Everything about Malcolm X totally explained
Malcolm X (born
Malcolm Little;
May 19,
1925 –
February 21,
1965), also known as
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an
American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the
Nation of Islam.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the
Hajj, to
Mecca and became a
Sunni Muslim. He also founded the
Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the
Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was
assassinated in
Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian
Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things:
Pan-Africanist, father of
Black Power,
religious fanatic, closet
conservative, incipient
socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his
politics and
ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a
collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of
tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
Chuck D of the
rap group
Public Enemy and
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare Malcolm X their hero."
Early years
Malcolm Little was born in 1925 in
Omaha,
Nebraska, to Earl Little and Louise Helen (
née Norton). He lived briefly at
3448 Pinkney Street in the
North Omaha neighborhood. His father was an outspoken
Baptist lay speaker and supporter of
Marcus Garvey, as well as a member of the
Universal Negro Improvement Association. Three of Earl Little's brothers died violently at the hands of white men, and one of his uncles had been
lynched.
Earl Little had three children (Ella, Mary, and Earl, Jr.) by a previous marriage before he married Malcolm's mother. From his second marriage he'd seven children, of whom Malcolm was the fourth. Earl and Louise Little's children's names were, in order, Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Reginald, Wesley, and Yvonne. Louise had her youngest son, Robert Little, several years after her husband's death by an unnamed relationship.
Louise Little was born in
Grenada, and Malcolm said she looked like a white woman. Her father was a white man of whom Malcolm knew nothing except what he described as his mother's shame. Malcolm got his light complexion from him. Initially he felt it was a status symbol to be light-skinned, but later he'd say that he “hated every drop of that white rapist's blood that's in me.” As Malcolm was the lightest child in the family, he felt that his father favored him; however, his mother treated him harshly for the same reason. One of his nicknames, "Red," derived from the reddish tinge of his hair. He was described as having, at birth, "ash-blonde hair ... tinged with cinnamon," and at four, "reddish-blonde hair." His hair darkened as he aged but also resembled the hair of his paternal grandmother, whose hair "turned reddish in the summer sun."
According to
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, his mother had been threatened by
Ku Klux Klansmen while she was pregnant with him in December 1924. His mother recalled the Klansmen warned the family to leave Omaha, because Earl Little's activities with
UNIA were "stirring up trouble".
The family relocated to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1926, and to
Lansing, Michigan, shortly after. In 1931, Malcolm's father was found dead, having been run over by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death a
suicide. Malcolm said that the black community disputed the cause of death. His family had frequently found themselves the target of harassment by the
Black Legion, a
white supremacist group his father accused of burning down their home in 1929, and many blacks felt that the Black Legion had killed Earl Little. Malcolm doubted that his father could "bash himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over."
Though Malcolm’s father had two
life insurance policies, his mother received death benefits solely from the smaller policy. Malcolm said the insurance company that had issued the larger policy accepted the police determination that Earl Little's death had been a suicide, and accordingly refused to pay. After enduring a series of foster homes, Malcolm was sent to a detention center. Then he moved to
Boston to live with his older half-sister, Ella Little Collins. In Boston he held a variety of jobs and intermittently found employment with the
New Haven Railroad. In 1942, at age 17, Malcolm became "involved with Boston's underworld fringe." Between 1943 and 1946, when he was arrested and jailed in
Massachusetts, Malcolm drifted between Boston and New York City three more times.
In early 1946, Malcolm returned to Boston. On
January 12, he was arrested for burglary trying to steal a stolen watch he'd left for repairs at a jewelry shop. Two days later, Malcolm was indicted for carrying firearms. On
January 16, he was charged with
Grand Larceny and
Breaking and Entering. Malcolm was sentenced to eight to ten years in Massachusetts State Prison. Malcolm met a self-educated man named Bimbi, who convinced him to educate himself.. Malcolm developed a voracious appetite for reading, much of it after the prison lights had been turned off. In 1948, Malcolm received a letter from his brother, Philbert, telling him about the
Nation of Islam. Malcolm wasn't interested in joining until his brother Reginald sent him a letter in which he wrote, "Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison."
