Malcolm X - A Common Enemy

"As I say, if we bring up religion we'll have differences; we'll have arguments; and we'll never be able to get together. But if we keep our religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God, but when we come out here, we have a fight that's common to all of us against a enemy who is common to all of us."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malcolm Little dropped out of high school and began an early life of crime, organizing drug, prostitution and crime rings in the Boston during the 40's and 50's. While serving a 7 year prison sentence, Little finds the teachings of Islam and converts, drops his "slave name" Little and adopts the name Malcolm X, the X standing in for his "lost tribe name". After serving most of his sentence, X was released and joined The Nation of Islam and establishes mosques in Detroit and New York. Malcolm's mentor and the leader of The Nation of Islam, Elijah Mohamed is found to have fathered several children with as many as 6 women and X leaves the Nation of Islam now disillusioned and begins his own organization Muslim Mosque, Inc after a pilgrimage to Mecca that revises his views on segregation and believes that any race can follow the teachings of Islam. In 1965, after several assignation attempts, Malcolm X is murdered by 3 men from the Nation of Islam while speaking in Manhattan at the age of 39.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who is speaking?
Malcolm Little (Malcolm X)

Why was/is the speech important to society?
The speech marks, most importantly Malcolm X's separation from the Nation of Islam and his joining in helping the Civil Right's Movement. While X declares himself a Muslim he begins his speech by noting that the Black Movement should not be concerned with religious preference but rather focus on the idea of common equality and common rights.

Why do you feel in is important or interesting?
I think the idea (of personal spirituality or personal religion) is important and fundamentally relevant to contemporary society.

What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?
The speech is a call to action, meant to inspire and motivate.

What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft. Where are there pauses...
There is an interesting section where he pleads with the listener to "Keep our religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God" that has an interesting rhythm about it.

What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?
Is there a call to action? When listening to it what are key/emphasized words?
The entire speech is a call to action, yet this section is delivered in a leveled way that underlines it's importance.

How does it make you feel?
This section is spoken very temperately, calmly and in a deliberate manner as if the whole of the idea needs to be absorbed, without specific emphasis.

How do imagine that the audience felt?
The audience seems to agree and yet, there is a moment where maybe the audience wasn't expecting such simple, yet poignant instruction.

Could there be another interpretation of the speech?
Some feel that the speech was meant in part to distance Malcolm X from Martin Luther King Jr, who used Christianity to reach a broader audience during the Civil Rights Movement.