Malcolm Even though Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were civil rights leaders, they both had different ideas about how to get their point across. Malcolm X believed in using violence in self-defense and creating a separate community for African Americans. After Malcolm had imposed on him influenced him. Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Earl Little and Louise Norton. He was one of eight children. His father was a Baptist preacher, follower of activist Marcus Garvey, and local leader of the UNIA. The UNIA stands for Universal Negro Improvement Association. The KKK was threatening Malcolm's family, so they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Shortly after that move, they moved again to Lansing, Michigan. The Black Legion was a white racist group believed to have burned down the Little family home in 1929. When Malcolm X was six years old, Earl Little had died in a streetcar accident, or so the police determined. Malcolm's mother, Louise, believed it was a hate crime committed by the Black Legion. After Earl Little's death, Louise Little had difficulty making ends meet and the money earned each month from life insurance was not enough. She started dating a man and it looked like marriage was on the cards. Suddenly, she became pregnant with his child and he ran out the door as soon as he found out, never to be heard from again. In late 1938, he described in Kalamazoo... in the middle of the paper... in his audience the anger they must have felt against the government for not letting them vote. By saying bullet or ballot, he scared some whites. Malcolm X was born in an era where racism was at an all-time high. Society had influenced how he saw himself and how he saw others. At that time, he was a driven boy until his dreams were crushed because no one had faith in him to become someone important. The way African Americans were treated by society made him hate white people. What he didn't realize was that not all whites were part of it and some wanted equality. He was directly influenced by those whites who treated African Americans like dirt. He had to realize that not all white people were trying to maintain racism. He thought about fighting fire with fire, but that only made things worse. Once he realized his mistakes, he tried to fix them.