In May 1953, the FBI concluded that Malcolm had an "asocial personality with paranoid trends (pre-
psychotic paranoid schizophrenia)", and that he'd sought treatment for his disorder. This was supported by a letter intercepted by the FBI, dated
June 29,
1950. The letter said, in reference to his
4-F classification and rejection by the military, "Everyone has always said...Malcolm is crazy, so it isn't hard to convince people that I am."
Later that year, Malcolm left his half-sister Ella in Boston to stay with Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. He soon returned to Boston and became the minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Eleven.
In 1954, Malcolm was selected to lead the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Seven on
Lenox Avenue in
Harlem. He rapidly expanded its membership. After a local television broadcast in
New York City about the Nation of Islam, Malcolm became known to a wider audience. Representatives of the print media, radio, and television frequently asked Malcolm for comments on issues. He was also sought as a spokesman by reporters from other countries.
From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he left the organization in 1964, Malcolm promoted the Nation's teachings. He referred to whites as "devils" who had been created in a misguided breeding program by a
black scientist, and predicted the inevitable (and imminent) return of blacks to their natural place at the top of the social order.
Malcolm has been widely considered the second most influential leader of the movement, after Elijah Muhammad. He opened additional temples, including one in
Philadelphia. He was largely credited with increasing membership in the Nation of Islam from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963. He inspired the boxer Cassius Clay (later known as
Muhammad Ali) to join the Nation of Islam. Like Malcolm, Ali later left the Nation of Islam and joined mainstream
Islam.
Marriage and family
In 1958, Malcolm married
Betty X (née Sanders) in
Lansing, Michigan. They had six daughters, all of whom carried the
family name of Shabazz. Their names were Attallah, born in 1958;
Qubilah, born in 1960;
Ilyasah, born in 1962; Gamilah (also spelled Gumilah), born in 1964; and twins, Malaak and Malikah, born after Malcolm's death in 1965.
Meeting Castro
In September 1960, Malcolm met with
Fidel Castro during Castro's visit to the
United Nations in New York. Malcolm was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of black community leaders that greeted heads of state, particularly those from African countries, who had come to New York to address the
UN General Assembly.
Tensions and departure from the Nation of Islam
In early 1963, Malcolm started collaborating with
Alex Haley on
The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The book hadn't been finalized at the time of Malcolm's assassination in 1965. Haley completed it and published it later that year.
Writing after his break from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm said in the
Autobiography that one reason for the separation was growing tension between him and Elijah Muhammad that arose from Malcolm's dismay at rumors of Muhammad's extramarital affairs with young secretaries. These rumors troubled Malcolm because the Nation of Islam condemns
adultery. At first Malcolm brushed these rumors aside. Later, he spoke with Elijah Muhammad's son and the women making the accusations and he came to believe them. According to the
Autobiography, in 1963 Elijah Muhammad confirmed the rumors to Malcolm. Muhammad justified his actions by saying they followed a pattern established by Biblical prophets.
Malcolm criticized the 1963
March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington". He said he didn't know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by
whites in front of a statue of a
president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive."
When asked for a comment about the
assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm said that it was a case of "the chickens coming home to roost." He added that "Chickens coming home to roost never made me sad. It only made me glad." This remark prompted a widespread public outcry. The Nation of Islam publicly censured their former shining star; although Malcolm retained his post and rank as minister, Elijah Muhammad banned him from public speaking for 90 days.
Malcolm publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam on
March 8,
1964. He founded the
Muslim Mosque, Inc. four days later. Malcolm stayed close to some of the teachings of the Nation of Islam but began modifying them. He explicitly advocated political and economic
black nationalism, as opposed to the Nation of Islam's religious nationalism. In April, he made a speech titled "
The Ballot or the Bullet
." Malcolm was in contact with several orthodox Muslims, who encouraged him to learn about orthodox Islam. He soon converted to orthodox Islam, and decided to make his
pilgrimage to Mecca.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
On
April 13,
1964, Malcolm departed
JFK Airport,
New York for
Cairo by way of
Frankfurt. It was the second time Malcolm had been to Africa. On the next leg of his journey, Malcolm left Cairo for
Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia. His status as an authentic Muslim was questioned by Saudi authorities because of his inability to speak
Arabic and his United States
passport. Since only confessing Muslims are allowed into
Mecca, he was separated from the group with which he arrived and was isolated. He spent about 20 hours wearing the
ihram, a two-piece garment comprising two white unhemmed sheets.
