As I'm sure you'll be well aware of, February is Black History Month. It's the time of the year that we look at all those colored folks and honor their fight so that cracker spics like me wouldn't call them colored.... or worse. And yet here we are.
Seriously though, you often get a brief history lesson about Martin Luther King and then listen to his speech. The ones that aren't socialist as fuck, and then you'll move on to Rosa Parks and I'm sure Barry H. Obama. Cause he is all hope and change. But what about the Black History that you don't know?
Take for example Malcolm X.
Oh, you think you know Malcolm X. Mainly because of a film. But do you really? Do you really now?
Malcolm Fuckin X.
I'm about to drop some knowledge on your ass about Malcom X, yo. Because I bet you didn't think this dude owned a whole lot, well you probably did, but he owns a lot more than you probably think.
In 1943, the U.S. draft board ordered Little to register for military service.[29] He later recalled that he put on a display to avoid the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to "steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers."[30] Military physicians classified him as "mentally disqualified for military service".
According to recent biographies, Little occasionally engaged in sex with other men, usually for money.[27][28]
In late 1945, Little returned to Boston. With a group of associates, he began a series of elaborate burglaries targeting the residences of wealthy white families.[31]
While in prison, Little earned the nickname of "Satan" for his hostility toward religion.
When Reginald came to visit Little, he described the group's teachings, including the belief that white people are devils. Afterward, Little thought about all the white people he had known, and he realized that he'd never had a relationship with a white person or social institution that wasn't based on dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. Little began to reconsider his dismissal of all religion and he became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam.
"Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life."[48]
The FBI had opened a file on Malcolm X in 1950 after he wrote a letter to President Truman stating his opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself to be a communist.[59]
Beside his skill as a speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical presence. He stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg).[62] One writer described him as "powerfully built",[63] and another as "mesmerizingly handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed".[62]
By this point, about 4,000 people had gathered; the police realized there was the potential for a riot and called for backup. Malcolm X went back into the police station with an attorney and made bail arrangements for the other two Muslims. The police said Hinton could not go back to the hospital until he was arraigned the following day.[67] Malcolm X realized things were at a stalemate. He stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal.[67] The Nation of Islam members in the crowd silently walked away. The rest of the crowd dispersed minutes later. One police officer told the editor of the New York Amsterdam News: "No one man should have that much power."[67][68]
The following month, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation of the New York Police Department (NYPD) began its surveillance of Malcolm X. The NYPD's Chief Inspector asked for information from the police department in every city where Malcolm X had lived, and from the prisons where he had served his sentence.[69] In October, when a grand jury declined to indict the officers who had beaten Hinton, Malcolm X wrote an angry telegram to the police commissioner. In response, undercover NYPD officers were placed inside the Nation of Islam.[70]
Fidel Castro arrived in New York to attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He and his entourage stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Malcolm X was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of community leaders who met with Castro.[83] Castro was so impressed by Malcolm X that he requested a private meeting with him. At the end of their two-hour meeting, Castro invited Malcolm X to visit him in Cuba.[84]
During the General Assembly meeting, Malcolm X was also invited to many official embassy functions sponsored by African nations, where he met heads of state and other leaders, including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress.[85]
Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves.[91] Malcolm X's speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, generally African Americans who lived in the Northern and Western cities, who were tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality and respect.[92] Many blacks felt that he articulated their complaints better than the civil rights movement did.[93][94]
Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement.[104] He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment, and he once described Martin Luther King, Jr. as a "chump".[105][106] He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington".[107] He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive".[108]
In April, Malcolm X made a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet" in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely.
As early as February 1964, a leader of Temple Number Seven ordered a member of the Fruit of Islam to wire explosives to Malcolm X's car.[148] In September 1964, Ebony published a photograph of Malcolm X holding an M1 Carbine and peering out a window. The photo was intended to illustrate his determination to defend himself and his family against the death threats he was receiving.[149][150]
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