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Civil rights activist Malcolm X was a prominent leader in the Nation of Islam. Until his 1965 assassination, he vigorously supported Black nationalism.

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Malcolm X was a minister, civil rights activist , and prominent Black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and 1960s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. A naturally gifted orator, Malcolm X exhorted Black people to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. The fiery civil rights leader broke with the Nation of Islam shortly before his assassination in 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a speech. He was 39 years old.

FULL NAME: Malcolm X (nee Malcolm Little) BORN: May 19, 1925 DIED: February 21, 1965 BIRTHPLACE: Omaha, Nebraska SPOUSE: Betty Shabazz (1958-1965) CHILDREN: Attilah, Quiblah, Lamumbah, Ilyasah, Malaak, and Malikah ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the fourth of eight children born to Louise, a homemaker, and Earl Little, a preacher who was also an active member of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and avid supporter of Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey .

Due to Earl Little’s civil rights activism, the family was subjected to frequent harassment from white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and one of its splinter factions, the Black Legion. In fact, Malcolm Little had his first encounter with racism before he was even born. “When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, ‘a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home,’” Malcolm later remembered. “Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out.”

The harassment continued when Malcolm was 4 years old, and local Klan members smashed all of the family’s windows. To protect his family, Earl Little moved them from Omaha to Milwaukee in 1926 and then to Lansing, Michigan, in 1928.

However, the racism the family encountered in Lansing proved even greater than in Omaha. Shortly after the Littles moved in, a racist mob set their house on fire in 1929, and the town’s all-white emergency responders refused to do anything. “The white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned to the ground,” Malcolm later remembered. Earl moved the family to East Lansing where he built a new home.

Two years later, in 1931, Earl’s dead body was discovered lying across the municipal streetcar tracks. Although the family believed Earl was murdered by white supremacists from whom he had received frequent death threats, the police officially ruled his death a streetcar accident, thereby voiding the large life insurance policy he had purchased in order to provide for his family in the event of his death.

Louise never recovered from the shock and grief over her husband’s death. In 1937, she was committed to a mental institution where she remained for the next 26 years. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in foster homes.

In 1938, Malcolm was kicked out of West Junior High School and sent to a juvenile detention home in Mason, Michigan. The white couple who ran the home treated him well, but he wrote in his autobiography that he was treated more like a “pink poodle” or a “pet canary” than a human being.

He attended Mason High School where he was one of only a few Black students. He excelled academically and was well-liked by his classmates, who elected him class president.

A turning point in Malcolm’s childhood came in 1939 when his English teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher responded, “One of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic... you need to think of something you can be... why don’t you plan on carpentry?” Having been told in no uncertain terms that there was no point in a Black child pursuing education, Malcolm dropped out of school the following year, at the age of 15.

After quitting school, Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Ella, about whom he later recalled: “She was the first really proud Black woman I had ever seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin. This was unheard of among Negroes in those days.”

Ella landed Malcolm a job shining shoes at the Roseland Ballroom. However, out on his own on the streets of Boston, he became acquainted with the city’s criminal underground and soon turned to selling drugs.

He got another job as kitchen help on the Yankee Clipper train between New York and Boston and fell further into a life of drugs and crime. Sporting flamboyant pinstriped zoot suits, he frequented nightclubs and dance halls and turned more fully to crime to finance his lavish lifestyle.

In 1946, Malcolm was arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to 10 years in prison. To pass the time during his incarceration, he read constantly, devouring books from the prison library in an attempt make up for the years of education he had missed by dropping out of high school.

Also while in prison, Malcolm was visited by several siblings who had joined the Nation of Islam, a small sect of Black Muslims who embraced the ideology of Black nationalism—the idea that in order to secure freedom, justice and equality, Black Americans needed to establish their own state entirely separate from white Americans.

He changed his name to Malcolm X and converted to the Nation of Islam before his release from prison in 1952 after six and a half years.

Now a free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, where he worked with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad , to expand the movement’s following among Black Americans nationwide.

Malcolm X became the minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston, while also founding new temples in Hartford and Philadelphia. In 1960, he established a national newspaper called Muhammad Speaks in order to further promote the message of the Nation of Islam.

Articulate, passionate, and an inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted Black people to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. “You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.”

His militant proposals—a violent revolution to establish an independent Black nation—won Malcolm X large numbers of followers as well as many fierce critics. Due primarily to the efforts of Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952, to 40,000 members by 1960.

By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of the Civil Rights Movement, presenting a dramatic alternative to Martin Luther King Jr. ’s vision of a racially-integrated society achieved by peaceful means. King was critical of Malcolm’s methods but avoided directly calling out his more radical counterpart. Although very aware of each other and working to achieve the same goal, the two leaders met only once—and very briefly—on Capitol Hill when the U.S. Senate held a hearing about an anti-discrimination bill.

A rupture with Elijah Muhammad proved much more traumatic. In 1963, Malcolm X became deeply disillusioned when he learned that his hero and mentor had violated many of his own teachings, most flagrantly by carrying on many extramarital affairs. Muhammad had, in fact, fathered several children out of wedlock.

Malcolm’s feelings of betrayal, combined with Muhammad’s anger over Malcolm’s insensitive comments regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy , led Malcolm X to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964.

That same year, Malcolm X embarked on an extended trip through North Africa and the Middle East. The journey proved to be both a political and spiritual turning point in his life. He learned to place America’s Civil Rights Movement within the context of a global anti-colonial struggle, embracing socialism and pan-Africanism.

Malcolm X also made the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during which he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

After his epiphany at Mecca, Malcolm X returned to the United States more optimistic about the prospects for a peaceful resolution to America’s race problems. “The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision,” he said. “America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.”