According to the
Autobiography, Malcolm X remembered the book
The Eternal Message of Muhammad by
Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which Dr. Mahmoud Yousseff Sharwabi had presented with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of
Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.
On
April 19, Malcolm completed the
Hajj, making the seven circuits around the
Kaaba, drinking from the
Zamzam Well and running between the hills of
Safah and Marwah seven times. According to the
Autobiography, on this trip Malcolm viewed Muslims of different
races interacting as equals and came to believe that Islam could transcend racial problems.
International travel
Africa
Malcolm X visited Africa on three separate occasions, once in 1959 and twice in 1964. During his visits, he met officials, as well as spoke on television and radio in:
Cairo,
Egypt;
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia;
Dar Es Salaam,
Tanganyika (now
Tanzania);
Lagos and
Ibadan,
Nigeria;
Accra,
Winneba, and
Legon,
Ghana;
Conakry,
Guinea;
Algiers,
Algeria; and
Casablanca,
Morocco.
Malcolm first went to Africa in summer of 1959. He traveled to
Egypt (
United Arab Republic),
Sudan,
Nigeria and
Ghana to arrange a tour for Elijah Muhammad, which occurred in December 1959. The first of Malcolm's two trips to Africa in 1964 lasted from
April 13 until
May 21. On
May 8, following his speech at Trenchard Hall on the campus of the
University of Ibadan in Nigeria, he attended a reception in the Students' Union Hall held for him by the Muslim Students' Society. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", meaning "the son returns home" in the
Yoruba language.
Malcolm returned to New York from Africa via
Paris on
May 21,
1964. On
July 9, he again left the U.S. for Africa, spending a total of 18 weeks abroad. On
July 17,
1964, Malcolm addressed the
Organization of African Unity's first ordinary assembly of heads of state and governments in Cairo as a representative of the
OAAU. On
August 21,
1964, he made a press statement on behalf of the
OAAU regarding the second African summit conference of the
OAU. In it, he explained how a strong and independent "
United States of Africa" is a victory for the awakening of
African Americans. By the time he returned to the United States on
November 24,
1964, Malcolm had established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the
diaspora.
Malcolm held to the view that African-Americans were right in defending themselves from aggressors. On
June 28,
1964, at the founding rally of the OAAU he said,
» "
The time for you and me to allow ourselves to be brutalized nonviolently has passed. Be nonviolent only with those who are nonviolent to you. And when you can bring me a nonviolent racist, bring me a nonviolent segregationist, then I'll get nonviolent. But don't teach me to be nonviolent until you teach some of those crackers to be nonviolent."
In an interview with
Gordon Parks in 1965, Malcolm revealed:
» "
I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another. Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant — the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together — and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then — like all [Black] Muslims — I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years. That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days — I'm glad to be free of them."
In 1965, he stated, “My mind is wide open to anybody who will help get the ape off our backs.”
France and the UK
In late 1964, Malcolm visited
France together with
Jamaican officials and spoke in Paris at Salle Pleyel where there were discussions and debates on the subject of the
Rastafarian ideas espoused by both the Jamaicans present and Malcolm X at that time. He also visited the UK and participated in a debate at the
Oxford Union on
December 3,
1964.
On
February 12,
1965, Malcolm visited
Smethwick, near
Birmingham, which had become a byword for racial division after the
1964 general election when the
Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat after rumours that their candidates supporters had used the slogan "If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote
Labour".
Death and afterwards
Assassination
Tensions increased between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam. It was alleged that orders were given by leaders of the Nation of Islam to "destroy" Malcolm; in
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he says that as early as 1963, a member of the Seventh Temple confessed to him having received orders from the Nation of Islam to kill him.
On
March 20,
1964,
Life published a photograph of Malcolm holding an
M1 Carbine and pulling back the curtains to peer out of the window of his family's home. The photo was taken in connection with Malcolm's declaration that he'd defend himself from the daily death threats which he and his family were receiving. Undercover FBI informants warned officials that he'd been marked for assassination.
