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Malcolm X

A Graphic Biography

Hill and Wang

HARD TIMES

MALCOLM'S FATHER, EARL LITTLE, WAS PART OF THIS MIGRATION. A CHILDHOOD SPENT IN GEORGIA, WHERE LYNCHINGS WERE FREQUENT, INSTILLED IN HIM A DESIRE FOR FREEDOM AND A CONVICTION THAT IT COULD NEVER BE WON IN WHITE AMERICA.

AS HE HEADED NORTH, HE WORKED AS AN ITINERANT PREACHER ...

... FOR MARCUS GARVEY'S UNIVERSAL NEGRO IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION (UNIA).

GARVERY AND HIS FOLLOWERS PREACHED A POLITICAL GOSPEL OF BLACK SEPARATISM. THE UNIA BELIEVED THAT ONLY BY SHAKING OFF ALL WHITE INFLUENCES COULD AFRICAN AMERICANS TRULY BE FREE.

DECADES LATER, MALCOLM X WOULD FIND A SIMILAR SEPARATIST CAUSE IN THE NATION OF ISLAM (NOI).

MALCOLM'S MOTHER, LOUISE NORTON, WAS AS LIGHT-SKINNED AS EARL LITTLE WAS DARK LOUISE'S BIOLOGICAL FATHER WAS A WHITE MAN WHO HAD RAPED HER MOTHER.

THE LITTLE FAMILY SETTLED IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA, WHERE EARL VISITED LOCAL BLACK CHURCHES TO PREACH GARVEY'S GOSPEL OF BLACK PRIDE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

EARL'S 'SUBVERSIVE' SPEECHES ATTRACTED THE ATTENTION OF THE OMAHA CHAPTER OF THE KU KLUX KLAN.

MALCOLM WROTE THAT JUST BEFORE HE WAS BORN, A GROUP OF ANGRY KLANSMEN TO THE LITTLE HOME LATE ONE NIGHT, INTENDING TO BURN IT TO THE GROUND.

THEY WERE MET AT THE DOOR BY MALCOLM'S FIERCELY DEFIANT-AND QUITE PREGNANT-MOTHER, WHO SINGLE-HANDEDLY TURNED THEM AWAY.

YEARS LATER, MALCOLM WOULD RETELL THE STORY AS AN EXAMPLE OF THIS PARENT'S COURAGE AND THE EVILS OF WHITE SOCIETY. HE BELIEVED IT FORESHADOWED THE DIRECTION HIS OWN LIFE WOULD TAKE.

HIS MOTHER, FOR HER PART, HAD NO MEMORY OF THE EVENTS.

THE KLAN'S THREATS STRENGTHENED EARL LITTLE'S RESOLVE TO SPREAD THE WORD OF GARVEY'S PLAN FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN SELF-SUFFICIENCY ...

... EVEN THOUGH HE KNEW THIS GUARANTEED THAT THE KLANSMEN WOULD RETURN.

ON MAY 19, 1925, MALCOLM LITTLE WAS BORN. EARL HAD LONG PLANNED TO NAME HIS SON AFTER HIMSELF.

BUT AFTER HIS FIRST LOOK AT THE INFANT, HE CHANGE HIS MIND.

HE LOOKS WHITE, LIKE HIS MAMA!

HIS NEW SON WAS NOT DARK-SKINNED ENOUGH TO TAKE HIS FATHER'S NAME. INSTEAD, HE WAS CALLED MALCOLM.

THE FAMILY MOVED SHORTLY AFTER MALCOLM'S BIRTH, FIRST TO MILWAUKEE AND THEN TO LANGING, MICHIGAN, WHERE EARL CONTINUED PREACHING FOR THE UNIA.

BLACK CONGREGATIONS APPLAUDED EARL'S MESSAGE BUT HAD SCANT MONEY TO GIVE HIM STILL, BY 1929 THE LITTLES MANAGED TO BUY A SMALL FARMHOUSE.

THE FAMILY, HOWEVER, HAD PRECIOUS LITTLE MONEY TO MAKE ENDS MEET. EARL WAS FED BY GRATEFUL PARISHIONERS, BUT HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN OFTEN WENT HUNGRY.

TENSIONS GREW WITHIN THE FAMILY. EARL, NEVER A PATIENT MAN, BEGAN BEATING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN AT THE SLIGHTEST PROVOCATION.

ONLY MALCOLM FOR REASONS THAT HE BELIEVED HAD TO DO WITH HIS LIGHTER SKIN COLOR, ESCAPED HIS FATHER'S WRATH.

THIS ALREADY DESPERATE SITUATION SOON GOT WORSE. AGAIN, RACE WAS THE REASON.

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Excerpted from Malcolm X by Andrew J. Helfer. Copyright © 2006 Andrew J. Helfer. Excerpted by permission of Hill and Wang.
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