(May 19, 1925-February 21, 1965). Born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence.
Malcolm X was effectively orphaned early in life. When he was six his father was killed, and there were rumors that white racists had been responsible. Seven years later he lost his mother as well when she was placed in a mental hospital, after which he lived in a series of foster homes.
In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison he became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952 quickly rose to become one of its leaders. For a dozen years he was the public face of the controversial group; in keeping with the Nation’s teachings he espoused black supremacy, advocated the separation of black and white Americans and scoffed at the civil rights movement’s emphasis on integration.
By March 1964 Malcolm X had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its head Elijah Muhammad, and ultimately repudiated the Nation and its teachings. He embraced Sunni Islam and, after a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, returned to the United States to found and black self-defense, he disavowed racism, saying, “I did many things as a {Black} Muslim that I’m for now. I was a zombie then… pointed in a certain direction and told to march.”
In February 1965, shortly after repudiating the Nation of Islam, he was assassinated by three of its members.
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