Just as Malcolm X appeared to be embarking on an ideological transformation with the potential to dramatically alter the course of the Civil Rights Movement, he was assassinated .

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X took the stage for a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He had just begun addressing the room when multiple men rushed the stage and began firing guns. Struck numerous times at close range, Malcolm X was declared dead after arriving at a nearby hospital. He was 39.

Three members of the Nation of Islam were tried and sentenced to life in prison for murdering the activist. In 2021, two of the men—Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam—were exonerated for Malcolm’s murder after spending decades behind bars. Both maintained their innocence but were still convicted in March 1966, alongside Mujahid Abdul Halim, who did confess to the murder. Aziz and Islam were released from prison in the mid-1980s, and Islam died in 2009. After the exoneration, they were awarded $36 million for their wrongful convictions.

In February 2023, Malcolm X’s family announced a wrongful death lawsuit against the New York Police Department, the FBI, the CIA, and other government entities in relation to the activist’s death. They claim the agencies concealed evidence and conspired to assassinate Malcolm X.

Malcolm X married Betty Shabazz in 1958. The couple had six daughters: Attilah, Quiblah, Lamumbah, Ilyasah, Malaak, and Malikah. Twins Malaak and Malikah were born after Malcolm died in 1965.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

In the early 1960s, Malcolm X began working with acclaimed author Alex Haley on an autobiography. The book details Malcolm X’s life experiences and his evolving views on racial pride, Black nationalism, and pan-Africanism.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965 after his assassination to near-universal praise. The New York Times called it a “brilliant, painful, important book,” and Time magazine listed it as one of the 10 most influential nonfiction books of the 20 th century.

Malcolm X has been the subject of numerous movies, stage plays, and other works and has been portrayed by actors like James Earl Jones , Morgan Freeman , and Mario Van Peebles.

In 1992, Spike Lee directed Denzel Washington in the title role of his movie Malcolm X . Both the film and Washington’s portrayal of Malcolm X received wide acclaim and were nominated for several awards, including two Academy Awards.

In the immediate aftermath of Malcolm X’s death, commentators largely ignored his recent spiritual and political transformation and criticized him as a violent rabble-rouser. But especially after the publication of The Autobiography of Malcolm X , he began to be remembered for underscoring the value of a truly free populace by demonstrating the great lengths to which human beings will go to secure their freedom.

“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression,” he said. “Because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.”

• Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.
• Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
• You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.
• If you are not willing to pay the price for freedom, you don’t deserve freedom.
• We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying “We Shall Overcome.” We’ve got to fight to overcome.
• I believe that it is a crime for anyone to teach a person who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.
• We are non-violent only with non-violent people—I’m non-violent as long as somebody else is non-violent—as soon as they get violent, they nullify my non-violence.
• Revolution is like a forest fire. It burns everything in its path. The people who are involved in a revolution don’t become a part of the system—they destroy the system, they change the system.
• If a man puts his arms around me voluntarily, that’s brotherhood, but if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that’s not brotherhood, that’s hypocrisy.
• You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.
• My father didn’t know his last name. My father got his last name from his grandfather, and his grandfather got it from his grandfather who got it from the slavemaster.
• To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace. I formerly was a criminal. I formerly was in prison. I’m not ashamed of that.
• It’s going to be the ballot or the bullet.
• America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 18, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Malcolm X was a minister, a leader in the civil rights movement and a supporter of Black nationalism. He urged his fellow Black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary,” a stance that often put him at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. His charisma and oratory skills helped him achieve national prominence in the Nation of Islam, a belief system that merged Islam with Black nationalism. After Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, his bestselling book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, popularized his ideas and inspired the Black Power movement.

Malcolm X: Early Life

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska . His father was a Baptist preacher and follower of Marcus Garvey . The family moved to Lansing, Michigan after the Ku Klux Klan made threats against them, though the family continued to face threats in their new home.

In 1931, Malcolm’s father was allegedly murdered by a white supremacist group called the Black Legionaries, though the authorities claimed his death was an accident. Mrs. Little and her children were denied her husband’s death benefits.

Did you know? In 1964, Malcolm X made a pilgrimage to Mecca and changed his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

At age 6, the future Malcolm X entered a foster home and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown. Though highly intelligent and a good student, he dropped out of school following eighth grade. He began wearing zoot suits , dealing drugs and earned the nickname “Detroit Red.” At 21, he went to prison for larceny.

Nation of Islam

It was in jail that Malcolm X first encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad , head of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, a Black nationalist group that identified white people as the devil. Soon after, Malcolm adopted the last name “X” to represent his rejection of his “slave” name.

Malcolm was released from prison after serving six years and went on to become the minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem, where his oratory skills and sermons in favor of self-defense gained the organization new admirers: The Nation of Islam grew from 400 members in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. His admirers included celebrities like Muhammad Ali , who became close friends with Malcolm X before the two had a falling out.

His advocacy of achieving “by any means necessary” put him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Martin Luther King, Jr. ’s nonviolent approach to gaining ground in the growing civil rights movement .

After King’s “ I Have a Dream ” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, Malcolm remarked: “Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’ … while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?”

Malcolm X’s politics also earned him the ire of the FBI , who conducted surveillance of him from his time in prison until his death. J. Edgar Hoover even told the agency’s New York office to “do something about Malcolm X.”

In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty Shabazz (née Betty Sanders), a native of Detroit, Michigan , after a lengthy courtship.

The couple had six children, all daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba and twins Malikah and Malaak. Several of Malcolm X’s children have been outspoken activists in the civil rights movement and other causes.

