Malcolm X

Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little in Nebraska in 1925. He was the son of a Baptist minister and an avid supporter of Marcus Garvey and other Black Nationalists. Little's support caused trouble for his family when he was very young; the family's house was set on fire, presumably by white supremacists. The family moved to Michigan in 1929 after Little's father was mysteriously killed when his head was crushed and run over by a streetcar. It was labeled a suicide, but Little later said that he suspected his father was killed by white supremacists. At around the same time, Little's mother was committed to a mental institution.After Little dropped out of the eighth grade, he made his way to New York City, where he became a drug dealer and burglar. In 1946, he was arrested and sent to prison for burglary. While there, he learned about and later converted to the Nation of Islam led by Elijah Muhammad. Little became a defender of Muslim doctrine, accepting that evil was inherent in "the white man's world," according to the Gale Group's Free Resources. Little (who later became known as Malcom X) sought publicity for the religion, proclaiming that white people were devils and that black people should take retribution for the wrongs done them.

After Malcolm X made inflammatory statements about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he was suspended from the Nation and started his own organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity and the Muslim Mosque Inc. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and adopted his second name, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. When he returned, he adopted opinions contrary to many other Black Nationalists, including the view that not all whites were evil and that blacks could succeed through some of the established channels.

Malcolm X became the victim of death threats from both whites and extremist Black Nationalists, and in 1965, his family barely escaped the firebombing of their house. Malcolm X was shot and killed one week later on Feb. 12, 1965 while preparing for a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. The men arrested for the killing were members of the Nation of Islam. Although Malcolm X was seen as a proponent of violence during his life, he is now seen more as a leader of the civil rights movement and as an advocate of self-defense and self-reliance for the black community.

Information has been compiled from Gale Free Resources Black History Month Biographies.