Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets Black History and Blacks in U.S. History The 1960's

Malcolm X Black History and Blacks in U.S. History

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Malcolm X
Print Malcolm X Reading Comprehension


Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.52

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		fired-up, sawed-off, standing, betterment, militant, oppressive, greatly, notoriety, overthrow, civil, better, passion, correspondence, moral, urban, advocate
	content words:		Martin Luther King, Martin Luther, African American, Malcolm X., Malcolm Little, East Lansing, Reverend Little, Ku Klux Klan, Elijah Muhammad, African Americans

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Malcolm X By Jane Runyon

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¹     Martin Luther King became a civil rights leader during the 1960's. It was his goal to bring changes to the lives of black Americans in a peaceful manner. He taught that a nonviolent approach to making these changes would be accepted easier than by using violence. Not everyone agreed with Martin Luther King's ideas. One such African American who gained much notoriety was Malcolm X.
 
²     Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in May of 1925. He came from a large family. He was in the middle of eight children. His father was a minister. His family moved to East Lansing, Michigan, when Malcolm was very young. He was barely six when his father was murdered. It was strongly believed that Reverend Little died at the hands of a racist group quite similar to the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm's mother never recovered from this tragic loss. She spent most of the rest of her life in mental hospitals. Her children were made wards of the state. Malcolm was only sixteen when he made his way to Boston to live with relatives. What he found there was a life of crime that led him to prison.
 
³     While Malcolm was in prison, his life took a new path. He became interested in bettering himself. He set a goal to improve his mind and to educate himself by copying every page of a dictionary. He decided to improve his spiritual being by starting a correspondence with a man named Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad was the leader of the Nation of Islam. This was a group of African Americans who followed the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, the leader of the Islam religion.

Paragraphs 4 to 7:
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Black History and Blacks in U.S. History

Black History and Blacks in U.S. History

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The 1960's

The 1960's

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United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

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United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

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50 States

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