Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary By: Walter Dean Myers
Write a constructed response in which you explain the central idea of your book and how the author develops that idea.
The Central Idea of this biography is everyone has different ideas on what is right and what needs change, but not everyone is willing to change or adapt to those ideas. The author develops this idea by describing some main African-Americans and their ideas during the early 1900s that wanted to give blacks and other minority people rights and how the others reacted to these ideas. However, I will list two important examples rather than all. In the 1920s-30s Malcolm X's(originally Malcolm Little) parents followed the ideas of an activist named Marcus Gavery. He believed in order to get blacks their free rights, they need to build their own society. To do this he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Even though nothing was ever said about what happened to Gavery, something did happen to one of his important followers. His name was Earl Little, Malcolm's father. He taught and greatly followed the ideas of Gavery. However, whites didn't appreciate Earl's teachings and he received a lot of death threats. Eventually, his house was burned down and the a while later, he was killed my a street car. This is a really good example of how the author develops his central idea, because whites didn't like how Earl was trying to change what they believed needed no changing. So, to keep from changing, people believed the whites or KKK are the reason he was killed by the street car.
Another really good example of the author's development of the central idea is the ideas of the person who the book is mainly about: Malcolm X. He once believed and taught the ideas of The Nation of Islam. Eventually, he started making his own teachings and slowly separated himself from The Nation of Islam. He and The Nation of Islam believed that the whites were evil and blacks need to get their freedom "by any means necessary". Soon Malcolm realized that not all whites were evil, but if necessary, blacks could use violence. He believed that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s(another important activist during this time) ideas on nonviolent protest were weak and weren't very useful. People didn't like Malcolm's ideas, including The Nation of Islam who believed Malcolm was a trader. He was receiving death threats and his house was burned down. He knew he was going to die soon. In February 1965, Malcolm was about to give a speech to a group of people in the Audubon Ballroom. There, a few of black men started some troubles with guns and they shot and killed Malcolm before it was to late to save him. The three men were Norman 3x Butler, Thomas 15x Johnson, and Talmadge Hayer. Two of the three men were apart of The Nation of Islam. The reason for why he was shot and who set it up is still a mystery. This is a really good and important example of how the author developed his central idea. Malcolm tried to make a change, but people weren't willing to change or just didn't like his ideas. Things like this went on for years until finally, blacks and other minorities got their rights. Now life is much easier for a lot of people. We still need work, but we're slowly getting there.
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