Youthful expression
In 1938 Malcolm attends West Junior High School in Lansing Michigan. The school is located in a white majority area. Malcolm is the schools only black student. Despite this, Malcolm excels academically. He is elected class president and is well liked by his class mates. Later in his life Malcolm would acknowledge he felt his class mate treated him less like a human being and more like a class pet.
A great turning point in Malcolm's life happened while enrolled at West Junior High School. He was asked, as every young child is asked during their youth, by his English teacher what he wanted to be when he grows up. Malcolm answered he wanted to be a lawyer. His English teacher's response was "One of life's first needs is for us to be realistic... you need to think of something you can be... why don't you plan on carpentry?" Malcolm took this comment as derogatory, that the English teacher was implying it was pointless in black people pursuing education. The following year, at the age of 15, Malcolm dropped out of school and moved east to live with his half sister, Ella, 72 Dale Street, Roxbury, a predominantly black neighbourhood in Boston.
Ella assisted Malcolm in finding a job as a shoe shiner at the Roseland Ballroom. Ella was a strong black woman who was heavily influenced by her father's ideals and inclusion in Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. Later in Malcolm's life he stated his sister "was the first really proud black woman I had ever seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin. This was unheard of among Negros in those days." Malcolm also mentions in his autobiography that "No physical move in my life has been more pivotal or profound in it's repercussions."
Despite Ella's good intentions for Malcolm, she could not prevent a teenage Malcolm from getting involved in Boston's criminal underground and selling drugs. Malcolm tried to straighten himself out by getting another job working on the Yankee Clipper, a train that transited between Boston and New York, as kitchen help, but this only exposed an impressional Malcolm to the life and profits of crime. Malcolm became involved in a life of drugs dealing, gambling, racketeering, and robbery.
During this youthful time, Malcolm expressed himself, like many teenagers do, with fashion. Malcolm wore zoot suits and is quoted as describing them as "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell."
Another form of youthful expression Malcolm used, in 1940 at the tender age of 15, that was popular among the African-American culture was the Conk hair style. Many African-Americans used a home-made concoction of lye, potatoes, and egg called congalene. This caustic cream was combed through the hair and left for several minutes then rinsed and shampooed out. It was often painful, burned the scalp and left the hair straight with a lacquered sheen. Malcolm was quoted as describing his first encounter with this process as "the transformation, after a lifetime of kinks, is staggering."
Later in his life he commented on his undertaking of a drastic transformation as "my first really big step towards self-degradation: when I endured all that pain, literally burning my flesh with lye, in order to cook my natural hair until it was limp, to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that black people are ‘inferior’ – and white people ‘superior."
Adding to Malcolm's psychological wrestling match with racial conformity, inequality, and sense of belonging was his mother was born in Grenada, British West Indies. Her father, Malcolm's maternal Grandfather, was a white man from Scotland. She inherited a very light complexion, straight black hair, and had a West Indian accent that was unfamiliar to most African-Americans. Malcolm inherited her lighter complexion. Malcolm was the lightest skinned out of his siblings and had a slight red tint to his hair colour, which attributed to his nick name "Detroit Red."
During World War II. Malcolm avoided the draft because he was listed as "mentally disqualified for military service" after starting he wanted to be sent down south to "organise them nigger soldiers...steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers" to draft board officials.
Eventually, Malcolm's criminal activities caught up with him and on January 1946 he was arrested for carrying a firearm, breaking & entering, and Larceny. On February 27th Malcolm was sentenced to 8-10 years for Breaking & entering, Larceny.
nytimes.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from nytimes.com website: http://www.nytimes.com/
1996/08/06/us/ella-collins-82-relative-who-aided-malcolm-x.html
arogundade.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from arogundade.com website:
http://arogundade.com/
did-malcolm-x-have-red-hair-background-information-about-his-hair-color-my-first-
conk-by-malcolm-x.html
theclio.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from theclio.com website: http://www.theclio.com/
web/entry?id=7553
vault.fbi.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from vault.fbi.gov website:
https://vault.fbi.gov/malcolm-little-malcolm-x
A great turning point in Malcolm's life happened while enrolled at West Junior High School. He was asked, as every young child is asked during their youth, by his English teacher what he wanted to be when he grows up. Malcolm answered he wanted to be a lawyer. His English teacher's response was "One of life's first needs is for us to be realistic... you need to think of something you can be... why don't you plan on carpentry?" Malcolm took this comment as derogatory, that the English teacher was implying it was pointless in black people pursuing education. The following year, at the age of 15, Malcolm dropped out of school and moved east to live with his half sister, Ella, 72 Dale Street, Roxbury, a predominantly black neighbourhood in Boston.
Ella assisted Malcolm in finding a job as a shoe shiner at the Roseland Ballroom. Ella was a strong black woman who was heavily influenced by her father's ideals and inclusion in Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. Later in Malcolm's life he stated his sister "was the first really proud black woman I had ever seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin. This was unheard of among Negros in those days." Malcolm also mentions in his autobiography that "No physical move in my life has been more pivotal or profound in it's repercussions."
Despite Ella's good intentions for Malcolm, she could not prevent a teenage Malcolm from getting involved in Boston's criminal underground and selling drugs. Malcolm tried to straighten himself out by getting another job working on the Yankee Clipper, a train that transited between Boston and New York, as kitchen help, but this only exposed an impressional Malcolm to the life and profits of crime. Malcolm became involved in a life of drugs dealing, gambling, racketeering, and robbery.
During this youthful time, Malcolm expressed himself, like many teenagers do, with fashion. Malcolm wore zoot suits and is quoted as describing them as "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell."
Another form of youthful expression Malcolm used, in 1940 at the tender age of 15, that was popular among the African-American culture was the Conk hair style. Many African-Americans used a home-made concoction of lye, potatoes, and egg called congalene. This caustic cream was combed through the hair and left for several minutes then rinsed and shampooed out. It was often painful, burned the scalp and left the hair straight with a lacquered sheen. Malcolm was quoted as describing his first encounter with this process as "the transformation, after a lifetime of kinks, is staggering."
Later in his life he commented on his undertaking of a drastic transformation as "my first really big step towards self-degradation: when I endured all that pain, literally burning my flesh with lye, in order to cook my natural hair until it was limp, to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that black people are ‘inferior’ – and white people ‘superior."
During World War II. Malcolm avoided the draft because he was listed as "mentally disqualified for military service" after starting he wanted to be sent down south to "organise them nigger soldiers...steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers" to draft board officials.
Eventually, Malcolm's criminal activities caught up with him and on January 1946 he was arrested for carrying a firearm, breaking & entering, and Larceny. On February 27th Malcolm was sentenced to 8-10 years for Breaking & entering, Larceny.
nytimes.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from nytimes.com website: http://www.nytimes.com/
1996/08/06/us/ella-collins-82-relative-who-aided-malcolm-x.html
arogundade.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from arogundade.com website:
http://arogundade.com/
did-malcolm-x-have-red-hair-background-information-about-his-hair-color-my-first-
conk-by-malcolm-x.html
theclio.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from theclio.com website: http://www.theclio.com/
web/entry?id=7553
vault.fbi.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from vault.fbi.gov website:
https://vault.fbi.gov/malcolm-little-malcolm-x
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