El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz in the Muslim world, Malcolm X, was one of the key figures of the Civil Rights Movement. Admired for his bare honesty, fiery personality and dramatic speeches, he raised himself from the core of the African American ghetto and lashed out against the forces which perpetuated segregation, oppression and denial of Black worth. Malcolm X, was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, and was one of eight children. His father, Earl Little was a Baptist preacher, who believed in the secular teachings of Marcus Garvey and and was a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. His mother, Louise, was the National recording secretary for the Marcus Garvey Movement which commanded millions of followers during the 1920s. Malcolm never forgot the values of Black pride and self-reliance that his father and other UNIA leaders preached.
Louise was pregnant with Malcolm when Ku Klux Klan nightriders, angered at Earl’s preaching, appeared at the Little home and warned them to move out of Omaha. Nineteen months after Malcolm was born, the family moved to Lansing, Michigan, though the family continued to face threats in their new home. A local White hate group called the Black Legion became alarmed about the “uppity” Earl Little, suspecting him of spreading unrest in the Black American community. In late 1929, a deliberately set fire broke out at the Little home. The family escaped unharmed, but Earl was forced to build a new home outside East Lansing. On September 28, 1931, when Malcolm was 6 years old, his father Earl Little, was murdered in Lansing. Although, local authorities ruled his death an accident or suicide, the back of Little’s head had been smashed with a hammer before he was tied to streetcar tracks and run over.
The family could not receive a payout from Earl Little’s life insurance, as it wouldn’t pay over cases of suicide. Malcolm’s mother Louise Little struggled to keep the family together financially. Alone, Louise had eight children to raise. Worried about her family and embarrassed by having to accept welfare, she suffered a nervous breakdown eight years after her husband’s death. Overcome with stress and grief, she was committed to an insane asylum and the 10 children were separated between foster homes and family members. While in foster care, Malcolm excelled academically. He made the highest grades among his peers and became class president in the seventh grade even while enduring condescending, racist comments from teachers and his peers.
Malcom became disinterested in school after a previously supportive White English teacher asked Malcolm what he wanted to do for a living. When Malcolm said he wanted to become a lawyer, the teacher told him his desires to become a lawyer were unrealistic, “that’s no realistic goal for a nigger,” and advised him to become a carpenter. This led Malcolm into years of juvenile delinquency. Often hungry as he grew up during the Great Depression, Malcolm though highly intelligent and a good student, dropped out of school following eighth grade. Disillusioned, Malcolm withdrew from White society and committed petty thefts before spending time in a detention home. Malcolm’s problems prompted his move in 1941 to Boston, where he lived with his half sister Ella.
Malcolm worked as a shoeshine boy, soda jerk, busboy, waiter, and railroad dining car waiter. At this point he began a criminal life. He began wearing zoot suits, dealing drugs and earned the nickname “Detroit Red”, a dope dealer, con artist, and pimp who organized a burglary ring. In February 1946, when Malcolm was picking up a stolen watch he left at a Boston jewelry store for repairs, police arrested him for several felony charges, including illegal breaking and entering. Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison. (He was paroled after serving seven years.) It was this sentencing that was the turning point in Malcolm's life. While in Charleston Prison, Malcolm began an intense self-education program, copying a dictionary word for word and voraciously reading at the prison library.
By the time he was transferred to a prison in Concord, Massachusetts, his brother Reginald had exposed him to the teachings of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam religious sect led by Elijah Muhammad. Reginald belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam (NOI). Intrigued, Malcolm began to study the teachings of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad taught that White society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success. Among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by White people. Muhammad’s teachings explained for Malcolm his past experiences with racial injustice. The NOI taught that political reform was futile in an innately evil world. Only the final judgment of the NOI deity, Allah, against the White race could bring justice. Rather than integration into a White society poisoned with racism, the African American people needed separation from the White world and the creation of a financially independent Black homeland.
Soon after, Malcolm adopted the last name “X” to represent his rejection of his “slave” name and to signify his lost tribal name. This because Africans born in America through enslavement were stripped of culture, names and heritage and given the names of enslavers of their ancestors. After his release from prison in 1952, Malcolm worked briefly in Michigan as a furniture salesperson and auto assembly worker. He soon devoted himself full-time to the Muslim ministry. Intelligent and articulate, Malcolm was appointed as a minister and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad also charged him with establishing new mosques in cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Harlem, New York. Articulate and intelligent he quickly rose to the top of the organization.
