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Malcolm X: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Malcolm X
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little, a name that represented the white slavemaster who had owned his ancestors, a label he would spend the rest of his life rejecting. Born on the 19th of May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, he entered a world already hostile to his existence. His father, Earl Little, was a Baptist lay speaker and a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, an organization founded by Marcus Garvey that preached black self-reliance and pride. The family faced relentless harassment from white racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Legion, which threatened their lives and burned their home in 1929. When Malcolm was six, his father died in what was officially ruled a streetcar accident, though his mother, Louise Little, and the family believed he had been murdered by the Black Legion. The trauma of his childhood, marked by the death of his father and the subsequent institutionalization of his mother, set the stage for a life defined by the search for identity and justice. Malcolm's early years were spent in a series of foster homes and with various relatives, a fragmented existence that would later fuel his understanding of the systemic oppression facing African Americans. He excelled in junior high school, but his dreams of becoming a lawyer were crushed when a white teacher told him that such a career was no realistic goal for a nigger. This moment of racial dismissal became a pivotal turning point, leading him to drop out of high school and eventually into a life of crime in Boston and Harlem, where he adopted the street name Detroit Red.
The Prisoner Who Found A Voice
In 1946, Malcolm Little was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison for larceny and burglary, a punishment that would inadvertently become the catalyst for his transformation into one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Inside the Charlestown State Prison, he met John Bembry, a self-educated man who commanded total respect with words, sparking a voracious appetite for reading in Malcolm. It was through Bembry and letters from his brother Reginald that he first encountered the Nation of Islam, a religious movement preaching black self-reliance and the return of the African diaspora to Africa. Initially skeptical of the group's teachings, including the notion that white people were devils, Malcolm eventually found resonance in their message after reflecting on his past relationships with white individuals, which he concluded had been marked by dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. By 1950, he had written to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, and began signing his name Malcolm X, a symbol of his unknown African ancestral surname. His parole in August 1952 marked the beginning of a rapid ascent within the organization. He established temples in Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, and Harlem, expanding the group's membership from around 1,200 to between 50,000 and 100,000 members by the early 1960s. His physical presence, described as powerfully built and mesmerizingly handsome, combined with his skill as a speaker, made him the public face of the organization for 12 years. The FBI opened a file on him in 1950, initially tracking his possible communist associations before shifting their focus to his rapid rise within the Nation of Islam.
Common questions
When and where was Malcolm X born?
Malcolm X was born on the 19th of May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born with the name Malcolm Little, which represented the white slavemaster who had owned his ancestors.
How did Malcolm X change his name and join the Nation of Islam?
Malcolm X changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X in 1950 after writing to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. He adopted the name X to symbolize his unknown African ancestral surname and began signing it after joining the religious movement.
Why did Malcolm X leave the Nation of Islam in 1964?
Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam on the 8th of March 1964 after discovering that Elijah Muhammad had engaged in sexual misbehavior with young Nation secretaries. This revelation, combined with an assassination attempt on his life, led him to reject the organization's rigid teachings.
What happened during Malcolm X's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964?
Malcolm X flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in April 1964 to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca obligatory for every Muslim. During the rituals, he witnessed Muslims of all colors interacting as equals, which convinced him to rearrange his thinking about race and toss aside some of his previous conclusions.
Who killed Malcolm X and when did the assassination occur?
Malcolm X was assassinated on the 21st of February 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He was shot by three gunmen, including Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson, who were all convicted of murder in March 1966.
What evidence exists regarding the FBI and police involvement in Malcolm X's death?
In 2021, Malcolm X's co-defendants Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated after a review found the FBI and the New York Police Department withheld key evidence during the trial. In early 2023, members of Malcolm X's family filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the CIA, the FBI, and the NYPD for concealing evidence related to the assassination.
The American public first became aware of Malcolm X in 1957, following the brutal beating of Hinton Johnson, a Nation of Islam member, by two New York City police officers. When Johnson and two other passersby attempted to intervene, shouting that they were not in Alabama, one of the officers turned on Johnson, beating him so severely that he suffered brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. Malcolm X and a small group of Muslims went to the police station, and when the crowd grew to about five hundred, they allowed Malcolm X to speak with Johnson. His ability to rally the crowd and his insistence on arranging for an ambulance to take Johnson to Harlem Hospital demonstrated a power that one police officer described as unprecedented, stating that no one man should have that much power. This event led to the New York City Police Department arranging to keep Malcolm X under surveillance and assigning undercover officers to infiltrate the Nation of Islam. By the late 1950s, Malcolm X was using a new name, Malcolm Shabazz or el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, and his comments on issues and events were being widely reported in print, on radio, and on television. He was featured in a 1959 New York City television broadcast about the Nation of Islam, The Hate That Hate Produced, which brought his message to a national audience. His influence extended beyond the black community, as he met with leaders such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress at the United Nations General Assembly in 1960. He also met Fidel Castro, who was sufficiently impressed to invite him to visit Cuba, a trip that would further broaden his international perspective and solidify his role as a global advocate for human rights.
