Biography of Malcolm X

Malcolm Little, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (born May 19, 1925 and died February 21, 1965), better known as Malcolm X, was a speaker, religious minister, and revolutionary leader of the African American community in the United States. The son of a Protestant minister, he had to constantly move during his childhood due to attacks from racist groups. After the death of his father and the breakdown of his family, he struggled with drugs and common crime. In 1946, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. During his imprisonment, he left drugs and approached the Muslim religious movement, Nation of Islam (NOI). Upon release, he joined the NOI, changed his surname to “X” and began a strong political activism in defense of African American rights. Over time, he became a hero and spokesman for African Americans and a revolutionary reference of Islam. However, his activism and the intrigues that were aimed at him cost him his life.

Early Years

Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. During his childhood, his family moved to Lansing, Michigan. He was six years old when his father, Reverend Earl Little, died as a result of an attack by a white supremacist group, being hit by a streetcar. His mother, Louise Little, had to resort to selling dandelion leaves on the street to feed the family. However, after a while she was institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital and Malcolm and his brothers were sent to foster homes and to the house of some relatives.

As a student, Malcolm excelled in his early years, but lost interest in education after one of his eighth-grade teachers told him that he should become a carpenter instead of a lawyer. Becoming a rebellious young man, in 1942 he moved to New York and began to become involved in criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, prostitution, and theft, until being sentenced to prison in 1946.

Prison and the beginnings in the NOI

With a seven-year sentence, Malcolm quit drugs, resumed his studies through correspondence and came into contact with the Nation of Islam (NOI), a Muslim religious movement created by Wallace Fard Muhammad and led by Elijah Muhammad, which considered the black minority as Allah’s chosen people, while whites were the personification of the devil. Malcolm then moved from crime and marginalization, caused by circumstances, to political activism in defense of the African American community. After being released from prison in 1952, Malcolm joined the NOI, changing his surname from Little to “X”. The X represented the African surname that African Americans had lost due to slavery.

In a short time, his oratory skills and activism extended the influence of the Nation of Islam in cities such as Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia. Later, he founded the newspaper Muhammad Speaks and became the leader of the NOI in New York.

His activism, sometimes radical, soon made him a target of persecution and criticism. By the late 1950s, Malcolm was portrayed by the media as a propagator of violence; his message of rejection of white domination and defense against racism was misconstrued. His popularity also caused problems within the NOI, such as rivalry with Elijah Muhammad, which ended with his departure in 1964. That year, Malcolm became aware of a plan to assassinate him.

Leaving the NOI and last years

For Malcolm, it was necessary for there to be more active participation in political struggle; he believed that individual reforms within the Nation of Islam or the civil rights campaign that was gaining momentum through the leadership of Martin Luther King, alone, would not lead to the liberation of blacks. In accordance with this, he founded his own movement: the Muslim Mosque Association (1964).

That same year, he completed his pilgrimage to Mecca, taking the opportunity to visit other Muslim countries. Through this journey, he converted to a more orthodox form of Islam, seeing the possibility of brotherhood among all races. He then abandoned the racism of the NOI and began preaching the idea of black nationalism, a style of emancipation that would give the black minority control over their own organizations and communities.

During a second trip taken in 1964, Malcolm had contact with important African leaders, such as the then presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. It was then that he added to his speech the struggle against American imperialism, reflected in the foundation of the Organization of African American Unity, also in 1964. The organization was secular and had a socialist tendency. However, these transformations were not successful as Malcolm was assassinated the following year, probably due to his rivalry with Elijah Muhammad.

Death

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, by men believed to be associated with the Nation of Islam, while giving a speech at the Organization of African American Unity in New York in front of 400 people and his family. Of the three men arrested, Thomas Hagan was the only one who acknowledged his involvement in the assassination.

His autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was published a year later, increased his fame, making him an ideological hero, especially among young black people.

Since then, several movies, TV series and works have been produced that depict his life. Notable examples include the 1992 movie Malcolm X, which adapted his autobiography; the 2020 Netflix series Who Killed Malcolm X?, and the 2021 documentary Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali.