people
• Those white people were morally weak and unable to do good
• In the centuries that followed the whites enslaved the blacks

This doctrine, which asserts the superiority of black people, has been called black supremacicm.

Question 10

Who was it that gave Fards teachings a political and practical edge?

Answer 10

Elijah Muhammmad

Question 11

What were the political and practical techings that Muhammad taught?

Answer 11

• (POLITICAL) Black and White people could not live together in peace. Consequently, he advocated separatism - that is to say, black people should choose to live part from white people. In practical terms this meant creating a self-governing all-black state in the territory of North America.
• (PRACTICAL) Stay pure and work hard. Black people could be seduced in northern cities by drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and sex. These vices were just another way of enslaving black people.

Question 12

What did Elijah Muhammad advocate?

Answer 12

Separatism

Question 13

What did Elijah Muhammad believe were the modern methods white people used to enslave black people and prevent them from improving their lives?

Answer 13

• drugs
• cigarettes
• alcohol
• sex
• coffe
• pork
• jazz
• blues
• gambling
• cinema

Question 14

Who was the Nation of Islam particularly attractive to?

Answer 14

• Black ex-convicts
• Young black men in the working-class areas of northern cities.
• -Many were trying to escape from the glamorous but largely illegal world of gambling, prostitution and drugs.

Question 15

What did the Nation of Islam encourage these black working-class men to do?

Answer 15

To find dignity in hard work and self discipline

Question 16

90% of members of New York’s Temple Number Seven had criminal records. What was signifcant about these men who joined the Nation of Islam?

Answer 16

Practically none of the ex-convicts who joined the Nation of Islam re-offended

Question 17

What was the Nation of Islam’s messgae to black men and what did it prove to be?

Answer 17

‘clean yourself up, stand up and do something for yourself’ (this is not their slogan)
proved to be inspirational

Question 18

Glossary Term: Temple Number Seven

Answer 18

A meeting place for the followers of the Nation of Islam in Harlem, New York

Question 19

Glossary Term: Black Supremacism

Answer 19

The belief that black people are superior to white people

Question 20

Maclolm X’s early life

Answer 20

• Extremely disadvantaged
• Father active in Negro organisations
• Mother was of mixed race
• Family no stranger to racist violence
• -3 of Malcom’s uncles murdered by whites
• -Black Legion (similar to KKK) torched his father’s home
• -Also evidence that the Black Legion murdered his father - although the Milwaukee police claimed that the death was an accident

Question 21

How old was Malcom when his father died?

Answer 21

6

Question 22

What was the consequence of Earl Little (father) dying?

Answer 22

• Family plunged into poverty

- Louis Little (mother) suffered from a nervous breakdown and her children were sent to foster homes

Question 23

Why did the brilliant student, Malcolm, drop out of school?

Answer 23

A teacher told him that his desire to become a lawyer was ‘no realistic goal for a nigger.’

Question 24

When, for how long and what for was Malcolm sent to prison

Answer 24

• 1946
• 10 years
• as a result of his criminal activities

Question 25

What did Malcolm use his time in prison to do? What else also happened when he was their?

Answer 25

• Further his education

- Came into contact with the Nation of Islam

Question 26

His lifestyly and behaviour changed dramatically; he became highly..1..and gave up ..2.. .

Answer 26

1 self-disciplined

2 smoking

Question 27

The Nation of Islam’s focus on the shared African heritage of black Americans also inspired Malcolm X to do what?

Answer 27

Reject the name ‘Little’ as it wsa the name given to his family by a white slave owner and adopt the surname ‘X’ as a symbol that his real African name had been lost

Question 28

When was Malcolm released from prison?

Answer 28

1952

Question 29

Why did he gain significant influence within the Nation of Islam?

Answer 29

-His ability to relate to working-class black men
-Powerful oratory
= many new converts

Question 30

What happened between 1952 -1953?

Answer 30

Largely thanks to Malcolm X, membership of the Detroit Temple tripled.

Question 31

Muhammad (the leader of Nation of Islam) gave Malcolm X more responsibilty. What happened to the number of temples?

Answer 31

Between 1957 and 1959 the number of temples shot up from 27 to 49

Question 32

What did the CBS journalist, Mike Wallace do in 1959? What was the intention of the documentary? What and how actually happened?

Answer 32

• Made a documentary entitled ‘The Hate that Hate Produced’
• Intended to portray the Nation of Islam as a sinister organisation
• An extended interview with Malcolm X convinced many urban blacks that the Nation of Islam represented their hopes and desires
• In the 2 months after the documentary was broadcast, national membership of the Nation of Islam doubled

Question 33

Malcolm X was highly critical of MLK. What did he call him?

Answer 33

‘twentieth century Uncle Tom’

Question 34

What did Malcolm X believe had happened to organisations such as SCLC and NAACP?

