Malcolm X :: essays research papers

The civil rights movement was a very grueling period in American history, this period promoted social and economic independence for blacks. In order to unite and to better spread the messages of the civil rights movement to other blacks throughout the country many black organizations choose leaders with powerful speaking skills to spread there messages. One of the most influential leaders of the civil rights movement was a young Muslim preacher by the name of Malcolm X. Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, the son of Louise and Earl Little of Omaha, Nebraska. Louise Little was a mulatto born in Grenada in the British West Indies. And Earl Little was a Baptist minister and organizer for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. Louise, his second wife, bore six children: Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Yvonne, and Reginald. Earl Little also had three children by a first wife: Ella, Earl, and Mary. Little had migrated with his family from Philadelphia to the midwe st, first to Milwaukee, then Omaha, and finally to East Lansing, Mich. In 1929 the family house was burned down, by white supremacists. After Earl Little died in 1931 in a streetcar accident, Malcolm's mother eventually had a mental breakdown and entered an inside asylum. The siblings were dispersed to other families. Malcolm lived with a foster family before moving to Roxbury, Mass., in 1941 to live with a half sister, Ella Collins. A few months after his arrival in Roxbury, a predominantly black section of Boston, Malcolm dropped out of school (having completed eight grade) and took a job as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom in Boston's Back Bay section. A career as a hustler seemed a more tempting option, and he was soon selling narcotics. Roxbury proved to be too small for him, and in 1942 he took a job as a railroad dining-car porter, working out of Roxbury and Harlem. Settling in Harlem, he became involved in robbery, prostitution, and narcotics. After a year in Harlem Malcolm was officially initiated into hustler society. He returned to Boston in 1945 after a falling out with another hustler, and continued a life of crime, forming his own house robbing gang. He was arrested for robbery in February 1946, and was convicted and sentenced to prison for seven years. While in prison, Malcolm became a follower of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of a small, urban cult, the Nation of Islam, with branches in Detroit, Chicago, and New York.

Contemporary International Problems Essay

The United States of America experienced various disputes and wars in its history. Some of these armed conflicts do not only take place within their boundaries because there are also some battles that they have to fight in another country’s territory. The reasons for engaging in such warfare may either directly or indirectly involve the U. S. However, one thing is sure, that in the country’s every participation there is a certain interest that its officials want to fulfill. This kind of situation is what exactly took place in the U. S. ntervention in the Vietnam War. The U. S. government wants to achieve a certain national interest that will work for their benefits. The Vietnam War started in 1954 when the Communist-led parties of the Vietnamese Nationalist and the Vietminh army defeated the French forces. France was forced to recognize North Vietnam as communist while leaving the Southern part of the country as non-communist. Nevertheless, the U. S. did not approve this situation especially the establishment of communist leadership in North Korea. President Dwight D.  Eisenhower ordered the establishment of political machinery in South Vietnam. This includes creating a government that replaced the French leadership as well as deploying military advisers that will train the South Vietnam army. The Central Intelligence Agency of the U. S. also employed psychological warfare in order to weaken North Vietnam. The United States government explicitly expressed its participation and commitment in the Vietnam War when they ordered continuous air bombing in North Vietnam by means of the Tonkin Golf Resolution. The war ended in January 1973 through a diplomatic agreement that resulted in the U. S. withdrawal from Vietnam in exchange for the release of U. S. prisoners (Rotter, 1999). The intervention of the U. S. in the Vietnam War is part of their national interest of establishing democracy in different countries and controls the spread of communism. During the Cold War two conflicting forces are involved namely: the Communist bloc and the Democratic bloc. The U. S. leads the Democratic group, which is why they are doing all the necessary means to combat communism. Their intervention in the Vietnam War is an effort to stop other Asian countries from following the principles of communism especially since Ho Chi Minh is the one leading the Northern part of the country (Rotter, 1999). The American government believes that communism is an enemy because it defies every value and principle that the U. S. upholds such as: free trade and democracy. In relation to this the operations of the U. S. against the Communist bloc is largely dependent upon their belief in the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is similar to a set of dominoes wherein toppling one of it will result for the others to follow suit. In the same manner, Vietnam represents the first domino that toppled down. The U. S. deemed that if they will not intervene in the Vietnam War other countries in the Southeast Asian region would also adhere to communism (Rotter, 1999). Another reason for U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War is their goal of influencing other countries to follow the path of democracy and adhere to the values and principles that the U. S. stands for. By doing so, the U. S. ould be able to win their battle with the soviet bloc and at the same time establish their position as the world’s superpower. The U. S. government encouraged other countries to follow their ideals by giving military and economic aid to them. This is observable when they helped France in maintaining its Indochina colonies. The U. S. also applied the Domino Theory in acquiring more countries in their side. They think that by showing other countries the development of France, they would choose democracy over communism, as this would entail more benefits for them (Rotter, 1999). The U. S. intervention in the Vietnam War clearly shows that the country tend to intervene in others’ affairs in order to accomplish their national interests. The U. S. government used the resources that they have in order to pursue their objectives. They took advantage of the conflicts that is happening in the other parts of the world so that they could defeat the soviet bloc and control the spread of communism. In doing so, they were able to emerge as one of the most powerful countries in the world.