The Fracture Within The Temple
During 1962 and 1963, events caused Malcolm X to reassess his relationship with the Nation of Islam, and particularly its leader, Elijah Muhammad. The lack of response from the Nation to the violence inflicted on its members by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1962, where seven Muslims were shot and one was killed, stunned Malcolm X. He sought Elijah Muhammad's approval to take violent revenge against the police, but was denied, a decision that marked a turning point in their deteriorating relationship. The final break came with the revelation of sexual misbehavior by Elijah Muhammad, who was conducting extramarital affairs with young Nation secretaries. Malcolm X came to believe the rumors after speaking with Muhammad's son Wallace and the girls making the accusations in April 1963. Muhammad confirmed the rumors that same year, attempting to justify his behavior by referring to precedents set by Biblical prophets. Over a series of national TV interviews between 1964 and 1965, Malcolm X provided testimony of his investigation, corroboration, and confirmation by Elijah Muhammad himself of multiple counts of child rape. This revelation, combined with an assassination attempt made on his life through a discovered explosive device in his car, led Malcolm X to publicly announce his break from the Nation of Islam on the 8th of March 1964. He felt that the Nation had gone as far as it could because of its rigid teachings and expressed a desire to organize a black nationalist organization to heighten the political consciousness of African Americans. The media attention to Malcolm X over Elijah Muhammad had grown, with some Nation members believing he was a threat to Muhammad's leadership. Publishers had shown interest in Malcolm X's autobiography, and when Louis Lomax wrote his 1963 book about the Nation, When the Word Is Given, he used a photograph of Malcolm X on the cover, which greatly upset Muhammad and made him envious.
The Pilgrim Who Saw The World
In April 1964, with financial help from his half-sister Ella Little-Collins, Malcolm X flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the start of his Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca obligatory for every Muslim who is able to do so. He was delayed in Jeddah when his US citizenship and inability to speak Arabic caused his status as a Muslim to be questioned, but he received help from Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam's book The Eternal Message of Muhammad and was eventually designated as a state guest by Prince Faisal. After completing the Hajj rituals, Malcolm X had an audience with the prince and witnessed Muslims of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans, interacting as equals. This experience led him to see Islam as a means by which racial problems could be overcome, and he later said that seeing this had convinced him to rearrange his thinking about race and toss aside some of his previous conclusions. He returned to the United States in late May and flew to Africa again in July, visiting Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco. During these visits, he met with officials, gave interviews, and spoke on radio and television. In Cairo, he attended the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the end of this third visit, he had met with essentially all of Africa's prominent leaders, including Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, all of whom had invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments. He especially hated Moïse Tshombe of the Congo, calling him the worst African ever born and accusing him of committing an international crime by murdering Patrice Lumumba. Malcolm X maintained that there was a double standard when it came to white and black lives, noting that it was an international emergency when the lives of whites were in danger, making Operation Dragon Rouge necessary, but that nothing was done to stop the abuses of the Congolese at the hands of Tshombe's hired killers.
The Ballroom And The Bullet
On the 21st of February 1965, Malcolm X was preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket! As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun, and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast. One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer, was beaten by the crowd before police arrived. Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison. At trial, Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson. In 1977 and 1978, he signed affidavits reasserting Butler's and Johnson's innocence, naming four other Nation members of Newark's Mosque No. 25 as participants in the murder or its planning. These affidavits did not result in the case being reopened. Butler, today known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation's Harlem mosque in 1998, maintaining his innocence. In prison, Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, rejected the Nation's teachings and converted to Sunni Islam, maintaining his innocence until his death in August 2009. Hayer, who also rejected the Nation's teachings while in prison and converted also to Sunni Islam, is known today as Mujahid Halim. He was paroled in 2010. In 2021, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated from their murder convictions, following a review that found the FBI and the New York Police Department withheld key evidence during the trial. On the 14th of July 2022, Aziz filed suit in the US District Court in Brooklyn against the City of New York, seeking $40 million in damages related to his wrongful imprisonment.
The Shadow Of The Assassination
Within days of the assassination, the question of who bore responsibility for the murder was being publicly debated. On the 23rd of February, James Farmer, leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, announced at a news conference that local drug dealers, and not the Nation of Islam, were to blame. Others accused the NYPD, the FBI, or the CIA, citing the lack of police protection, the ease with which the assassins entered the Audubon Ballroom, and the failure of the police to preserve the crime scene. Earl Grant, one of Malcolm X's associates who was present at the assassination, later wrote that about five minutes after the shooting, a dozen policemen sauntered into the hall, strolling at about the pace one would expect of them if they were patrolling a quiet park, with some even having their hands in their pockets. In the 1970s, the public learned about COINTELPRO and other secret FBI programs established to infiltrate and disrupt civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. Louis Lomax wrote that John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, was a former FBI agent. Malcolm X had confided to a reporter that Ali exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad and that he considered Ali his archenemy within the Nation of Islam leadership. Ali had a meeting with Talmadge Hayer, one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm X, the night before the assassination. The Shabazz family are among those who have accused Louis Farrakhan of involvement in Malcolm X's assassination. In a 1993 speech, Farrakhan seemed to acknowledge the possibility that the Nation of Islam was responsible, stating, Was Malcolm your traitor or ours? And if we dealt with him like a nation deals with a traitor, what the hell business is it of yours? In a 60 Minutes interview that aired during May 2000, Farrakhan stated that some things he said may have led to the assassination of Malcolm X, acknowledging that he created the atmosphere that ultimately led to Malcolm X's assassination. No consensus has been reached on who was responsible for the assassination, but in August 2014, an online petition was started using the White House online petition mechanism to call on the government to release, without alteration, any files they still held relating to the murder of Malcolm X. In January 2019, members of the families of Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were among dozens of Americans who signed a public statement calling for a truth and reconciliation commission to persuade Congress or the Justice Department to review the assassinations of all four leaders during the 1960s. In early 2023, members of Malcolm X's family said they would file a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the CIA, the FBI, the NYPD and others for allegedly concealing evidence related to the assassination and for alleged involvement to it.