Answer 34

• They were taken in by American myths like the American dream
• They trusted the American system and therefore they would never be able to set black people free

Question 35

What did Malcolm X claim Martin Luther King was doing?

Answer 35

• Accepting money from the white government to preach Christian love and forgiveness
• • in doing so he wsa preventing black poeple from effectively fighting for their rights

Question 36

What was Malcolm X’s view on integration (one of MLK’s goals)?

Answer 36

• It would bring in a new form of slavery
• Integration in the North had led to the creation of an underclass of black people who were addicted to drugs and who wasted their money on gambling, alcohol and prostitution

Question 37

Glossary Term: Uncle Tom

Answer 37

A term of abuse applied to black people who do not stand up for their rights and have a slavish attitude towards white people. It is a reference to a fictional character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)’

Question 38

Martin Luther King pointed to America’s national tradition of …1… and respect for individual …2… and demanded that this be fully extended to …3… Americans, Malcom X described himself as a ‘…4…’. He argued that the American nation had been founded on the principles of …5… . As a result he rejected American …6… and refused to call himself an American.

Answer 38

1 democracy
2 rights
3 African
4 Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter 
5 white supremacy
6 values

Question 39

What two things did Malcolm X mean by Black Nationalism?

Answer 39

Political Black Nationalism

Economic Black Nationalism

Question 40

What is Political Black Nationalism?

Answer 40

Self-determination - black people should govern themselves

Question 41

What is Economic Black Nationalism?

Answer 41

Black people should control the economy within their community

Question 42

What did Malcolm X believe King’s strategy emphasised?

Answer 42

The stereotype of the weak and defenceless black person

Question 43

What did Malcolm X famously say?

Answer 43

That black Americans should liberate themselves ‘by all means necessary’
(He advocated black gun ownership)

Question 44

Why did Malcolm X have to leave the Nation of Islam?

Answer 44

• His fame soured his relationship with Elijah Muhammad
• His statements sometimes embarrassed the Nation of Islam e.g. describing Kennedy’s assassinatoin as ‘chickens coming home to roost’, implying that Kennedy got what he deserved

Question 45

When did Malcolm X leave the Nation of Islam?

Answer 45

March 1964

Question 46

Which group did Malcolm X set up after leaving the Nation of Islam?

Answer 46

Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU)

Question 47

The OAAU drew a link between the struggle against white oppression in America and the……?

Answer 47

anti-colonial struggle in Africa

Question 48

What did the OAAU aim to do? Why?

Answer 48

To re-educate black Americans in order to gain economic security for black people across the world

Question 49

What did the OAAU organise in America?

Answer 49

• Voter registration campaigns
• School boycotts in areas where the education for black people was unsatisfactory
• Rent strikes where housing was inadequate
• Social programmes to help drug addicts

-Encouraged re-education though publishing new textbooks and developing new teaching methods, including home schooling, to emphasise self-reliance, black pride and solidarity with black Africans struggling against colonialism

Question 50

Glossary Term: Anti-colonial struggle in Africa

Answer 50

This refers to the fight for independence from the major European Empires, such as the British Empire, by the black Africans who were subject to Imperial rule between the 17th and 20th centuries

Question 51

Glossary Term: Re-educate

Answer 51

Re-education is the process of learning new values such that they replace values that people once held

Question 52

“In his final year, Malcolm X also began to…?”

Answer 52

Rethink the possibility of integration

Question 53

In which speech did Malcolm X advocate working within the American political system?

Answer 53

‘The Ballot or the Bullet’ (1964)

Question 54

In 1964 what did Malcolm X announce?

Answer 54

• His willingness to work with organisations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• Even discussions of co-operation between MLK and MX

Question 55

Why did Malcolm X begin to reconsider the possibility of a society in which black and white people could live side by side as equals?

Answer 55

• In Mecca after his Hajj he witnessed true harmony between black and white Muslims
• During his visit to Africa he saw white students who were genuinely helping to improve conditions for black people

Question 56

Glossary Term: Hajj

Answer 56

A pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. Muslims are expected to make this journey at least once in their lives

Question 57

What did the FBI hear following Malcolm X’s break from the Nation of Islam?

Answer 57

Reports that Muhammad had ordered his assassination

I looked this up on the internet and there’s evidence that the FBI actually ordered the assassination of Malcolm X.

“An FBI memorandum of 3/4/68, among other documents, eluded to how much U.S. Intelligence considered Malcolm X the top threat to the wealthiest white power structure. It discussed the “long range goals” including: “Prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement. Malcolm X might have been such a ‘messiah’….”

Question 58

How and when did Malcolm X die?

Answer 58

February 1965 he was shot 15 times at close range

The three men convicted of his murder were all members of the Nation of Islam

Question 59

What happened to the OAAU after Malcolm X’s death?

Answer 59

It collapsed but many of it’s aims became central to other groups e.g. black panthers and SNCC