An imposing figure, Malcolm stood about six feet five inches tall with a lanky physique, closely cropped hair, and grayish eyes that peered intensely through horn-rimmed glasses. Despite his intense appearance, he often surprised audiences and visitors with his politeness and charm. Malcolm utilized newspaper columns, as well as radio and television to communicate the NOI’s message across the United States and became Muhammad’s most effective recruiter and spokesperson. In June 1953, he was named assistant minister of the Nation's Temple Number One in Detroit. Later that year he held minister’s posts in Boston, Philadelphia, and, in June, 1954, at New York Temple Number 7 in Harlem, where he rapidly expanded its membership. It was there after one of his lectures, then again at a dinner party, that he met his future wife, Betty Saunders. Malcolm and Betty married in January 1958 and eventually had six daughters.
Malcolm acquired high visibility when New York City police beat and jailed NOI member Hinton Johnson in April 1957. Johnson and two other passersby—also Nation of Islam members—saw the officers beating a Black man with nightsticks and intervene, shouting, "You're not in Alabama ... this is New York!" One of the officers turned on Johnson, beating him so severely that he suffered brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. Malcolm led a contingent of fifty Muslims who gathered outside the Harlem police station where Johnson was being held. Malcolm insisted on seeing Johnson and have him transferred to a hospital for medical treatment. When the crowd grew to about five hundred, the police complied allowing Malcolm X to speak with Johnson.
Johnson's injuries were treated and by the time he was returned to the police station, some four thousand people had gathered outside. Inside the station, Malcolm X and an attorney were making bail arrangements for two of the Muslims. Johnson was not bailed, and police said he could not go back to the hospital until his arraignment the following day. Considering the situation to be at an impasse, Malcolm X stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal to the crowd. Nation members silently left, after which time the rest of the crowd also dispersed. The incident prompted front-page coverage by the Black-owned Amsterdam News. One police officer told the New York Amsterdam News: "No one man should have that much power." Within a month the New York City Police Department arranged to keep Malcolm X under surveillance and also made inquiries with authorities in other cities in which he had lived.
Malcolm gained national exposure with the July 1959 New York broadcast of “The Hate That Hate Produced,” a television report by journalist Mike Wallace. The program explored the fundamentals of the NOI, and tracked Malcolm’s emergence as one of its most important leaders. Malcolm boldly denounced not only White people but also middle-class Black leaders, whom he dismissed as Uncle Toms. Malcolm called Martin Luther King Jr. a “chump” for advocating integration and insisted that “an integrated cup of coffee was insufficient pay for 400 years of slave labor.” After the special, Malcolm was faced with the uncomfortable reality that his fame had eclipsed that of his mentor Elijah Muhammad. Racial tensions ran increasingly high during the early 1960s.
In addition to the media, Malcolm’s vivid personality had captured the government’s attention. His charisma, drive and conviction attracted an astounding number of new members. As membership in the NOI continued to grow, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents infiltrated the organization (one even acted as Malcolm’s bodyguard) and secretly placed bugs, wiretaps, cameras and other surveillance equipment to monitor the group’s activities. Malcolm rejected the vision of brotherhood in King’s “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington as a nightmare. At times straying from NOI’s doctrine, Malcolm called for a global “Black revolution” aiming at independence, not the integration sought by King’s “Negro revolution.” His advocacy of achieving “by any means necessary” put him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Dr. King’s nonviolent approach to gaining ground in the growing civil rights movement.
By 1964, Malcolm’s flamboyant rhetoric had made him the second most sought after speaker on college campuses, after Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Many within the NOI considered him Muhammad’s heir apparent. He is largely credited with helping the group's dramatic increase in membership between the early 1950s and early 1960s, from around 1,200 to 100,000 or more members. Malcolm’s successes sparked jealousy within the NOI even as Malcolm found himself frustrated with the NOI’s apolitical approach. For all its rhetoric of self-defense and autonomy, the NOI stood on the sidelines while the civil rights campaign directly challenged White authority. He inspired the boxer Muhammad Ali to join the Nation, and the two became close. In January 1964, Ali brought Malcolm X and his family to Miami to watch him train for his fight against Sonny Liston.
