WE WERE JUST "THINGS" TO THEM
(Malcolm X)Grade 6-8
Melissa Hively
"We Shall Overcome(3 times slow)...When We All Get To Heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see Jesus we will sing and shout the Victory"(Do this with back to class with Bible in hand, when finished turn around, face class and start story).
These were the songs of hope that the negroes of the town would sing. The same ones who shouted, as my father preached, for the "pie-in-the-sky and the heaven hereafter"-while the white man had his heaven here on earth.
It was the white man who, in his prejudice and power, gave me nightmares.
Before I was born, some white men came looking for my father. He was off preaching in Milwaukee so my mother, pregnant with me, stood on the porch while the white men shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town because "the good Christian white people" were not going to stand for my father's "spreading trouble" among the "good" negroes of Omaha with the "back to Africa" preaching of Marcus Garvey. He believed that freedom, independence and self-respect could never be achieved by the Negro in America and that therefore the Negro should leave America to the white man and return to his African land of origin.
The Klansmen, still shouting threats, got on their horses and galloped around the house, shattering every pane with their gun butts. They rode off into the darkness. A nightmare for some, reality for my mother.
I was four years old when I experienced a nightmare that I will never forget. I remember being suddenly snatched awake into a frightening confusion of pistol shots and shouting and smoke and flames. My father had shouted at the two white men who had set the fire and were running away. Our home was burning down around us. We were lunging and bumping and tumbling all over each other tying to escape. My mother, with my baby sister Yvonne in her arms, just made it to the yard before the house crashed in.
I remember being outside in the night in our underwear, crying and yelling our heads off. The white police and fireman came and stood around watching as the house burned down to the ground.
"Up, you mighty race you can accomplish what you will!" My father spoke these words at a Marcus Garvey meeting that I attended with him. He was giving our people a hope.
Then, he was silenced. I remember waking up to the sound of my mother crying and screaming. As I scrambled out of my room, I saw the police in the living room trying to calm her down-It was time to face my father's death; The police said it was suicide but I find it hard to believe that my father could have bashed himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over!
After his death, we did what we could to try to survive. There were complications concerning the money my mother was supposed to receive from the insurance company and we had to go on Welfare. Each time the people from the Welfare office came to our house, they questioned my mom as to her ability to take care of us kids. They looked around our house, in such a way that it made me feel like we were not people- in their eyes we were just things, that was all.
This story is the story of the beginning of Malcolm X's life. Because of the events in this story, Malcolm believed that white people ruined his family. This impacted the rest of his life in that he rose to become the most effective leader for the "Nation of Islam" Which, at the time, believed that white people were devils. When he went to Mecca to learn more about true Islam, he noticed that the people of different color got along. He then changed his views about racism, believing that whites as well as blacks were victims of a racist society and began to focus on bringing blacks together to fight racism. He stood up against racism and struggled to give black people pride in themselves and their race.
QUESTIONS
1. Have you read or heard of other true stories like this one?
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2. Why do you think the white police and firemen did not try to put the house fire out? Why did they just watch it?
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3. How would you have responded if you were the social worker who visited Malcolm's family? Why?
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4. Why did Malcolm's father preach "back to Africa"?
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5.Why did "Whites" feel it necessary to suppress the "Black" race? Does this activity take place today?
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"WE WERE JUST THINGS TO THEM"
I. Songs of Hope(with back to class and bible in hand)
A.We Shall Overcome
B.When We All Get To Heaven
II. The difference
A.Black's hoping for freedom and fairness
B.White's living in freedom
III. Before I was born
A.Whiteman's threats
B.Klansmen shatter the windows
IV. My Nightmare
A.Snatched awake into frightening confusion
- Heard shouts and gun shots
- Saw the smoke and flames around
B.Trying to Escape
- Lunging, bumping, tumbling over one another
- Mom just made it with Yvonne
C.The Scene
- In the night, In our underwear
- They just watched it burn to the ground
V. My father continues to give our people hope
A.Up, you mighty race you can accomplish what you will
VI. My Father Silenced
A.Woke up to mom crying and screaming
B.Hard to believe it was suicide!
VII. A Family Shattered by the System
A.Insurance fell through
B.Welfare took over
- Their plan to defeat our family
- In their eyes; not people, just things-that's all
Answers
1-3. Answers will vary
4.He felt that freedom could never be achieved in Am. and therefore the Negro should leave America to the white man and return to his African land of origin.
5.Answers will vary
Props
Bible, picture of Malcolm on the board
Source
Haley, Alex. Malcolm X. Ballantine Books. New York. 1964.