History teaches us that Malcolm X was greatly influenced by his parent’s dedication to Marcus Garvey and the UNIA. Growing up in a household of Garveyites would give any Black child a great sense of pride, determination, and commitment to the improvement and uplift of Black people. These early lessons of kujichagulia within the Little household would help transform young Malcolm into one of our greatest leaders in the 20th century.
After closer examination of Malcolm’s adult life, we can conclude that the same unselfish behaviors and activities that Malcolm exhausted to help build the Nation of Islam were exactly the same behavior patterns that his parents exhausted to help build the UNIA.
After Malcolm was released from prison, after serving six and a half years on a (10) year sentence, he spent one night with his sister Ella in Boston and then traveled to Detroit to stay with his brother Wilfred. Malcolm would officially join Detroit’s Nation of Islam Temple One.
On Malcolm’s first meeting with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, he asked what he could do to help build the nation and spread the word. Elijah Muhammed told him: “Go after the young people.” Malcolm’s parents, Earl and Louise, would ask Marcus Garvey the same exact question. Just like their valiant son, the Littles moved to accomplish these righteous and lofty goals with tenacity, brilliance, and sheer determination.
Despite working a full-time job and attending the three obligatory temple meetings each and every week, Malcolm went out to “fish” for recruits. After only one year of being released from prison, he had tripled the membership of the Detroit temple and was immediately made assistant minister. Through prison letters and correspondence, Elijah Muhammad knew that Malcolm was indeed intelligent, but he had no idea about his organizing and mobilizing skills.
Recognizing this innate gift, Elijah Muhammad took Malcolm into his home to train him personally. After months of instruction, Malcolm was sent on his first assignment to Flint and Lansing, Michigan. Malcolm’s first test would be accomplished in the very same city where his father, Earl, was murdered.
Malcolm was then assigned, in 1953, to another familiar territory, Boston, where he pulled together the foundation that would develop into Muhammad’s Temple Number 11.
Boston would be the state where Malcolm Little was arrested, convicted, and sent to state prison for the crime of burglary in 1946.
In time, after building the temple up to a strong capacity, Malcolm would then turn it over to one of his brightest student ministers, the multi-talented Caribbean-born calypso singer Gene Walcott, who performed professionally before converting to Islam as the “Charmer.”
When Walcott entered the Nation of Islam, he reverted to his first name and became Louis X.
Today, the world identifies him as the leader of the Nation of Islam, Minister Louis Farrakhan.
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