Thread by @guang_lie, Malcolm X’s parents moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1921 -the year the [...]

Malcolm X’s parents moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1921 -the year the KKK was reborn in that state. Because his parents were outspoken against racial injustices, they often faced threats of violence. Meanwhile, Ernest Buffett, Warren Buffett’s grandfather, was living it up in Omaha.

Louise & Earl Little, Malcolm X’s parents, moved to Omaha to start a UNIA branch, a venture that didn’t work out. After Malcolm X was born in 1925, the Littles left Omaha in 1926. Meanwhile, Omaha was a safe, nurturing environment (for the Buffetts) where they ran businesses.

Let’s explore this idea and play a little game I like to call “Shake the Tree - Find the Slaves.”
https://twitter.com/theafroplex/status/1303734218237734912?s=21

https://twitter.com/theafroplex/status/1303734218237734912?s=21

The Buffetts have a LONG history in Nebraska.

Sidney Buffett, Warren Buffett’s great-grandfather, actually opened his first grocery store in Nebraska in 1869.

Sidney Buffett, Warren Buffett’s great grandfather started out life as a farmer working for his grandfather, Zebulon Buffett, in Suffolk county in Long Island New York. After a disagreement with Zebulon, Sidney moved to Nebraska which had just been made a state in 1866.

Just so we keep this straight:

Warren Buffett’s father is

Howard Buffett, who is the son of:

Ernest Buffett, who is the son of:

Sidney Buffett, who is:

Warren Buffett’s great-grandfather.

Now, Sidney’s Father is David Nathaniel Buffett (Warren Buffett’s Great-Great grandfather).

And David Nathaniel Buffett’s father is Zebulon Buffett (Warren Buffett’s great-great-great grandfather)

Now, we arrive to Zebulon Buffett, who had a LARGE farm in Long Island.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Buffett-29

Do you think Zebulon did all of that farming all by himself on that vast farming estate?

Of course...

NOT!!!

According to the 1790 Census, Zebulon owned three slaves.

Here is a typed out version of this 1790 Census page. Column VII (7) indicates the number of slaves each person owned.

(To locate Zebulon Buffett more quickly, scroll down the far right column for the number “3” and you will find Zebulon Buffett’s row.)

Even after Sidney quit working at his grandfather’s farm in New York, Zebulon was protective of Sidney, frequently sending him letters containing business advice to help Sidney succeed with his new business venture.

Source: A. Schroeder, The Snowball Warren Buffett...

Sidney Buffett moved to Nebraska as a privileged white man with close connections to his grandfather, Zebulon, who frequently gave him business advice to ensure that Sidney’s Grocery store would be successful in Nebraska.

Let’s not forget about timing!

While ADOS were left free to starve after the Civil War, Sidney Buffett moved to Nebraska and opened up his grocery store at a time when the government was GIVING away 160 acres of land to settlers who had not fought against the Union.

The Buffett family was set-up to succeed from the very beginning.

Warren Buffett’s “success” begins to look very different when you add historical context to his achievements, contrasting his life with that of Malcolm X, who was also born in Omaha but without a silver spoon.

*Correction: Joshua Buffett (also a relative of Warren Buffett who owned slaves) is boxed here in red.

“Zebulon Buffett” is two rows above Joshua boxed in green. https://twitter.com/guang_lie/status/1303755993600401414

https://twitter.com/guang_lie/status/1303755993600401414

While the family of Warren Buffett was busy benefiting from affirmative action for white people to get rich, this is the environment that the family of Malcolm X was confronted with in Omaha:

https://journalstar.com/news/local/jim-mckee-kkk-groups-formed-in-nearly-a-dozen-nebraska-cities-in-1920s/article_262d73c2-aa54-11df-8752-001cc4c03286.amp.html

Ku Klux Klan rally outside of Lincoln, Nebraska; July 16, 1923, by L. W. Cook

Remember, while the family of Warren Buffett was left free to get filthy rich, in 1919 - two years before Malcolm X ‘s parents moved to Omaha, Will Brown was publicly lynched by a crazed mob.

Here is some more information on the Omaha Race Riots of 1919: https://www.nebraskastudies.org/en/1900-1924/racial-tensions/a-horrible-lynching/

The members of the KKK in Nebraska were having the time of there lives in the 1920s.

https://history.nebraska.gov/blog/flashback-friday-when-nebraskans-celebrated-july-4th-kkk-cross-burning

While this was all taking place, the family of Warren Buffett was running their own grocery stores and building new ones - the KKK was not after the Buffetts or other white people like them. https://omaha.com/special_sections/5015-underwood-from-buffett-and-son-grocery-to-dundee-bank/article_314ea301-f197-5a63-99b9-06a258a40f32.amp.html

In 1926, one year after Malcolm X was born Louise and Earl packed up the family and first moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin before finally settling in Lansing, Michigan.

In Lansing, Malcolm X’s family was frequently harassed by the Black Legion, a white supremacists group. This group burned their home in 1929, before murdering Earl Little, Malcolm’s father in 1931, putting Earl Little on the tracks for a street car to run over him.

In 1939, Louise Little, Malcolm X’s mother, had a nervous breakdown and was committed to Kalamazoo State Hospital.

Malcolm X and his siblings were then split up and placed in foster homes.

Meanwhile, life was still FANTASTIC for the Buffett family.

Here is a Christmas photo of the Buffett siblings with their Christmas presents taken outside their home in the Omaha Country Club neighborhood.

Here is a picture of Warren Buffett when he was 3 or 4, only a few years after Malcolm X’s father had been murdered in Michigan.

(To Be Continued...maybe. This is depressing.)

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