Organization of Afro-American Unity

Disenchanted with corruption in the Nation of Islam, which suspended him in December 1963 after he claimed that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was “the chickens coming home to roost,” Malcolm X left the organization for good.

A few months later, he traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he underwent a spiritual transformation: "The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision," he wrote. Malcolm X returned to America with a new name: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

In June 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which identified racism, and not the white race, as the enemy of justice. His more moderate philosophy became influential, especially among members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ).

Malcolm X Assassination

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by three gunmen at an Organization of Afro-American Unity rally in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City .

Though it was initially believed that the three assassins were members of the Nation of Islam and were affiliated with religious leader Louis Farrakhan, the killing remains controversial and no consensus exists on who the killer(s) actually were.

In 2021, Muhammad Aziz was exonerated after being convicted in 1966 for the killing along with Khalil Islam and Mujahid Abdul Halim. Halim, who admitted to the shooting but later said Aziz and Islam were not involved, was paroled in 2010.

Malcolm X had predicted that he would be more important in death than in life, and had even foreshadowed his early demise in his book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm X is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, New York.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X began work on his autobiography in the early 1960s with the help of Alex Haley , the acclaimed author of Roots . The Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicled his life and views on race, religion and Black nationalism. It was published posthumously in 1965 and became a bestseller.

The book and Malcolm X’s life have inspired numerous film adaptations, most famously Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington .

Quotes by Malcolm X

“If you have no critics, you'll likely have no success.”

“Stumbling is not falling.”

“There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.”

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

“You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”

Malcolm X. Biography.com . ‘Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X.’ New York Times. People and Ideas: Malcolm X. PBS . Malcolm X’s 5 surviving daughters: Inside lives marred by tragedy and turmoil. New York Post . A man exonerated in the killing of Malcolm X is suing New York City for $40 million. NPR .

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Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother was the National recording secretary for the Marcus Garvey Movement which commanded millions of followers in the 1920s and 30s. His father was a Baptist minister and chapter president of The Universal Negro Improvement Association who appealed to President Hoover that Marcus Garvey was wrongfully arrested. Earl’s civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm’s fourth birthday.

Regardless of the Little’s efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl’s body was found lying across the town’s trolley tracks.

Police ruled both incidents as accidents, but the Little’s were certain that members of the Black Legion were responsible. Louise suffered emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Her children were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages.

Eventually Malcolm and his buddy, Malcolm “Shorty” Jarvis, moved back to Boston. In 1946 they were arrested and convicted on burglary charges, and Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison. (He was paroled after serving seven years.) Recalling his days in school, he used the time to further his education. It was during this period of self-enlightenment that Malcolm’s brother Reginald would visit and discuss his recent conversion to the Muslim religion. Reginald belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam (NOI).

Intrigued, Malcolm began to study the teachings of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad taught that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success. Among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people. By the time he was paroled in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname “X.” (He considered “Little” a slave name and chose the “X” to signify his lost tribal name.)

Intelligent and articulate, Malcolm was appointed as a minister and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad also charged him with establishing new mosques in cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Harlem, New York. Malcolm utilized newspaper columns, as well as radio and television to communicate the NOI’s message across the United States. His charisma, drive and conviction attracted an astounding number of new members. Malcolm was largely credited with increasing membership in the NOI from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.

The crowds and controversy surrounding Malcolm made him a media magnet. He was featured in a week-long television special with Mike Wallace in 1959, called “The Hate That Hate Produced.” The program explored the fundamentals of the NOI, and tracked Malcolm’s emergence as one of its most important leaders. After the special, Malcolm was faced with the uncomfortable reality that his fame had eclipsed that of his mentor Elijah Muhammad. Racial tensions ran increasingly high during the early 1960s. In addition to the media, Malcolm’s vivid personality had captured the government’s attention. As membership in the NOI continued to grow, FBI agents infiltrated the organization (one even acted as Malcolm’s bodyguard) and secretly placed bugs, wiretaps, cameras and other surveillance equipment to monitor the group’s activities.

Malcolm’s faith was dealt a crushing blow at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963. He learned that his mentor and leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly having relations with as many as six women within the Nation of Islam organization. As if that were not enough, Malcolm found out that some of these relationships had resulted in children.

Since joining the NOI, Malcolm had strictly adhered to the teachings of Muhammad – which included remaining celibate until his marriage to Betty Shabazz in 1958. Malcolm refused Muhammad’s request to help cover up the affairs and subsequent children. He was deeply hurt by the deception of Muhammad, whom he had considered a living prophet. Malcolm also felt guilty about the masses he had led to join the NOI, which he now felt was a fraudulent organization built on too many lies to ignore.

Shortly after his shocking discovery, Malcolm received criticism for a comment he made regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. “[Kennedy] never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon,” said Malcolm. After the statement, Elijah Muhammad “silenced” Malcolm for 90 days. Malcolm, however, suspected he was silenced for another reason. In March 1964 Malcolm terminated his relationship with the NOI. Unable to look past Muhammad’s deception, Malcolm decided to found his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc.

That same year, Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The trip proved life altering. For the first time, Malcolm shared his thoughts and beliefs with different cultures, and found the response to be overwhelmingly positive. When he returned, Malcolm said he had met “blonde-haired, blued-eyed men I could call my brothers.” He returned to the United States with a new outlook on integration and a new hope for the future. This time when Malcolm spoke, instead of just preaching to African-Americans, he had a message for all races.

After Malcolm resigned his position in the Nation of Islam and renounced Elijah Muhammad, relations between the two had become increasingly volatile. FBI informants working undercover in the NOI warned officials that Malcolm had been marked for assassination. (One undercover officer had even been ordered to help plant a bomb in Malcolm’s car).

