Type in Motion

On Black Power:
Who is speaking?
- Malcolm X

Why was/is the speech important to society?
- Was addressing the civil disobedience of followers of Martin Luther King

Why do you feel this is important or interesting?
- I find it interesting how he calls for action and unity within the black community before trying to make efforts to unite with the rest of the nation. He is trying to reinforce a strong foundation within his race.

What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?
- It seems a little less formal with frequent "um's" and "uh's" and therefore more inviting to a listener, as if it were in conversation rather than speaking to a large group. It is intimate.

What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft. Where are there pauses...
- Emphasis is placed on the racial identifiers. Words like "black" and "white" are raised slightly in volume. Problems like "drug addiction" are stressed.

What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?
- I would have to say the problems addressed by Malcolm should be louder if anything, and the rush of locations at the end of the speech should be as well.

Is there a call to action? When listening to it what are key/emphasized words?
- Before trying to unite with the whites of America, Malcolm stresses that blacks need to first become accepting of each other and unite together, rather than on their own movements. Some stressed words include "blacks" "whites" "potential" "vices" "community"

How does it make you feel? How do imagine that the audience felt?
- It made me feel that every point he made was correct. I felt motivated, and I can imagine the audience felt the same way when it came to taking action.

Could there be another interpretation of the speech?
- I doubt it, it wasn't really cryptic by any means. Pretty much a straightforward speech during the civil rights movement.

Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech. 
- Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little) was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. The beliefs expressed by Malcolm X changed during his lifetime. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam, he taught black supremacy and deified the leaders of the organization. He also advocated the separation of black and white Americans, which put him at odds with the civil rights movement, which was working towards integration. After he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca and disavowed racism, while remaining a champion of black self-determination, self defense, and human rights. 
     On February 21, 1965, in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X began to speak to a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity when a disturbance broke out in the crowd. As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns, hitting him 16 times. Furious onlookers caught and beat one of the assassins as the others fled the ballroom. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m., shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. 
     Malcolm X has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. He is credited with raising the self-esteem of black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritage. He is largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the black community in the United States.Many African Americans, especially those who lived in cities in the Northern and Western United States, felt that Malcolm X articulated their complaints concerning inequality better than the mainstream civil rights movement did.