Thomas Neville

Malcolm X: Biography

Original name Malcolm Little, Muslim name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (born. May 19, 1925, Omaha,
Neb., U.S.- died. Feb. 21, 1965, New York, N.Y.), 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 story--The 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 roost"--an 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.
Thomas Neville

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.