After repeated attempts on his life, Malcolm rarely traveled anywhere without bodyguards. On February 14, 1965 the home where Malcolm, Betty and their four daughters lived in East Elmhurst, New York was firebombed. Luckily, the family escaped physical injury.

One week later, however, Malcolm’s enemies were successful in their ruthless attempt. At a speaking engagement in the Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Fifteen hundred people attended Malcolm’s funeral in Harlem on February 27, 1965 at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ (now Child’s Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ). After the ceremony, friends took the shovels away from the waiting gravediggers and buried Malcolm themselves.

Later that year, Betty gave birth to their twin daughters.

Malcolm’s assassins, Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1966. The three men were all members of the Nation of Islam.

The legacy of Malcolm X has moved through generations as the subject of numerous documentaries, books and movies. A tremendous resurgence of interest occurred in 1992 when director Spike Lee released the acclaimed movie, Malcolm X. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Denzel Washington) and Best Costume Design.

Malcolm X is buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

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May 19, 1925 to February 21, 1965

As the nation’s most visible proponent of  Black Nationalism , Malcolm X’s challenge to the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped set the tone for the ideological and tactical conflicts that took place within the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. Given Malcolm X’s abrasive criticism of King and his advocacy of racial separatism, it is not surprising that King rejected the occasional overtures from one of his fiercest critics. However, after Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, King wrote to his widow, Betty Shabazz: “While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had the great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem” (King, 26 February 1965).

Malcolm Little was born to Louise and Earl Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on 19 May 1925. His father died when he was six years old—the victim, he believed, of a white racist group. Following his father’s death, Malcolm recalled, “Some kind of psychological deterioration hit our family circle and began to eat away our pride” (Malcolm X,  Autobiography , 14). By the end of the 1930s Malcolm’s mother had been institutionalized, and he became a ward of the court to be raised by white guardians in various reform schools and foster homes.

Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) while serving a prison term in Massachusetts on burglary charges. Shortly after his release in 1952, he moved to Chicago and became a minister under Elijah Muhammad, abandoning his “slave name,” and becoming Malcolm X (Malcolm X, “We Are Rising”). By the late 1950s, Malcolm had become the NOI’s leading spokesman.

Although Malcolm rejected King’s message of  nonviolence , he respected King as a “fellow-leader of our people,” sending King NOI articles as early as 1957 and inviting him to participate in mass meetings throughout the early 1960s ( Papers  5:491 ). Although Malcolm was particularly interested that King hear Elijah Muhammad’s message, he also sought to create an open forum for black leaders to explore solutions to the “race problem” (Malcolm X, 31 July 1963). King never accepted Malcolm’s invitations, however, leaving communication with him to his secretary, Maude  Ballou .

Despite his repeated overtures to King, Malcolm did not refrain from criticizing him publicly. “The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy,” Malcolm told an audience in 1963, “is the Negro revolution … That’s no revolution” (Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,” 9).

In the spring of 1964, Malcolm broke away from the NOI and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. When he returned he began following a course that paralleled King’s—combining religious leadership and political action. Although King told reporters that Malcolm’s separation from Elijah Muhammad “holds no particular significance to the present civil rights efforts,” he argued that if “tangible gains are not made soon all across the country, we must honestly face the prospect that some Negroes might be tempted to accept some oblique path [such] as that Malcolm X proposes” (King, 16 March 1964).

Ten days later, during the Senate debate on the  Civil Rights Act of 1964 , King and Malcolm met for the first and only time. After holding a press conference in the Capitol on the proceedings, King encountered Malcolm in the hallway. As King recalled in a 3 April letter, “At the end of the conference, he came and spoke to me, and I readily shook his hand.” King defended shaking the hand of an adversary by saying that “my position is that of kindness and reconciliation” (King, 3 April 1965).

Malcolm’s primary concern during the remainder of 1964 was to establish ties with the black activists he saw as more militant than King. He met with a number of workers from the  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee  (SNCC), including SNCC chairman John  Lewis  and Mississippi organizer Fannie Lou  Hamer . Malcolm saw his newly created Organization of African American Unity (OAAU) as a potential source of ideological guidance for the more militant veterans of the southern civil rights movement. At the same time, he looked to the southern struggle for inspiration in his effort to revitalize the Black Nationalist movement.

In January 1965, he revealed in an interview that the OAAU would “support fully and without compromise any action by any group that is designed to get meaningful immediate results” (Malcolm X,  Two Speeches , 31). Malcolm urged civil rights groups to unite, telling a gathering at a symposium sponsored by the  Congress of Racial Equality : “We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying ‘We Shall Overcome.’ We've got to fight to overcome” (Malcolm X,  Malcolm X Speaks , 38).

In early 1965, while King was jailed in Selma, Alabama, Malcolm traveled to Selma, where he had a private meeting with Coretta Scott  King . “I didn’t come to Selma to make his job difficult,” he assured Coretta. “I really did come thinking that I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King” (Scott King, 256).

On 21 February 1965, just a few weeks after his visit to Selma, Malcolm X was assassinated. King called his murder a “great tragedy” and expressed his regret that it “occurred at a time when Malcolm X was … moving toward a greater understanding of the nonviolent movement” (King, 24 February 1965). He asserted that Malcolm’s murder deprived “the world of a potentially great leader” (King, “The Nightmare of Violence”). Malcolm’s death signaled the beginning of bitter battles involving proponents of the ideological alternatives the two men represented.

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X, 1 February 1957, in  Papers  4:117 .

Goldman, Death and Life of Malcolm X , 1973.

