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Malcolm X

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925. In the 1960’s he became one of the most influential human rights activist, an orator as well as a minister through the Nation of Islam. He joined the Nation of Islam in the 1940’s while in prison for larceny and breaking and entering and this is where he changed his name to Malcolm X. In 1964, Malcolm X began practicing Sunni Islam where he changed his name one more time to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz and it was at this time where he explained why he changed his name to Malcolm x and then to this new name because he no longer wanted to be called a name (last name) that was given to his ancestors by a slavemaster who did not value their life or respected them, so why continue on with a name/legacy that was still going on through an evil slave master.

Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Carmichael was born in 1941 in the country of Trinidad. He grew up to be involved in so many organizations that considered him to be a leader of the Black Power Movement and one of the civil rights movement organizers and a member of the Black Panther Movement. In 1968, Carmichael moved to Africa from the countries of Ghana and in 1969 to Guinea West Africa. There he changed his name to Kwame, inspired by his friend and former first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah and his last name to Ture, also inspired by another former president of Guinea, Ahmed Sekou Toure, who were two advocates of Pan-Africanism. In 1971, he was inspired through his time in Africa to write a book entitled Stokely Speaks:Black Power to Pan-Africanism.

Muhammed Ali

Muhammad Ali was born to the name Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in 1942. He was social activist, philanthropist and one of the greatest American boxers of all time. In 1964 Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. accepted the teachings of the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammed Ali under the spiritual guidance of Elijah Muhammed. Ali explained why he changed his old “slave name” to Muhammed Ali because it released the devastation of slavery and bondage with his former name that was given to his family by slave masters and with throwing the old name out, pushed him and his ancestors forward to freedom.

Toni Morrison

In an interview done by the Paris Review, a particular question by the interviewer stood out that asked Interviewer- “So the city freed the ex-slaves from their history? “

Morrison- “Although history should not become a straitjacket, which overwhelms and binds, neither should it be forgotten. One must critique it, test it, confront it, and understand it in order to achieve a freedom that is more than license, to achieve true, adult agency. If you penetrate the seduction of the city, then it becomes possible to confront your own history—to forget what ought to be forgotten and use what is useful—such true agency is made possible. ”

The response that Toni Morrison says, gives possible insight why she named her characters the names she did such as Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid because they wanted to forget their past and make new the life they were living away from slavery and into their new found freedom.

Knowing Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid and seeing and hearing why they changed their names from their slave names and as much as he hated his entire experience with slavery, why do you think Paul D did not change his name when he finally made it to Cincinnati and he was finally free?