Malcolm’s faith was dealt a crushing blow at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963, which caused him to reassess his relationship with the Nation of Islam, and particularly its leader. He learned that his mentor and leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly having relations with as many as six women within the Nation of Islam organization. As if that were not enough, Malcolm found out that some of these relationships had resulted in many children. Since joining the NOI, Malcolm had strictly adhered to the teachings of Muhammad – which included remaining celibate until his marriage to Betty Shabazz in 1958. Malcolm’s successes sparked jealousy within the NOI even as Malcolm found himself frustrated with the NOI’s apolitical approach. Corrupt NOI officials may have also feared that Malcolm, if he succeeded Muhammad, would crack down on financial improprieties.
Rumors were circulating that Muhammad was conducting extramarital affairs with young Nation secretaries. Malcolm refused Muhammad’s request to help cover up the affairs and subsequent children. He was deeply hurt by the deception of Muhammad, whom he had considered a living prophet. Malcolm also felt guilty about the masses he had led to join the NOI, which he now felt was a fraudulent organization built on too many lies to ignore. Shortly after his shocking discovery, Malcolm received criticism for a comment he made regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. “[Kennedy] never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon,” said Malcolm. After the statement, Elijah Muhammad “silenced” Malcolm for 90 days. Malcolm, however, suspected he was silenced for another reason. Disenchanted with corruption in the nation of Islam, Malcolm X left the organization for good in March, 1964.
Unable to look past Muhammad’s deception, Malcolm decided to found his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc.. Despite his break from the NOI, Malcolm X remained a believer in the Islamic religion. On March 26, 1964, Malcolm X met Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C., after a press conference which followed both men attending the Senate debate on the Civil Rights bill. This was the only time the two men ever met and their meeting lasted only one minute, just long enough for photographers to take a picture. A month later of that year, Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia required of traditional Muslims, where he underwent a spiritual transformation: "The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision," he wrote. The trip proved life altering. There he encountered Muslims of all colors who were experiencing spiritual brotherhood.
For the first time, Malcolm shared his thoughts and beliefs with different cultures, and found the response to be overwhelmingly positive. Malcolm X returned to America with a new name: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He returned to the United States with a new outlook on integration and a new hope for the future. This time when Malcolm spoke, instead of just preaching to African-Americans, he had a message for all races. Malcolm urged Black people to make their voting rights a reality. He hoped to link the struggle of Black Americans with the liberation struggles fought by people of color around the globe. In June 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which aimed to make the rights of Black Americans an international issue. It also identified racism, and not the White race, as the enemy of justice. Malcolm sought a United Nations hearing on the suppression of Black human rights in the United States, a goal never realized.
Throughout 1964, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On June 8, FBI surveillance recorded a telephone call in which Betty Shabazz was told that her husband was "as good as dead." In March, Muhammad told Boston minister Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan) that "hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off. In the December 4 issue of Muhammad Speaks, Louis X wrote that "such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death." On February 14, 1965, someone threw Molotov cocktails at his New York City home, forcing him, his pregnant wife and his four daughters to take refuge in the backyard. On February 19, 1965, Malcolm X told interviewer Gordon Parks that the Nation of Islam was actively trying to kill him. Ebony dramatized Malcolm X's defiance of these threats by publishing a photograph of him holding an M1 carbine while peering out of a window.
Exactly a week later, On February 21, at the start of a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York, a disturbance broke out in the crowd. A man yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns, hitting him 16 times. Furious onlookers caught and beat one of the assassins as the others fled the ballroom. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m., shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. NOI member Talmadge Hayer was the one who shot Malcolm repeatedly. One day after the murder, Elijah Muhammad denied involvement with the assassination. A grand jury later indicted Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson for Malcolm’s murder. All three were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. At the trial, Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson. Both men were paroled at a later time.
Malcolm X’s influence increased after his death with the publication of his autobiography. As racism and Black poverty persisted even with the signing of major civil rights legislation by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and 1965, Malcolm’s rage rang true for increasingly radicalized youth in organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The “Black is beautiful” slogans of the 1960s and the development of Black studies programs at universities and public schools echo Malcolm’s emphasis on Black pride and knowledge of the African past. The Black Panther Party, founded in Oakland, California, in 1966, acknowledged their ideological debt to Malcolm X and his emphasis on self-defense and the economic roots of racism. Malcolm X has been described as one of the most influential Black men in history. He is credited with raising the self-esteem of Black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritage.