Malcolm X Vs. Anne Moody

8 Pages 1976 Words

Malcolm X vs. Anne Moody


In this paper I will discuss the valuable roles Malcolm X and Anne Moody played in the Civil Rights Movement. I will also compare and contrast their very different methods to fixing the problem.

Malcolm Little was born May 19, 1925 to Louise Little, a mulatto born in Grenada, British West Indies, and Earl Little, a Baptist minister and an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement association. (X, p.2) His mother was a homemaker who looked after Malcolm and his seven brothers’ and sister’s. Malcolm’s father was an outspoken minister; because of this the family received numerous threats and was forced to move several times. Soon the Ku Klux Klan burnt his house, which was followed by his father’s murder. Malcolm did not only suffer abuse by whites, but also from domestic violence, also. His father beat his mother and both of them abused their children, except Malcolm. When his father passed his mother had eight children to raise on her own during the depression and could not handle it too well. She soon suffered from a nervous breakdown and his family was split up. The children were all placed in foster homes. Malcolm’s resentment increased through these hard times, which caused him to then be driven by hatred and a desire for revenge.
Malcolm was first sent to a foster home and then a reform school. When he was in Junior High School he was the top student of his class, but his education was forever changed when a teacher told Malcolm his dream of becoming a lawyer was “No realistic goal for a nigger.”(X, p.38) After the eighth grade, Malcolm moved to Boston where he worked various jobs and eventually became involved in hustling. Roxbury proved to be too small for him, so in 1942 he took a job as a railroad dining car porter, working out of Roxbury and Harlem. In Harlem he became involved in the same things, robbery, prostitution, and drugs. After a ye...