King, “The Nightmare of Violence,”  New York Amsterdam News , 13 March 1965.

King, Press conference on Malcolm X’s assassination, 24 February 1965,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King, Statement on Malcolm X’s break with Elijah Muhammad, 16 March 1964,  MCMLK-RWWL .

King to Abram Eisenman, 3 April 1964,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King to Shabazz, 26 February 1965,  MCMLK-RWWL .

(Scott) King,  My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. , 1969.

Malcolm X, Interview by Harry Ring over Station WBAI-FM in New York, in  Two Speeches by Malcolm X , 1965.

Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,”  in Malcolm X Speaks , ed. George Breitman, 1965.

Malcolm X, “We Are Rising From the Dead Since We Heard Messenger Muhammad Speak,”  Pittsburgh Courier , 15 December 1956.

Malcolm X to King, 21 July 1960, in  Papers  5:491 .

Malcolm X to King, 31 July 1963, 

Malcolm X with Haley,  Autobiography of Malcolm X , 1965.

Historical Material

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X

From Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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Malcolm X: Introduction

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Historical Context of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Other books related to the autobiography of malcolm x.

• Full Title: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• When Written: 1963-1965
• Where Written: New York
• When Published: 1965
• Literary Period: African-American memoir, 20th century memoir
• Genre: Autobiography, Nonfiction
• Setting: Primarily Lansing, Michigan, Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, with journeys throughout the US, the Middle East, and Africa
• Climax: While Malcolm’s assassination occurs outside of the narration, it looms over the book like a shadow, and can therefore be rightly considered the climax.
• Antagonist: The racial caste system that denies equality and justice to African Americans
• Point of View: First person

Extra Credit for The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is someone who writes a book on behalf of someone else and generally attempts to mimic their voice. Whether or not Alex Haley is a ghostwriter in the context of the Autobiogrpahy of Malcolm X is up for debate. On the one hand, Malcolm had considerable oversight on the text, rendering it more in line with his own style and language. On the other hand, Haley had considerable influence in convincing Malcolm to allow certain thoughts and feelings to be made public. So, perhaps the Autobiography is best understood as a collaboration, rather than as the product of a ghostwriter.

Film adaptation. Malcolm X (1992), starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee, was largely based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X . Washington was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, but lost to Al Pacino’s performance in Scent of a Woman (1992) – a choice publicly criticized by Lee.

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X and Alex Haley

• Literature Notes
• Malcolm X Biography
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-7
• Chapters 8-12
• Chapters 13-16
• Chapters 17-19
• Character Analysis
• Malcolm X (Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)
• Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole, Elijah Karriem)
• Reverend Earl Little
• Louise Little
• Ella (Ella Mae Little Collins)
• Betty X (Betty Shabazz)
• Critical Essay
• Three Assessments of Malcolm X
• Essay Questions
• Cite this Literature Note

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925; he dropped the "slave name" Little and adopted the initial X (representing an unknown) when he became a member of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm was the seventh of his father's nine children — three by a previous marriage — and his mother's fourth child. His father, Reverend Earl Little, was a Baptist minister and an organizer for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, a black separatist "back-to-Africa" group of the 1920s.

Most of Malcolm's early life was spent in and about Lansing, Michigan, where the family lived on a farm. Although the Little family was poor, they were self-sufficient until Reverend Little's death in 1931. After this, family unity began to dissolve: first Malcolm, who had become a discipline problem, was sent to live with another family in 1937; and later that year, Mrs. Little suffered a severe nervous breakdown and was sent to the state mental hospital. The other children became wards of the state.

Malcolm's defiant behavior toward authority remained a problem, and at thirteen, he was sent to the Michigan State Detention Home, bound for reform school. At the detention home, he received favored treatment (as a "mascot" of the white couple who operated the home), and rather than being sent on to reform school, he remained in the home through the eighth grade.

In junior high school, Malcolm became an outstanding student and was very popular with his schoolmates. But his world was upset in the eighth grade when his English teacher advised him not to try to become a lawyer because he was "a nigger." He became despondent and his schoolwork suffered. Finally, he asked to be transferred to the custody of his half-sister Ella, who lived in Boston. The request was granted, and he arrived in Boston in the spring of 1941.

In Boston, Malcolm found himself more attracted to the street life in the ghetto than to Ella's upper-class Roxbury society. A friend got him a job as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom, which rapidly became the center of his social life. With straightened hair and wearing a zoot suit, the hustler's uniform, he began to spend most of his free time there, dancing and learning the trades of the con man, the pimp, the dope pusher, and the thief. Ella's last hopes for saving him from ruin disappeared when he jilted Laura, the "respectable" Roxbury girl he had been dating, for a white woman, Sophia.

When America entered World War II, Malcolm was sixteen, too young for the army, but by lying about his age, he was able to get a job on the railroad, the war having caused a shortage of black porters, cooks, and waiters. This job took him for the first time to New York City, and when he was fired from the railroad for wild behavior, he went to Harlem to live.

He took a job as a waiter at Small's Paradise, a famous Harlem club, where he became acquainted with the elite of Harlem's underworld. When he was fired from Small's for soliciting an Army spy for a prostitute, he moved naturally into the sorts of jobs he had been learning from Small's customers — selling marijuana, stickups, numbers running, and bootlegging. After running into trouble with another hustler, and a narrow scrape with the police, Malcolm fled back to Boston. There he formed a burglary ring, with Sophia, her sister, and his friend Shorty. Again, he got into trouble: first, with a friend of Sophia's white husband; then, with the police. He was caught and sentenced to ten years in prison.

