February 1965: the final speeches

Malcolm X

Pathfinder, 1992 - Biography & Autobiography - 293 pages

Speeches from the last three weeks of the life of this outstanding leader of the oppressed Black nationality and working class in the United States. A large part is material previously unavailable, with some in print for the first time.

What people are saying

Review: February 1965: The Final Speeches (Malcolm X Speeches & Writings)

User Review  - Ocean Tareyton - Goodreads

I found it very inspiring. I understood Malcom X was not like people said he was. This was a man who wanted justice, rights,and peace for his black brothers and sisters. He was not a man who thought ...

Contents

• FEBRUARY 34 1965: 17
• FEBRUARY 613 1965: 31
• Students as potential revolutionaries: 45

About the author

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, and the son of a Baptist minister, Malcolm Little grew up with violence. Whites killed several members of his family, including his father. As a youngster, he went to live with a sister in Boston where he started a career of crime that he continued in New York's Harlem as a drug peddler and pimp. While serving a prison term for burglary in 1952, he converted to Islam and undertook an intensive program of study and self-improvement, movingly detailed in "Autobiography of Malcolm X." He wrote constantly to Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole, 1897--1975), head of the black separatist Nation of Islam, which already claimed the loyalty of several of his brothers and sisters. Upon release from prison, Little went to Detroit, met with Elijah Muhammad, and dropped the last name Little, adopting X to symbolize the unknown African name his ancestors had been robbed of when they were enslaved. Soon he was actively speaking and organizing as a Muslim minister. In his angry and articulate preaching, he condemned white America for its treatment of blacks, denounced the integration movement as black self-delusion, and advocated black control of black communities. During the turbulent 1960's, he was seen as inflammatory and dangerous. In 1963, a storm broke out when he called President Kennedy's assassination a case of "chickens coming home to roost," meaning that white violence, long directed against blacks, had now turned on itself. The statement was received with fury, and Elijah Muhammad denounced him publicly. Shocked and already disillusioned with the leader because of his reputed involvement with several women, Malcolm X went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and then traveled to several African countries, where he was received as a fellow Muslim. When he returned home, he was bearing a new message: Islam is a religion that welcomes and unites people of all races in the Oneness of Allah. On the night of February 21, 1965, as he was preaching at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom, he was assassinated.

Bibliographic information

• Title: February 1965: the final speeches; Malcolm X Speeches and Writings
• Author: Malcolm X
• Editor: Steve Clark
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Pathfinder, 1992
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Sep 18, 2008
• ISBN: 0873487532, 9780873487535
• Length: 293 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural Heritage; History / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Public Speaking; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies