February 21, 1965 -- Malcolm X is Assassinated

05/03/17 • 9 min

Malcolm X who was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19th 1925 from his mother Louise Norton Little and his father Earl Little. He was one of 8 children and grew up in a very proactive household. His father, Earl who was a baptist minister was very outspoken and was a large supporter of the Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Being outspoken came with its consequences, his father would receive death threats from a white supremacist organization Black Legion. They were forced to move to avoid the threats but less than a year later their house was burned, and two years later he was found dead. It was presumed an accident and after his death his mother became insane and had to go to a mental institution in which all the kids went to foster care. As Malcolm grew up he bounced from home to home and eventually in 1946 he was arrested for burglary. During his time in prison he reflected on his life and his brother would visit him, he introduced him to Nation of Islam. He then took very close following of the leader Elijah Muhammad, and when he got out he decided to get involved. He then changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X to get rid of his slave name. Most importantly he became the spokesperson for the NOI because he was very intelligent and articulate. He used television, radio and newspapers to spread his beliefs and ideas with the world. The NOI grew from 500 to 30,000 followers in 10 years. Malcolm X was very controversial and his statements brought outrage from the public. He told his followers to break away from racism “by any means necessary” which means violence is acceptable. Separate from his rival Martin Luther King who was anti-aggression, Malcolm often scolded MLK for being friends with the white man. He said “You don’t have a peaceful revolution” and “You don’t have a turn the cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution”. These words had an effect on the people of America due to his pro-violence views. These statements won him large amounts of followers but also brought many critics. One of the critics was MLK himself saying “I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice.” showing the feelings he has for Malcolm’s opinions. In 1963 Malcolm was betrayed by his most coveted friend Elijah Muhammad. He had followed Muhammad’s teachings for many year only to find out that Elijah himself was breaking some of the most important rules of his religion. He was having affairs with numerous women and it caused a huge outbreak for Malcolm to handle. He then separated himself from NOI and moved on to start his own organization. The death of Malcolm X was monumental for the civil rights movement. He was killed in 1965 at the Audobon ballroom in Manhattan. He was shot 15 times at point blank range by members of the NOI. This allowed Martin Luther King to take Malcolm’s followers and move forward with the civil rights movement. Without Malcolm X the civil rights movement would have been drastically different.

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1966: Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party was created in 1966, in Oakland, California. It was established in California but it spread throughout the US including many different cities in the following years, a few of them being: Boston, Chicago, and New York. The founders of this party were Huey P. Newton and Bobby Steale, and they made it clear of their goals and the needs of this party. They did this by creating a ten point program, which consisted of many different things that involve equal rights for all. “We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community. We want full employment for our people. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people. We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.” This list was the goals made by the the Black Panthers. They followed through with some of these goals very forcefully. For example for their goal to end the brutality and murder of black people by the police, they would follow white police officers around with guns in order to make sure they were not harming any black person. This is one of the reasons why the Black Panthers were so unique. The government could not ignore them like some other civil rights movements at the time. The FBI got involved to follow some of the leaders of the Black Panthers to make sure that nothing got too out of hand. There were many different parts of this party that made them unique their dress code, the contribution of women, and the sense of community that they established all showed how this party was one of a kind. The Black Panthers made it evident that “they would do whatever it takes” in order to achieve these goals. They made this very prominent with their dress code. Their dress code consisted of a leather jacket with a blue shirt underneath but in their hands they would have loaded shotguns. They held the weapons not always as a threat but to show that they too are citizens of the United States and they too have the right to bare arms. Although the Black Panthers had their goals set since the beginning not everything stayed the same in the party. The main thing that changed after a year of the party being founded was women and their role. In the beginning this was an all males organization with no women in it. This started to change when more and more women wanted to get involved they opened the group to them. The Black Panthers did not stop there not only did the open the group up to women but they made it so women were then important players in this game. Women were public speakers for the party, they would go to the rallies and protests as well. Because of the big role that women played more and more women joined the group. After several thousands of women joining the party, they took another turn. The Party used to stand for only black men should be treated equal to a white man, they then changed it to both black men and women should be treated equal to white men and women. The last thing that made the Black Panther Party one of a kind was the sense of community that they had. Everyone that was apart of the party was also part of the community. This community that they established constantly would help out families who were in poverty. Two of the things that they created was a preschool for children for families that could not afford to pay for their child to go to preschool. And the other one being daily breakfasts. The Black Panthers would have a common area where they would set up breakfast lines to serve people food.

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September 15, 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

In the 1960s, Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. By 1963, Birmingham had earned the nickname “Bombingham” because homemade bombs set of in homes and churches were so common. KKK members would call in bomb threats to black churches to interrupt services and civil rights meetings. Birmingham hosted one of the largest and strongest chapters of the KKK. Because of the severe segregation and violent attitude toward African Americans, civil rights activists used this city as a target for their campaigns. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham in the spring of 1963 and wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” which was published with images of police brutality, which helped gather support for the civil rights movement. The 16th Street Baptist Church was a significant church for many African Americans in Birmingham and many civil rights marches took place on its steps and many civil rights meetings took place within its walls. On the morning of September 15, 1963, a few bomb threats were called in to the church. These threats were ignored because KKK members called in frequently so as to interrupt church services and civil rights meetings. However, this day was different, these threats had truth to them. Four KKK members of the United Klans of America planted 15 sticks of dynamite under the back stairs of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Around 200 people were in the church at the time before the 11:00 service, most were girls attending Sunday School. At 10:22, the bomb went off. Four girls died in the attack and another twenty were injured. Thousands of angry protesters showed up at the scene of the bombing. Police and State Troopers were sent to break up the protest, but it only caused a stream of violence to break out throughout the city. A few protesters were arrested and two were killed in the conflict. Eventually, the National Guard was sent in to take control over the city and bring order back. The white supremacists of Birmingham were suspected from the start, even individuals were accused of the attack, however no one was brought to justice. Many people called for them to be persecuted, but their calls wouldn’t be answered for a number of years. Those in the government did not agree with the civil rights movement and therefore did nothing. It was even proven that they had information on the attackers by 1965 and still did nothing about it. They turned a blind eye to this act of violence simply because they agreed with those who committed the act and disagreed with the victims. Later, in 1977, the case was reopened by Alabama Attorney General Bob Baxley and brought Robert E. Chambliss, a Klan leader, to trial for the crime. Chambliss was convicted of the bombings and murder of the girls and died in prison in 1985. The case was reopened three other times (1980, 1988, 1997) and two more men, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry, were convicted and received life sentences for their crime. The fourth suspect, Herman Frank Cash, died in 1994 before he could be tried.