Malcolm X

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MALCOLM X

MALCOLM X (1925–1965) was an American Black Muslim leader, born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, the Reverend Earl Little, a follower of Marcus Garvey and a Baptist minister, died when Malcolm was six years old, and his mother, the sole support of nine children, was later committed to an insane asylum. Malcolm attended school in East Lansing, Michigan, dropped out at the eighth grade, and then moved to live with an older sister in the Roxbury section of Boston. There he became involved in petty criminal activities. As an unemployed street hustler and the leader of an interracial gang of thieves in Roxbury, and later in Harlem, he was known as "Detroit Red" for the reddish tinge of his hair. During his prison years (1946–1952), he underwent the first of his two conversion experiences when he converted to the Nation of Islam led by Elijah Muhammad. Following the tradition of the Nation of Islam, he replaced his surname with an X, symbolizing what he had been and what he had become: "Ex-smoker. Ex-drinker. Ex-Christian. Ex-slave."

An articulate public speaker, charismatic personality, and indefatigable organizer, Malcolm X expressed the rage and anger of the black masses during the major phase of the civil rights movement from 1956 to 1965. He organized Muslim temples throughout the country and founded the newspaper Muhammad Speaks in the basement of his home. He articulated the Nation of Islam's beliefs in racial separation and rose rapidly through the ranks to become minister of Boston Temple No. 11 and was later rewarded with the post of minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, the largest and most prestigious temple of the Nation of Islam after the Chicago headquarters. Recognizing Malcolm's talents and abilities, Elijah Muhammad also named him "national representative" of the Nation of Islam, second in rank to Elijah Muhammad himself.

In 1963, after his public comments on President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Malcolm X was ordered by Elijah Muhammad to undergo a period of silence, an order that reflected the deep tensions and disputes among Black Muslim leaders. In March 1964, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam and founded his own Muslim Mosque, Inc. During his pilgrimage to Mecca that same year, he experienced a second conversion, embraced the orthodox universal brotherhood of Sunnī Islam, and adopted the Muslim name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He then renounced the separatist beliefs of the Nation of Islam. In 1965, he founded the Organization for Afro-American Unity as a political vehicle to internationalize the plight of black Americans, to make common cause with Third World nations, and to move from civil rights to human rights. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated while delivering a lecture at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. His martyrdom, ideas, and speeches contributed to the development of black nationalist ideology and the black power movement in the late 1960s in the United States.

Bibliography

Breitman, George, ed. Malcolm X Speaks. New York, 1965. A collection of Malcolm X's speeches.

Goldman, Peter. The Death and Life of Malcolm X. New York, 1973. Focuses on the last year of Malcolm X's life and on the events, personalities, and controversies surrounding his assassination.

Lincoln, C. Eric. The Black Muslims in America. Boston, 1961. Remains the best historical overview of the development of the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X.

Malcolm X, with the assistance of Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York, 1965. Still the best source of insights regarding Malcolm X's life and the development of his views, including his conversion experiences and the reasons for his dispute with other Black Muslim leaders.

Mamiya, Lawrence H. "From Black Muslim to Bilalian: The Evolution of a Movement." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 21 (June 1982): 138–152. Examines Malcolm X's influence on the leaders of the major schismatic groups in the Black Muslim movement—Warith D. Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan—and their divergent directions.