[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 74 (Monday, May 19, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E997]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CBR ENTRY FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD TO HONOR THE BIRTHDAY OF MALCOLM 
                                   X

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 19, 2003

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, today, on what would have been his 78th 
birthday, I rise to honor one of the great leaders of this nation, El-
Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, also known as Malcolm X. As an African-American 
advocate of racial pride and self-determination, Malcolm X was one of 
the premier leaders during a point in history where African-Americans 
were systematically denied the rights enjoyed by White Americans. His 
teachings during the civil rights era focussed on helping African-
Americans to deny negative stereotypes impressed upon them by the 
greater White society and economic empowerment through community 
building with other African-Americans. His contributions to the civil 
rights movement were instrumental in helping African-Americans and 
other minorities achieve access to social and economic institutions 
historically denied to them. It is for these reasons that I feel it is 
necessary to acknowledge him on this day--his birthday. While I will 
provide a short biography of Malcolm X in these remarks, I encourage 
you to read the Autobiography of Malcolm X and come to more intimately 
know one of the 20th century's Renaissance figures.
  Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little to a Baptist minister in Omaha, 
Nebraska on May 19, 1925. As a sad foreshadowing of Malcolm X's own 
life, Malcolm's father was killed in Michigan for his attempts to fight 
racial oppression. He lost his mother to a mental institution. Arrested 
in 1946 for burglary, Malcolm gained knowledge of the Black Muslim 
movement in prison and joined the Nation of Islam. After leaving prison 
in 1952, like other members of the Nation of Islam, he changed his last 
name to ``X'' as a means of shedding linkages to the White slaveholders 
that had given him and other African Americans their family names. 
Malcolm became one of the most effective speakers for the Nation of 
Islam. He increased membership, founded new mosques, and was eventually 
assigned to be Minister of the Nation of Islam's Harlem mosque in New 
York. In 1963, disagreements with Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation 
of Islam, caused Malcolm to leave the Nation of Islam and make his 
pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia in search of knowledge about the 
international Islamic Movement. In Mecca he witnessed the union of all 
races and developed an approach to ending racial oppression that 
differed from that of the Nation of Islam. Upon returning to the United 
States, he formed his own organizations, the Organization of Afro-
American Unity and the Muslim Mosque Inc. Malcolm became a victim of 
death threats as a result of his views. On February 14, 1965, Malcolm's 
home was firebombed, with his wife and children escaping unharmed. Just 
a week later, Malcolm was shot to death at the Audubon Ballroom in 
Harlem, where he was preparing to speak.
  Malcolm X had a profound influence on Americans of all races and 
around the world. Black and White Americans alike responded to 
Malcolm's forceful speech, and his strength in the face of hostility. 
African-Americans viewed him as a beacon of hope and strength that 
could help to end racial oppression in America. While he is often 
portrayed as a black militant leader, encouraging the concepts of black 
nationalism or separatism and black pride, his later years focussed 
increasingly on forming a framework for world brotherhood and human 
justice. He is often quoted as saying that race is ``not a Negro 
problem, nor an American problem. This is a world problem, a problem of 
humanity.''

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