Essays on Malcolm X

May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965

Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the black community.

Malcolm X was one of the most significant figures within the American Black nationalist movement. Many of the ideas he articulated, like race pride and self-defense, became ideological mainstays of the Black Power movement that emerged in the 1960s and ’70s. He first rose to prominence in the late 1940s, as a member of the Nation of Islam, a religious organization that mixes elements of traditional Islam and Black nationalism. He continued his activism after leaving the Nation.

“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.”
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
“Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.”
“Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.”