Malcolm X from the Civil Rights Time Term Paper

Malcolm X from the Civil Rights Time - Term Paper Example The world today remembers him as a great leader of all times apart from his contribution to the Civil Rights movement. Brief biography Malcolm X was one of the eight children of Reverend Earl and Louise Little. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska and his birth name was Malcolm Little. His father believed in an individual’s fortitude and worked for unanimity within the black community. Malcolm grew up within the environment of racial prejudice and poverty. Earl was a dedicated Baptist minister and an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Society). Earl also preached as a disciple of Marcus Garvey for generating ethnic awareness and dignity amongst black communities and encouraging his parishioners to return to Africa, their ancestral homeland. In 1931, Malcolm’s father was brutally slain in Lansing, Michigan due to a spark of violence with a local hate group (Aboulafia 1). Malcolm attended school up to his eighth grade and spent most of his te enage years on streets of New York City’s Harlem, Boston and Chicago (Aboulafia 1-2). At the age of 20, in Feb 1946, he was convicted and sentenced for ten years imprisonment in a case of robbery (Aboulafia, 2). After this imprisonment, the phase of change within Malcolm began. This moral and spiritual transformation within him initiated after his discovery about the teachings of Honorable Elijah Mohammad who was known as the â€Å"Messenger of Allah†. These teachings of Elijah Mohammad and the Nation of Islam influenced him as it instilled self-respect and admiration within the black followers through criticism of the white colored people. Elijah Mohammad blamed the white colored people for the miserable condition of the blacks in North America. According to him, in order to resolve this problem of long standing injustice the blacks should embrace the strategy of separatism (Aboulafia 2). In 1953, Malcolm was released from prison and he actively participated in the Na tion of Islam movement which entirely changed the purpose of his life (Aboulafia 2). Malcolm X – role against discrimination As mentioned earlier, after being released from prison he became an active and committed member of the Nation of Islam. He was following the personal instructions of Elijah Mohammad when he was posted at Detroit (Siddiqui). He was appointed as an assistant minister for the Nation of Islam movement. During this time he also changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X (Miller). He preached all over the US about his newly adopted religion and converted thousands of blacks by helping them embrace Islam. Malcolm’s commitment towards the movement of Nation of Islam was very high and it helped Nation of Islam become a nation-wide organization. Furthermore, this movement also helped him emerge as an international figure. He was very popular and many major television broadcasters and magazines conducted interviews with him. He also spoke at various forums and universities across the country for the blacks and also advocated for their right of equal opportunity in education, employment and wages. His main strength lay in his eloquent speeches and powerful word selection which helped to vividly depict the predicament of the blacks and fervently lay the blame on the white people (Siddiqui). Once he also tried to make the whites realize how much they are prejudiced about the black people. When a white

Roots of British Intelligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Roots of British Intelligence - Essay Example Also important to note was the fact that the formation of this Intelligence Branch did not create a service-wide acceptance of the contributions of intelligence to war or peace. During the Boer War, Britain was forced to realize the importance of intelligence, as it failed to incorporate intelligence operations in its strategy and implementation. This forced Britain to focus in on how intelligence could be used during both war and peacetime. 1 A main obstacle to the place of intelligence in the 20th century British army focused on the delineation of the objectives of intelligence operations as well as being able to recognize what kind of person would be required to place those concepts into effect. It is important to remember that the concept of peacetime preparation for field intelligence had not been distinguished clearly at this time, and gathering military intelligence during times of peace was very overt as well as ad hoc in approach. Furthermore, other issues stood out as well. Wartime interactions between intelligence officers and soldiers were often filled with feelings of mistrust, and there was also no solid approach or agreement about training different intelligence corps at this time. The time of the Boer War through the beginning of the First World War demonstrated the makings of a commitment to intelligence as a need, and a desire to train professional intelligence officer corps developed. This commitment an d appreciation, however, were not adequately translated into policy implementation, and the outbreak of war in 1914 found Britain's military intelligence preparations to be woefully inadequate for the issues that would lay ahead. 2 The military was able to recognize from the start that the type of officer to be involved in intelligence would be that of a different caliber. As far as the proper training of these men was concerned, however, it was open to some argument. It was obvious to see that the purpose of instructions and the lessons learned were not used at the turn-of-the-century War office. A good example of this is the fact that the start of the Boer War actually revealed that British military intelligence was extremely disorganized. It was obvious that the military could not predict of prepare for the start of the war, and the Intelligence Division's efforts here were hurt because they did not have enough training or resources, probably resulting from the fact that the army's leadership was also not interested in making the best use of them. However, as the Boer War came to a close, it became clear that British intelligence was evolving into something that was much more organized and useable, although this certainly did not promise for this concept of intelligence to play a large role in military affairs. Another factor that hurt this development of intelligence was the fact that all of the intelligence work made during the war was de-emphasized after the post-war demobilization. The Royal Commission on the War in South Africa, which reviewed all aspects of the origins and conduct of the war, seemed very happy with the prewar focus of the intelligence department as well as its ability to become more organized. As a result, they suggested that there was no necessity for general departmental reform or a more permanent or consequential peacetime intelligence establishment. The ad hoc