During his seven years in prison (1946-52), Malcolm underwent a great change. He was greatly influenced by a prisoner called Bimbi, a self-educated man who convinced Malcolm of the value of education. In the intervening years since leaving the eighth grade, Malcolm had forgotten how to read and write, but with Bimbi's tutelage and encouragement, he began to read and study, even taking correspondence courses in English and Latin.

In 1948, Malcolm's brother Reginald visited the prison and told Malcolm that he had a way to get him out of prison. He would not elaborate upon his scheme, but he did tell Malcolm not to eat any more pork. Purely on faith, Malcolm followed Reginald's advice. He later saw this as an instance of Allah, the God of Islam, working his will.

Reginald's plan was to enlist Malcolm as a member of the Nation of Islam, popularly known as the "Black Muslims." This religion, founded by Elijah Muhammad in the 1930s, strongly urged the separation of the races and considered the white man as the devil incarnate — a tenet which Malcolm was, by this time, quite willing to believe. The teachings of Elijah Muhammad stimulated Malcolm's interest in history, particularly in the history of the black peoples of the world; he found after studying history that there was compelling evidence of the white man's evil nature. Thus Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam and adopted the name by which he was to become famous — Malcolm X.

In 1952, Malcolm was paroled and went to Detroit to live with his brother Wilfred, also a member of the Black Muslims. Malcolm took a job in an automobile factory and began finding out all he could about the Nation of Islam. He even went to Chicago to meet Elijah Muhammad and eventually quit his job to study personally under this man, whom he considered his "savior." Late in 1953, Malcolm returned to Boston to organize a Black Muslim temple there, and in 1954, he was sent to Philadelphia; as a reward for his speed and diligence in organizing the temple there, he was appointed minister of Temple Seven in Harlem.

In the years between 1953 and 1963, the Nation of Islam grew from a small number of storefront temples to a large, organized, vocal national movement dedicated to black separatism, and Malcolm became its best-known and most volatile spokesman.

During this time, he was minister of Temple Number Seven and was organizer of several other temples around the country. He became increasingly close to Elijah Muhammad, both as an adviser and a friend. Early in 1958, Malcolm was married to Betty X, a member of his congregation. During the next seven years, they had four daughters, Attilah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, and Amiliah.

In 1959, the Black Muslims began to attract nationwide publicity. They were the subject of a television documentary, "The Hate That Hate Produced," which focused primarily on Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm, emphasizing the organization's separatist doctrines and official hatred of whites. This program, along with C. Eric Lincoln's book Black Muslims in America and a series of violent confrontations with the police, rapidly vaulted Malcolm into national prominence as a symbol of, and spokesman for, the "angry black man." Because he was a symbol of racial hatred, he had frequent notoriety in the press concerning the burgeoning integration movement, which he opposed. For white America, he became an object of hatred and fear, especially for those liberal whites who backed integration.

Malcolm's sudden notoriety had unexpected results; Elijah Muhammad, fearful of his growing influence, began to withdraw his support of Malcolm. At the same time, Malcolm began to hear rumors that Elijah Muhammad had been violating the moral codes of the Nation of Islam by committing adultery. The rift between the two men gradually grew wider and finally resulted in Malcolm's being silenced and his ultimate suspension from the organization.

The incident which led to the suspension (though it was more likely an excuse than an actual cause) was Malcolm's remark in November of 1963 that the assassination of President Kennedy was a case of "chickens coming home to roost." Although the suspension was initially to be for only ninety days, Malcolm suspected that it would become permanent. His suspicions were confirmed when a member of his temple confessed to him that he had been ordered to assassinate Malcolm by bombing his car. The assassination order, which could have been given only by Elijah Muhammad himself, hastened Malcolm's "psychological divorce" from the Muslims. Soon his newfound feeling of independence, coupled with his awareness of his popularity with ghetto blacks, led him to found his own organization.

Despite its name, Muslim Mosque, Inc., Malcolm's organization was intended to be primarily a secular, politically-oriented activist group dedicated to carrying out the program of racial separation and community control which the Nation of Islam had put forth but failed to act upon. Malcolm realized the necessity of including blacks of all faiths in his new organization, so he attempted to de-emphasize the religious bias. At the same time, however, he was being influenced more and more by the orthodox Islam faith of the Middle East, and early in 1964, he decided to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy City of Islam — a journey which every true Muslim must make once in his lifetime.

Malcolm's pilgrimage to Mecca was financed by Ella, who had also broken with the Nation of Islam, and who had been saving to make the pilgrimage herself. The trip was arranged with the cooperation and assistance of Muslim officials in America, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia; all obstacles in the complicated procedure of obtaining permission to enter the city were ignored because of the assistance of other Muslims, black and white. During the pilgrimage, Malcolm began to realize that the whiteness he had hated and fought in America was not so much a matter of color, as the Nation of Islam had taught, but a matter of attitude and behavior. Being white did not make a man evil; but being a white American, however, generally did imply certain patterns of behavior and certain attitudes about race. Thus Malcolm began to believe that the only way that America could avert racial disaster was to alter its social makeup and to accept the "Oneness of Man" under the "Oneness of God" — a truth which "Christian" white America had ignored.

This is not to say that Malcolm came to embrace the doctrine of integration; he did not. He still believed in the separation of races, mainly because of the natural inclination of peoples of similar color to seek one another out. But he did believe it possible for people of different races to cooperate and coexist if they would learn to consider one another as brothers under Allah.

After the pilgrimage, Malcolm once again changed his name. The first change had been the renunciation of his "slave name," Little; the new change was the acceptance of the ceremonial Muslim title, Elijah Malik El-Shabazz, "the pilgrim Malcolm the Negro." He was made a guest of the state by Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, who granted him a personal audience and discussed with him the doctrinal differences between Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam and true Islam.

