Bloodline of Leadership, the son of Louise and Earl Little (Pt 4)

In 1929, when Malcolm was four years old, he experienced an act that he would never forget.
In the early morning hours of Friday, November 8, after his father Earl had returned home from town. As the whole family slept, there was a loud Boom, and the side of the house suddenly lit up and caught a blaze. The ugly fire spread quickly throughout the house, leaving the family confused and frightened.
With absolutely no help from the local fire department or the white neighbors, the Littles were left in the cold, wrapped up in blankets that they ran out of the house with. In all the chaos, both Malcolm and his brother Wilfred recalled that their sister Yvonne, who was only three months old, was lost in all the mayhem. When she could not find her baby, Louise tried desperately to re-enter the burning building only to be restrained by Earl. Fortunately, baby Yvonne started to cry, and she was found safe, tucked in the pile of bed linen outside on the lawn.
That fire was no accident. The family was very fortunate that everyone escaped from the inferno. White community residents organized to destroy that home. There was one thing that the KKK or any racist mob could not destroy within the Little family–their LOVE for their people.
This (4) part series on Malcolm and his parents is indeed a love story. This type of love is very unselfish and quite rare. Ultimately overcoming the racial obstacles, overt cruelty, constant uprooting, and confronting all that was put before them gives us an example of pure love. The desire to want to see our people live in a safer and just world put the Little’s on another level.
Just like his parents, Malcolm and his young family also experienced an attempt to harm them through the cowardly act of arson. Just like his father, Malcolm took his rifle outside to shoot anyone he saw running from his home. Wilfred and young Malcolm would later tell the local authorities that their father had shot at least once at a man, or men, who he saw running from the inferno. No one was ever investigated or charged in either case. Malcolm and his eight-year-old sister, Hilda, spent the rest of that horrific night with Earl’s friend, Cyrus Walker, in Lansing. The following morning, after the fire, Earl went into Lansing and made a payment on his insurance policy for the home, which was overdue. Earl did not mention the fire. Later that day, Earl was arrested for suspected arson. He would eventually be released due to lack of evidence.
After studying and researching the life of Louise and Earl Little as it related to their powerful son Malcolm, I amassed a much greater level of respect for the family. One of the greatest loves that one can have is to live and share life with a mate who has the exact same mission.
Wherever they resided, Earl and Louise had no fear when it came to working for our people.
In Omaha, the Klan came to demand that Earl and his family get out of town. The Klan said that “the good Christian white people were not going to stand for Earl spreading trouble among the ‘good’ Negroes of Omaha with the ‘Back to Africa’ preaching of Marcus Garvey.”
To actually be in the field, working for the controversial Marcus Garvey, could be very dangerous at times. To be in the field, working for the controversial Elijah Muhammad, could be very dangerous as well.
Louise and Earl were revolutionary servants for our people. They made great sacrifices to push the self-reliant and Pan-African program of the UNIA. Louise Little was an excellent organizer and journalist who sent weekly reports to the Negro World Newspaper.
Before Earl Little’s elected presidency, the Omaha division of the UNIA had gone unreported in the News of the Divisions section of the Negro World newspaper. It was a great accomplishment for a branch in a town like Omaha to make the Negro World, which was more likely to carry reports from major cities and areas like Chicago, Cuba, Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami, and Kingston, Jamaica.
Wherever the Little’s lived, they worked for the UNIA. From (1919 to 1922) the Littles relocated to Philadelphia and immediately joined the local division (#10) to continue doing the work of the UNIA. History teaches us that they both attended the 1922 UNIA International Convention in New York City. Whether they were in Canada, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Omaha, Nebraska, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or Lansing, Michigan, Earl and Louise never stopped organizing and mobilizing the masses of African people. The Black world would witness the biological seeds of racial pride, intelligence, courage, commitment, and Pan-African Nationalism touch their brilliant son and Prince Malcolm, El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz!
Khabyr Hadas is the author of Afrikan Struggle Inherited and Oneness of the Blacks and is currently writing a book on the history of UNIA President-Generals. Hadas is an educator and the Director of M.G.A.H.F. Marcus Garvey Archive and History Foundation khabyhadas@gmail.com.