The Tiber River of Rome

The Tiber is one of longest rivers in  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Italy, the second longest river after the Po. The Tiber is about 250 miles long and varies between 7 and 20 feet deep. It flows from the Apennines at Mount Fumaiolo through Rome and into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Ostia. Most of the city of Rome is to the east of the Tiber River. The area to the west, including the island in the Tiber, Insula Tiberina or Insula Sacra, was included in Region XIV of Caesar Augustuss administrative areas of the city of Rome. Origin of the Name Tiber The Tiber was originally called Albula or Albula (white or whitish in Latin) supposedly because the sediment load was so white, but it was renamed Tiberis after Tiberinus, who was an Etruscan king of Alba Longa who drowned in the river. Ancient historians refer to the river as yellow, not white, and it is also possible that Albula is the Roman name for the river, while Tiberis is the Etruscan one. In his History of Rome, the German classicist Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) wrote that the Tiber was the natural highway for traffic in Latium and provided an early defense against neighbors on the other side of the river, which in the area of Rome runs approximately southward. The Tiber and its god, Tiberinus or Thybris, appear in several histories but most prominently in the first century BCE Roman poet Vergils The Aeneid. The god Tiberinus functions as a fully integrated character in The Aeneid, appearing to the troubled Aeneas to advise him, and most importantly, to prophesy a magnificent destiny for Rome. Tiberinus the god is a rather majestic figure, who introduces himself in a long, long passage in the Aeneid, including: The god am I, whose yellow water flowsAround these fields, and fattens as it goes:Tiber my name; among the rolling floodsRenown’d on earth, esteem’d among the gods.This is my certain seat. In times to come,My waves shall wash the walls of mighty Rome.† History of the Tiber In antiquity, ten bridges were built over the Tiber: eight spanned the main channel while two permitted access to the island; there was a shrine to Venus on the island. Mansions lined the riverside, and gardens leading to the river provided Rome with fresh fruits and vegetables. The Tiber was also a major thoroughfare for the Mediterranean trade of oil, wine, and wheat. The Tiber was an important military focus for hundreds of years. During the third century BCE, Ostia (a town on the Tiber) became a naval base for the Punic Wars. In the 5th century BCE, the Second Veientine War was fought over control of a crossing of the Tiber. The disputed crossing was at Fidenae, five miles upstream from Rome. Attempts to tame the Tibers floods were unsuccessful in classical times. While today the river is confined between high walls, during Roman times it regularly flooded. The Tiber as a Sewer The Tiber was connected with the Cloaca Maxima, the sewer system of Rome, which was said to have been first built by the king Tarquinius Priscus (‎616–579 BCE) in the 6th century BCE. Tarquinius had the existing stream expanded and lined with stone in an attempt to control storm water—rain flowed downhill to the Tiber through the Cloaca, and it regularly flooded. In the third century BCE, the open channel was lined with stone and covered with a vaulted stone roof. The Cloaca remained a water control system until the reign of Augustus Caesar (ruled 27 BCE–14 CE). Augustus had major repairs made to the system, and connected public baths and latrines, turning the Cloaca into a sewage management system. Cloare means to wash or purify and it was a surname of the goddess Venus. Cloalia was a Roman virgin in the the early 6th century BCE who was given to the Etruscan king Lars Porsena and escaped his camp by swimming across the Tiber to Rome. The Romans (at the time under the rule of the Etruscans) sent her back to Porsena, but he was so impressed by her deed that he freed her and allowed her to take other of the hostages with her.   Today, the Cloaca is still visible and manages a small amount of Romes water. Much of the original stonework has been replaced by concrete. Sources and Further Reading Leverett, Frederick Percival. A New and Copious Lexicon of the Latin Language. Boston: J. H. Wilkins and R. B. Carter and C. C. Little and James Brown, 1837. Print.Mommson, Theodor. The History of Rome, Volumes 1–5. Trans. Dickson, William Purdie; Ed. Ceponis, Daid. Project Gutenberg, 2005.  Rutledge, Eleanor S. Vergil and Ovid on the Tiber. The Classical Journal 75.4 (1980): 301–04. Print.Smith, William, and G.E. Marindon, eds. A Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and Geography. London: John Murray, 1904. Print.