On his return journey, Malcolm visited several Middle Eastern and African countries and was received as an important visitor by both state officials and African-American expatriates in Nigeria and Ghana. This journey revealed to him the internal role of the black man and the possibilities of an international union of purpose among black people. It was this awakening that led to the idea of taking the matter of the black man's role in America before the United Nations — that is, he wanted to treat it as an international problem.

Malcolm was not surprised that his idea failed to gain wide support, nor that African Americans did not rush to follow him into orthodox Islam as their religion. He felt that circumstances had permitted him to realize things they could not yet realize, especially during his pilgrimage to Mecca; therefore, they could not fully understand the significance of his new religion and his feelings about international black unity.

Malcolm made another trip to Africa and to the Middle East later in 1964, and was again received as a visiting dignitary by the heads of state of the various nations he visited. He returned and spent much time working with his Organization of Afro-American Unity, which he had founded after his first trip abroad. These last few months of his life were a time of intense pressure. He was under continual threat of assassination by the Black Muslims, and his assistants were continually harassed and assaulted. His family was threatened with eviction from their home, which was owned by the Nation of Islam; and pressing financial needs of both his family and his fledgling organization kept him busy, speaking on college campuses and filming television programs. He also spent a great deal of time attempting to mend his relationship with more "moderate" black leaders.

Early in 1965, he traveled to France and England to make speaking engagements, but he was refused entry to France because he was an "undesirable." The night of his return to New York (February 13), his home was firebombed. Malcolm and his family escaped injury, but half the house was destroyed. Malcolm accused the Black Muslims of this attempt on his life; the Muslims countered with the charge that Malcolm had bombed the house himself for the sake of publicity. A few days later, Malcolm confided to his collaborator on the Autobiography, Alex Haley, that he was no longer certain that it was the Muslims who were attempting to take his life. He made no specific charges but said that he thought the attempts might be related to "what happened to me in France" — implying some sort of threat against him by persons in positions of authority.

On Sunday, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. He was to speak at an Organization of Afro-American Unity organizational meeting at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. As he began to speak, a fight broke out in the audience. During the ensuing confusion, three gunmen approached the stage and shot him down. He died instantly.

Three men, two of them Black Muslims, were arrested and convicted of the crime, but many of Malcolm's adherents still feel that the assassination was planned and carried out by a larger group of conspirators, perhaps including agents of the U.S. government. Whoever killed Malcolm, however, did not succeed in destroying his influence. Through The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published after his death, he has reached a much wider and more sympathetic audience than he ever had during his lifetime.

The volume may be read in many ways. As an autobiography, it tells the life story of an interesting and important man. As a sociological study, it provides fascinating insights into ghetto life and the ways which one man learned to survive in the ghetto. As a religious work — which is perhaps the way Malcolm intended the book to be read — it tells of his struggle to find his God. Yet it is as a political work that the book has had its strongest impact. Through the Autobiography, Malcolm has continued to exert great influence over the various black radical political movements since his death. His precise political position at the end of his life is unclear; however, he had been going through a period of transition during the year since his expulsion from the Nation of Islam, and he had been reassessing his old beliefs. One of the major difficulties with this autobiography is the fact that it was written over a period of two years, during one of which he was still a Black Muslim minister; also, he died before the book could be put into final form. Therefore, his attitudes expressed in the book sometimes seem contradictory, and it is difficult to tell in exactly what direction he was moving at the end of his life. Perhaps he would most like to be remembered as he suggested to Life magazine reporter Gordon Parks a few days before his death. "It's a time for martyrs now. And if I'm to be one, it will be in the cause of brotherhood."

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New Bio Raises Provocative Questions About Malcolm X

A new controversial biography of Malcolm X offers fresh insights into the life and death of the Black leader. The book, entitled "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," is being released this week and was written by prominent African American scholar Manning Marable. Marable died last week, just days before his seminal work was released. The biography touches on sensitive aspects of the activist's life, including his sexuality and assassination. Host Michel Martin discusses the book with one of the author's lead researchers, Zaheer Ali.

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

One of the country's most important African-American scholars died this past Friday, just days before his seminal work on the life of Malcolm X was published. Manning Marable was professor of history and political science at Columbia University. He talked about his fascination with Malcolm X on public radio's "Democracy Now" in this interview in 2005.

(Soundbite of radio show, "Democracy Now")

Professor MANNING MARABLE (Columbia University): I think that Malcolm X was the most remarkable historical figure produced by black America in the 20th century. That's a heavy statement, but I think that in his 39 short years of life, Malcolm came to symbolize black urban America, its culture, its politics, its militancy, its outrage against structural racism.

MARTIN: That's the late Manning Marable, who died Friday at the age of 60 after complications from pneumonia. His comprehensive biography on Malcolm X was published this week. It's called "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" and it examines a time of great unrest in this country, especially for African Americans, from the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to the struggle for civil rights.

We are pleased to be joined by Zaheer Ali, a doctoral student in history at Columbia University. He was one of the lead researchers who worked with the late Manning Marable on his biography. And Zaheer Ali is with us now. Welcome to the program. And may I just say, we are so sorry for the loss of this dear colleague.

Mr. ZAHEER ALI (Researcher): Thank you so much, and thank you for focusing on his work.

MARTIN: I just want to talk about the title of the work, "A Life of Reinvention." And he wrote that Malcolm X was constantly rewriting his own story, from his early years as a vagabond in Boston and New York to his conversion to Islam and subsequent rise to prominence as a militant advocate for black separatism. Malcolm X is a mythic figure to many people, and many people will have read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X."

