Civil Rights Movement/Malcolm X

Task

1. When was Malcolm X born?
2. What was Malcolm X's surname at birth?
3. Why did he change his surname?
4. What organization did he join when he was in prison?
5. Why did Malcolm believe black people should defend themselves? Explain!

Interactives Exercises

Word Families

Find words of the same family. Take care of the forms!

DIFFICULT		Malcolm faced many in his early life..
DIE		The of his father affected the family badly.
FASCINATED		His with the Black Muslim religion changed his life.
REJECT		The religion's of racial integration was problematic.
SYMPATHIC		Malcolm X was not towards the Kennedy family after the president's assassination and this made him unpopular.

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His Childhood

Put in the correct forms of the verbs.

Malcolm Little (to bear) in 1925 in Omaha and (grow) up in Michigan. He had a difficult childhood. His parents had eight children and when Malcolm was six years old his father (murder) leaving his mother to look after the family on her own. The Littles received money from the state but it wasn't enough and so the children had to work instead of going to school. Malcolm, for example, picked strawberries earning $1 for a whole day's work. In 1937 the family were forced apart. Mrs Little had to go into an institution for the mentally ill and the children were split up among other families.

Young Malcolm grew up in special homes and later turned to crime, drugs and violence. In 1946, only 20, he was sent to prison for burglary. There he taught himself to read and to write and to speak in front of people. But above all, he read. Malcolm hated it when, at ten o'clock every night, the guards turned off the lights in his cell. "Fortunately, there was a light outside my room," he wrote later in his autobiography. "And I would sit on the floor where I continued reading. Every time I heard the guards' footsteps coming, I would jump into bed and pretend to be asleep."

Through his reading Malcolm Little became interested in a special religious group called the Black Muslims which believed that black people were better than white people. Malcolm was fascinated by the religion's ideas and made them his own. From this point on he called himself Malcolm X, changing his family name to show that it was not his own but that it had come from white slaveholders.

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Malcolm Little was born (to bear) in 1925 in Omaha and grew (grow) up in Michigan. He had a difficult childhood. His parents had eight children and when Malcolm was six years old his father was murdered (murder) leaving his mother to look after the family on her own. The Littles received money from the state but it wasn't enough and so the children had to work instead of going to school. Malcolm, for example, picked strawberries earning $1 for a whole day's work. In 1937 the family were forced apart. Mrs Little had to go into an institution for the mentally ill and the children were split up among other families.

Young Malcolm grew up in special homes and later turned to crime, drugs and violence. In 1946, only 20, he was sent to prison for burglary. There he taught himself to read and to write and to speak in front of people. But above all, he read. Malcolm hated it when, at ten o'clock every night, the guards turned off the lights in his cell. "Fortunately, there was a light outside my room," he wrote later in his autobiography. "And I would sit on the floor where I continued reading. Every time I heard the guards' footsteps coming, I would jump into bed and pretend to be asleep."

Through his reading Malcolm Little became interested in a special religious group called the Black Muslims which believed that black people were better than white people. Malcolm was fascinated by the religion's ideas and made them his own. From this point on he called himself Malcolm X, changing his family name to show that it was not his own but that it had come from white slaveholders.

Childhood Memories

Put in the correct forms of the verbs.

One afternoon when Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert and I (come) home from school, my mother and father (argue). But my father was so angry he (leave) the house and started walking up the road.

For the rest of the day my mother was nervous and upset. Our father (not, come) home by our bedtime and our mother (hug) us in our beds. We felt strange because she (never, behave) like that before.

I remember (wake) in the night. My mother was screaming. We children knew without (have, ask) anything that something terrible had happened to our father. In the morning we (tell) that he (kill) by some whites. I (be) six at the time.

(from The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

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One afternoon when Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert and I came (come) home from school, my mother and father (argue). But my father was so angry he left (leave) the house and started walking up the road.

For the rest of the day my mother was nervous and upset. Our father didn't come (not, come) home by our bedtime and our mother hugged (hug) us in our beds. We felt strange because she had never behaved (never, behave) like that before.

I remember waking (wake) in the night. My mother was screaming. We children knew without having to ask (have, ask) anything that something terrible had happened to our father. In the morning we were told (tell) that he had been killed (kill) by some whites. I was (be) six at the time.

(from The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

Civil Rights Movement

1. Slavery and civil war
2. Segregation
3. Montgomery Bus Boycott
4. Martin Luther King
5. Malcolm X & Black Power
6. Black Lives Matter

Weblinks

• Malcolm X^(English)
• Black Power^(English)