When and where was Malcolm X born?
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on the 19th of May 1925 at University Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the fourth of seven children of Louise and Earl Little.
Questions about Malcolm X
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Why did Malcolm X change his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X?
Malcolm X adopted the name Malcolm X in 1950 while in prison after joining the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad instructed followers to replace their family surnames with the letter X, symbolizing the African ancestral name that slavery had stolen from them. Malcolm later explained that the X replaced what he called the white slavemaster name of Little.
What happened to Malcolm X during his pilgrimage to Mecca?
In April 1964, Malcolm X performed the Hajj in Mecca, traveling with financial help from his half-sister Ella Little-Collins. Seeing Muslims of all racial backgrounds interacting as equals led him to rethink his earlier views on race. Prince Faisal designated him a state guest, and he wrote from Mecca that the experience convinced him to rearrange his thinking about race and set aside some of his earlier conclusions.
Who killed Malcolm X and were the convictions upheld?
Malcolm X was shot on the 21st of February 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Three Nation of Islam members, Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson, were convicted of murder in March 1966. In 2021, Butler and Johnson were exonerated after a review found the FBI and NYPD had withheld key evidence during the original trial.
How did Malcolm X's views on race change after he left the Nation of Islam?
After leaving the Nation of Islam in March 1964 and completing the Hajj, Malcolm X moved away from the belief that white people were inherently devils. In a letter from Mecca he wrote that his experiences with people of all backgrounds during the pilgrimage convinced him to rethink his earlier conclusions about race. Two days before his assassination, he told journalist Gordon Parks he had come to see racism as a force that destroyed entire nations, not simply a conflict between Black and white Americans.
What is the legacy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X?
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, co-written with Alex Haley, was published posthumously in 1965 after Haley completed it following Malcolm X's assassination. In 1998, Time magazine named it one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century. Malcolm X had predicted before his death that it would be a miracle if he lived to see its publication.