In June 1964, the NOI sued to reclaim Malcolm's home in
Queens, which they claimed belonged to the organization. The suit was successful, and Malcolm and his family were ordered to vacate the house. On
February 14,
1965, the night before a scheduled hearing to postpone the eviction date, the house burned to the ground. Malcolm and his family survived, and no one was charged with any crime.
On
February 21,
1965 in Manhattan's
Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm had just begun delivering a speech when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, "Get your hand outta my pocket! Don't be messin' with my pockets!" As Malcolm and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot Malcolm in the chest with a
sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns at Malcolm, who was shot 16 times. Angry onlookers in the crowd caught and beat the assassins as they attempted to flee the ballroom. Malcolm was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Two suspects were named by witnesses —
Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, both members of the Nation of Islam.
Three men were eventually charged in the case.
Talmadge Hayer, also a Black Muslim, confessed to having fired shots into Malcolm's body, but he testified that Butler and Johnson were not present and were not involved in the shooting. All three were convicted.
Norman 3X Butler, now known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation of Islam's Harlem Mosque in New York in 1998. He continues to maintain his innocence. Thomas 15X Johnson, now known as Khalil Islam, was released from prison in 1987. He, too, says that he wasn't involved in the assassination.
Funeral
Malcolm's body was made available for public viewing in Harlem's Unity Funeral Home from
February 23 through
February 26,
1965, and the number of mourners who filed past his body has been estimated between 14,000 and 30,000. Malcolm's funeral was held on
February 27,
1965, at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, also in Harlem. The Church was filled to capacity, with more than 1,700 people.
Ossie Davis delivered a
eulogy, describing Malcolm as "our shining black prince."
There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain — and we'll smile. Many will say turn away — away from this man, for he isn't a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man — and we'll smile. They will say that he's of hate — a fanatic, a racist — who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we'll answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you'd know him. And if you knew him you'd know why we must honor him.
Malcolm X was buried at the
Ferncliff Cemetery in
Hartsdale, New York. At the gravesite after the ceremony, friends took the shovels away from the waiting gravediggers and buried Malcolm themselves. Later that month, actors
Ruby Dee and
Sidney Poitier became co-chairs of the New York affiliate of the Educational Fund for the Children of Malcolm X Shabazz.
Response to Malcolm's death
After Malcolm's death,
Martin Luther King, Jr., sent a telegram to Betty Shabazz, expressing his sadness over "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband."
While we didn't always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he'd a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race.
Elijah Muhammad reacted differently; as he told the annual
Savior's Day convention on
February 26, "Malcolm X got just what he preached."
The international press, particularly that of Africa, was sympathetic. The
Daily Times of Nigeria wrote,
Like all mortals, Malcolm X wasn't without his faults ... but that he was a dedicated and consistent disciple of the movement for the emancipation of his brethren no one can doubt. ... Malcolm X has fought and died for what he believed to be right. He will have a place in the palace of martyrs."
Kwangming, published in
Beijing, bluntly stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights."
Allegations of conspiracy
Within days of Malcolm's assassination, questions were raised about who was responsible for his death. On
February 23,
James Farmer, the leader of the
Congress of Racial Equality, announced at a news conference that local drug dealers, and not the Black Muslims, were to blame. Others blamed the police, the FBI, or the CIA, citing the lack of police protection and the ease with which the assassins had entered the Audubon Ballroom.
In the 1970s, the public learned about
COINTELPRO and other secret government programs to infiltrate and disrupt civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, has been identified as an FBI agent. Malcolm had confided in a reporter that Ali had exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad, and he considered Ali his "archenemy" within the Nation of Islam leadership.
Popular culture
The film
Malcolm X was released in 1992, directed by
Spike Lee and based on the autobiography. It starred
Denzel Washington as Malcolm, with
Angela Bassett as Betty and
Al Freeman, Jr. as Elijah Muhammad. Both
Roger Ebert and
Martin Scorsese named the film as one of the 10 best of the decade.
The 2001 film
Ali also features Malcolm X, as played by
Mario Van Peebles.
The band
Rage Against The Machine talks about him in the song "
Wake Up" when they say "You know they (the government) murdered X, And tried to blame it on Islam".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Malcolm X'.
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