MALCOLM X

born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Neb., U.S. died Feb. 21, 1965, New York, N.Y. Malcolm X original name Malcolm Little, Muslim name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz black militant leader who articulated concepts of race pride and black nationalism in the early 1960s. After his assassination, the widespread distribution of his life storyThe Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)made him an ideological hero, especially among black youth. Growing up in Lansing, Mich., Malcolm saw his house burned down at the hands of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan. Two years later his father was murdered, and Malcolm's mother was subsequently placed in a mental institution. Malcolm spent the following years in detention homes, and in his early teens he moved to Boston to live with his sister. In 1946, while in prison for burglary, he was converted to the Black Muslim faith (Nation of Islam); this sect professed the superiority of black people and the inherent evil of whites. Released from prison in 1952, Malcolm went to Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago, met the sect's leader, Elijah Muhammad, and embraced its rigorous asceticism. He changed his last name to X, a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to have originated with white slaveholders. Malcolm X was sent on speaking tours around the country and soon became the most effective speaker and organizer for the Nation of Islam. He founded many new mosques and greatly increased the movement's membership. In 1961 he founded Muhammad Speaks, the official publication of the movement. He was eventually assigned to be minister of the important Mosque Number Seven in New York City's Harlem area. Speaking with bitter eloquence against the white exploitation of black people, Malcolm developed a brilliant platform style, which soon won him a large and dedicated following. He derided the civil-rights movement and rejected both integration and racial equality, calling instead for black separatism, black pride, and black self-dependence. Because he advocated the use of violence (for self-protection) and appeared to many to be a fanatic, his leadership was rejected by most civil-rights leaders, who emphasized nonviolent resistance to racial injustice. Malcolm X described the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963) as a case of chickens coming home to roostan instance of the kind of violence that whites had long used against blacks. Malcolm's success had by this time aroused jealousy within the Black Muslim hierarchy, and, in response to his comments on the Kennedy assassination, Elijah Muhammad suspended Malcolm from the movement. In March 1964 Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and announced the formation of his own religious organization. As a result of a pilgrimage he took to Mecca in April 1964, he modified his views of black separatism, declaring that he no longer believed whites to be innately evil and acknowledging his vision of the possibility of world brotherhood. In October 1964 he reaffirmed his conversion to orthodox Islam. Growing hostility between Malcolm's followers and the rival Black Muslims manifested itself in violence and threats against his life. He was shot to death at a rally of his followers at a Harlem ballroom. Three Black Muslims were convicted of the murder. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was written by Alex Haley after he had conducted numerous interviews with Malcolm X shortly before the latter's death. The book was immediately recognized as a classic of black American autobiography. Additional reading Biographical and interpretive works include Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X (1973); Bruce Perry, Malcolm (1991); Louis A. DeCaro, Jr., On the Side of My People: A Religious Life of Malcolm X (1996); William W. Sales, Jr., From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (1994); and Michael Eric Dyson, Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X (1995).