These discouraging words marked a dark turning point for young Malcolm. His grades started to slip, and he was acting differently towards all the white people who were in his life. Eventually, he decided he needed to move. So, he wrote to his cousin Ella asking if he could live with her in Boston. Malcolm received a letter from her saying that he could live with her, and she became his custodial guardian. When he finished 8th grade, he got on a Greyhound bus and moved in with her. Soon after that, he met a man named Shorty. He showed Malcom how the
hip people in Boston dressed. They all wore zoot suits, which was very cool at the time. Another cool thing was the conk, which, while it burned the scalp of the people that did it, made it so that black people could change their hair to make it look more like white peoples hair. While friends with Shorty, Malcolm got caught up in doing the wrong things like not going to school and smoking weed. His life eventually led to him being arrested at age 20 for larceny and for breaking and entering. While he was in jail, he learned about the religion of Islam.
Inspired by his new-found religion to make social change, he joined a civil rights movement and changed his last name to X. America helped this man put himself into a box that many people are in today.
Work Cited: Hayley, Alex, and Malcom X. Autobiography of Macom X. 27th ed. New York:
Grove, 1990. Print.
"Malcolm X." Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2015.
"Black Legion." Wikipedia. Wikipedia foundation, 13 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Mercado photo 2
"Malcolm X from Conk to Muslim." columbia. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Mercado photo 3
"Malcolm X." Tiki-Toki. N.p., n.d. Web. 11
Feb. 2015.
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