The organisation that promised, “all men are created equal” was made only for whites. Slaves were not looked upon as human beings but as objects. It was not common to call a slave other than by his first name or as “boy”.
After the Civil War and the Emancipation Declaration, which abolished slavery, everything at first seemed to change. But the Reconstruction period failed, although Blacks were now called “citizens”, they still had no civil rights.
Many Whites, who after the end of slavery had lost everything, found it hard to believe that their former slaves should now be equal to them. Blacks became their scapegoats and many racist organisations, like the Ku Klux Klan or the rifle clubs, were made. They used threats, burning and killing to keep blacks man in their place. The Black Codes and the Jim Crow laws were set up to limit the movement and rights of the Blacks. To keep Blacks from registering to vote, poll taxes were raised, comprehension tests were held and the grandfather clause was put into practice. The “Separate but equal” decision of 1896 confirmed the separation in the South and soon everything was being kept apart, the churches, schools, restaurants, even the toilets. In the beginning of the twentieth century only few Blacks had managed to enter the middle-class.
Many tried to escape isolation in the South by moving into northern urban areas, but only found poverty and not enough number jobs. The law, jobs, political affairs and the mass media were still controlled by the whites. The only organisations where Blacks could gain power were religious societies.
A turning point for the Blacks was the Second World War. Often they were given the hardest, ugliest, most menial work, they had to risk their lives and still were called “niggers” by their officers.
The fight for equal rights continued. In the South, mostly African-Americans of the middle-class took an active part in the struggle for mixing in the American society. With the help of the Christian church they managed to start a kind of non-violent revolution, which finally made the white people understand the unfairness of separation, so that inequity by law was finally abolished.
How Malcolm changed black peoples lives
Malcolm’s original name was MALCOLM LITTLE but later after converting into a Muslim became known as EL-HAJJ MALIK EL-SHABAZZ. After his assassination, the well-known sharing of his life story--The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)--made him an ideological hero, especially among black youth.
Malcolm grew up in Lansing, Mich. Malcolm saw his house burned down at the hands of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan. Two years later his father was murdered, and Malcolm's mother was later placed in a mental institution. Malcolm spent the following years in detention homes, and in his early teens he moved to Boston to live with his sister. In 1946, while in prison for burglary, he was converted to the Black Muslim faith (); this party especially gave to black people and inherent evil of whites. After being released from prison in 1952, Malcolm went to Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago and met the party’s leader, , and embraced its thorough plainness. He changed his last name to "X," a tradition among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to have originated with white slaveholders.
Malcolm X was sent on speaking tours around the country and soon became the most effective speaker and organizer for the Nation of Islam. He created many new mosques and greatly increased the movement's membership. In 1961 he met Muhammad Speaks, the official publication of the movement. He was eventually made the minister of the important Mosque Number Seven in New York City's Harlem area.
By speaking against the white abuse of black people, Malcolm developed a brilliant style, which soon won him a large and dedicated following. He knocked the civil-rights movement and rejected both mixing and racial equality, calling instead for black separatism, black pride, and black self-dependence. Because he supported the use of violence (for self-protection) his leadership was unwanted by most civil-rights leaders, who stressed nonviolent resistance to racial unfairness.
Malcolm X described the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963) as a "case of chickens coming home to roost.” The kind of violence that whites had long used against blacks. Malcolm's success by this time had caused jealousy within the Black Muslim hierarchy, and, in response to his comments on the Kennedy assassination, Elijah Muhammad suspended Malcolm from the movement. In March 1964 Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and announced the formation of his own religious organization. As a result of a pilgrimage he took to Mecca in April 1964, he customized his views of black separatism, declaring that he no longer believed whites to be naturally evil and saw his vision of the possibility of world brotherhood. In October 1964 he confirmed his conversion to orthodox Islam.
Aggression grew between Malcolm's followers and the rival Black Muslims involved itself in violence and threats against his life. He was shot to death at a rally of his followers at a Harlem ballroom. Three Black Muslims were convicted of the murder.