Here’s a magazine article I did on Malcolm X and some of his most memorable quotes. Click below to see the article as it appeared in the magazine, keep scrolling for a text only version.
Malcolm X – Text only version:
Malcolm X (1925 -1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. Some saw him as a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; others accused him of preaching racism and violence. Whatever your opinion, history will remember him as one of the most influential African Americans of all time.
“To have been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace.”
His father was killed when he was six and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was thirteen, after which he lived in a number of foster homes. In 1946, after a youth of petty crime, drinking and womanising, the 20 year-old Malcolm Little went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering.
While in prison, Malcolm became a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), and changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X.
He would later explain that ‘Little was the name that the white slave-master … had imposed upon his paternal forebears.’
After his parole in 1952, he quickly rose to be one of the organisations most influential leaders, serving as both the controversial and confrontational public face of the Nation of Islam for a dozen years. In his autobiography, Malcolm X wrote proudly of some of the social achievements the Nation made while he was a member, particularly the free drug rehabilitation programme.
The NOI promoted black supremacy. They advocated for the segregation of black and white Americans which put the Nation at odds with the Reverend martin Luther King Jr. whose civil rights movement placed a major emphasis on integration. By march of 1964, Malcolm X had grown disillusioned with the NOI and its leader, Elijah Muhammad.
After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, which included completing the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), he embraced the Sunni form of Islam.
He began to express regrets about his time with the Nation, which he had come to regard as largely wasted. He became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz and then repudiated the Nation of Islam. He disavowed racism and founded both the Muslim Mosque Inc. & the Organisation of Afro-American Unity.
He continued to campaign for Pan-Africanism, black self determination and black self-defence. In 1965, on 21st February, he was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam.
“You show me a capitalist, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker.”
“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”
“If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.”
“A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can’t play the part of a wise man.”
“Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.”
“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
“You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it, I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such, I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
“People don’t realise how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.”
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, it’s own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.”
“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.”
