Malcolm X

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little; later adopted the name El‐Hajj Malik El‐Shabazz (1925–1965), African American leader.As a thinker, activist, and especially an icon, Malcolm X was perhaps the most important black nationalist figure in post‐World War II America. Born in Omaha, the son of Louisa and Earl Little—a Baptist preacher active in the Garvey movement—Malcolm and his siblings experienced poverty and racial injustice in childhood. Hooded Klansmen burned their home in Lansing, Michigan; Earl Little was killed under mysterious circumstances; welfare agencies split up the children and eventually committed Louisa Little to a state mental institution. By the eighth grade he left school, moved to Boston to live with his half‐sister Ella, and turned to petty crime to earn money. In 1946 he was arrested for burglary and began a ten‐year prison sentence.

In prison, he began studying the teachings of the Lost‐Found Nation of Islam (NOI), the Muslim group founded by Wallace Fard and led by Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole). Submitting to NOI discipline and guidance, he became a voracious reader of the Koran, the Bible, and works of literature and history. Upon his release in 1952, he was renamed Malcolm “X,” symbolically repudiating the “white man's name.” As a devoted follower of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X rose quickly within the NOI ranks, serving as minister of Harlem's Temple No. 7 in 1954. Through national speaking engagements, television appearances, and by establishing Muhammad Speaks, Malcolm X put the NOI on the map. His criticisms of civil rights leaders for advocating integration into white society instead of building black institutions and defending themselves from racist violence generated opposition from both conservatives and liberals. To those who claimed that the NOI undermined their efforts toward integration by preaching racial separatism, Malcolm responded: “It is not integration that Negroes in America want, it is human dignity.”

Early on, however, Malcolm showed signs of independence from NOI. During the mid‐1950s, for example, he privately scoffed at Muhammad's interpretation of the genesis of the “white race” and clearly disagreed with the NOI's policy of not participating in politics. He not only believed that political mobilization was indispensable but occasionally defied the rule by supporting boycotts and other forms of protest. And as early as 1954, Malcolm gave a speech comparing the situation in Vietnam with the Mau Mau rebellion in colonial Kenya, framing both movements as uprisings of the “Darker races” creating a “Tidal Wave” against U.S. and European imperialism. Indeed, Africa remained his primary political interest outside of black America. He toured Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana in 1959.

Although Malcolm X tried to conceal his differences with Elijah Muhammad, tensions between them erupted. These were exacerbated by the threat that Malcolm's popularity posed to Muhammad's leadership, and by Malcolm's disillusionment with Elijah upon learning that the NOI's moral and spiritual leader had fathered children by two former secretaries. On 8 March 1964, he announced his resignation and formed the Muslim Mosque, Inc., an Islamic movement devoted to working in the political sphere and cooperating with civil rights leaders. That same year he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca and took a second tour of several African and Arab nations. Upon his return he re‐named himself El‐Hajj Malik El‐Shabazz, adopted Sunni Islam, and announced that he had found the “true brotherhood” of man. He publicly acknowledged that whites were no longer devils, though he still remained a black nationalist and staunch believer in black self‐determination and self‐organization.

During the Summer of 1964 he formed the Organization of Afro‐American Unity (OAAU). Inspired by the Organization of African Unity made up of independent African states, the OAAU's program combined advocacy for independent black institutions (e.g., schools and cultural centers) with support for black participation in mainstream politics, including electoral campaigns. Following the example of Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm planned in 1965 to submit to the United Nations a petition documenting human‐rights violations and acts of genocide against African Americans. His assassination in New York City on 21 February 1965 by gunmen affiliated with the NOI intervened, however, and the OAAU died soon after Malcolm was laid to rest.
See also Black Nationalism; Civil Rights Movement; Garvey, Marcus; King, Martin Luther, Jr.; Ku Klux Klan; Racism; Segregation, Racial; Sixties, The; Race, Concept of; Vietnam War.

Bibliography

Malcolm X with and Alex Haley , The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1964.
James Cone , Martin and Malcolm and America: A Dream or Nightmare?, 1991.
Joe Wood, ed., Malcolm X: In Our Own Image, 1992.
William Sales Jr. , From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro‐American Unity, 1994.
Louis DeCaro , On the Side of My People: A Religious Life of Malcolm X, 1996.

Robin D.G. Kelley

Malcolm X 1925-65, militant black leader in the United States, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, b. Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb. He was introduced to the Black Muslims while serving a prison term and became a Muslim minister upon his release in 1952. He quickly became very prominent in the movement with a following perhaps equaling that of its leader, Elijah Muhammad. In 1963, Malcolm was suspended by Elijah after a speech in which Malcolm suggested that President Kennedy's assassination was a matter of the "chickens coming home to roost." He then formed a rival organization of his own, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. In 1964, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he announced his conversion to orthodox Islam and his new belief that there could be brotherhood between black and white. In his Organization of Afro-American Unity, formed after his return, the tone was still that of militant black nationalism but no longer of separation. In Feb., 1965, he was shot and killed in a public auditorium in New York City. His assassins were vaguely identified as Black Muslims, but this is a matter of controversy.

Bibliography: See his autobiography (as told to A. Haley, 1964) and selected speeches, Malcolm X Speaks (1965); biographies by P. Goldman (1973) and B. Perry (1992); J. H. Clarke, ed., Malcolm X (1969); study by M. E. Dyson (1994).

Malcolm X (1925–65). Leading figure in the Nation of Islam (see ELIJAH MUHAMMAD) and civil rights activist in the USA. He was born in Nebraska as Malcolm Little, and after an early life of petty crime (somewhat exaggerated later), he was converted through the Nation of Islam programme. His appearance on the TV programme, ‘The Hate that Produced Hate’, projected him into national prominence, leading to a rift with Elijah Muhammad. He opposed civil rights movements, looking for direct action, and he contrasted ‘true’ with ‘compromise’ Islam. He left the movement, and, while on pilgrimage (ḥajj) to Mecca, he was converted to Sunni Islam. He took the new name of el-Hajji Malik el-Shab(b)az(z). He failed to establish himself as an independent leader, and was assassinated by black Muslim loyalists in 1965. A popularizing film led to a revival of his influence in the 1990s.