And one of Dr. Marable's insights is that there was a lot of reinvention in that work. So I wanted to just ask you, first of all, what was most surprising to you in the research that emerged over the course of this work?

Mr. ALI: Well, I think you're absolutely right. You know, the autobiography began for Malcolm as a text to bear witness to the transformative teachings of the Nation of Islam. And so in doing that he highlighted the contrast of his life prior to being in the Nation and then after. And there were of course embellishments and exaggerations. One was, the Detroit Red era of Malcolm's life is exaggerated. He was not really that hardcore of a hustler as he portrayed. The other aspect that...

MARTIN: Perhaps like some rap stars today...

Mr. ALI: Yes, exactly. Exactly. So he also was very skilled in how to relate to his audiences. And so he would frequently draw on a kind of larger truth of the black experience to appeal to his audience and to illustrate the kind of hope that they should have for transformation. He wanted to present himself as an example. And that was probably one of most striking things.

The other was the political evolution does not really come across in the autobiography, in part because his life was cut so short. And in part because by 1963, Alex Haley believed that he had all the material he needed to complete the autobiography. He had not, of courses, anticipated that Malcolm would be, you know, silenced in the Nation and then leave the Nation.

MARTIN: There are some provocative allegations in this book, both about the beginning of Malcolm X's life, or his early years, and his ultimate end. One of the provocative pieces of information that's in the book is that - the suggestion that Malcolm X had a homosexual relationship in his early years with an employer named Paul Lennon. At the time he was a butler, you know, a house man, you know, for him. What is the basis of this allegation and why do you think it was important to bring up?

Mr. ALI: Well, I think that Professor Marable wanted to present the totality of Malcolm for who he was. The evidence for Malcolm's relationship with Lennon actually is drawn from several sources.

Actually, Ella Collins's son, Rodnell Collins, who wrote "The Seventh Son," his account of his experiences with Malcolm - of course Malcolm lived with Ella in Boston for a period of time during his Detroit Red days, and in Rodnell Collins's book he talks about Malcolm and Shorty, which was Malcolm's running partner, having this hustle where they would, you know, visit this white businessman and powder him down and, you know, massage - give him a massage.

Basically that's one piece of it. And the other piece is looking at the autobiography. Malcolm describes this very same scenario but ascribes it to a figure named Rudy. And we've known by looking through the autobiography that several characters are either renamed or invented in this, you know, to kind of displace what Malcolm was talking about himself.

I think the key thing, though, about this is that this was during a time in Malcolm's life where he was known to be economically desperate, and also just kind of seeking out a footing, you know, because of the kind of life that he was living.

MARTIN: Well, no, there are shades of this that we've seen, you know, contemporary shades of this in the Ted Haggard story, for example. There have been a number of sort of powerful figures who have, you know, reported these kinds of - perhaps it just points again how sexuality is fluid, isn't it? And so why should it be any different for people who happen to be famous, you know?

Mr. ALI: Well, and that's the second thing, you know. That's the second thing. You know, I think that the reaction to this says more than the actual historical fact of this. I think the way people are reacting is telling in terms of how much they have vested in a kind of hetero-normative notion of masculinity. And I think it's important for us to ask ourselves questions about how we determine who a strong figure is and what makes a strong figure.

MARTIN: If you've just joined us, I'm speaking with Zaheer Ali. He's a doctoral student in history at Columbia University. He's one of the lead researchers who worked with the late Professor Manning Marable on his epic biography "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention." Manning Marable died this past Friday at the age of 60, just before this piece of work was published.

Let's talk about the other allegation in the biography that has gotten quite a lot of attention. It's about the assassination of Malcolm X. Professor Marable says that the FBI and NYPD's bureau of special services had advanced knowledge of the assassination plot, that they did not take it seriously, and that in fact that they were, you could make an argument that enabled it, that they wished for it or did nothing to stop it, even though they had advanced knowledge of it.

Also, Professor Manning points to a man who he says was allegedly involved and has managed to escape justice to this day.

Mr. ALI: Uh-huh. Right.

MARTIN: I did want to ask your thoughts about airing this now. There is no statute of limitations on murder. Was it Professor Marable's hope that perhaps individuals who had not been brought to account would be?

Mr. ALI: Absolutely. We know that three people were arrested and convicted and found guilty of Malcolm's assassination based on the research. I think Professor Marable quite persuasively argues that two of those men were, in fact, innocent and that there were many who were guilty of this crime who were never brought to justice.

FBI had been following Malcolm. They were in some of his earliest meetings when he was in Boston, for example, in 1954, holding small meetings in people's homes to begin building temples for the Nation of Islam. In one of those first meetings, one of those people was an informant. This is how deeply imbedded the FBI was in not only the Nation of Islam, but of course Malcolm.

And when he left, they sent, you know, J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo to then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy covering all of the nuances of this split. And, you know, much of these files have been declassified, which include many redacted documents.

And I think, you know, what Professor Marable is saying raises important questions in terms of what did the law enforcement agencies and the federal government know about the threats to Malcolm's life? And he was very excited. He wanted to frame this whole project around the call to reopen the case.

MARTIN: Finally, Mr. Ali, before we let you go - and we've been talking about this throughout our conversation - is what Professor Marable hoped, what did he hope most would be learned about Malcolm X from this prodigious work?

Mr. ALI: He wanted - you know, I think that Professor Marable, all of his academic work was always tied to activist work. So discussing Malcolm or writing about Malcolm, this project is tied to a social justice project. And for Professor Marable, that was getting justice for the people who killed Malcolm, getting that case reopened.

But he also wanted to examine the life of Malcolm - and I think it's done in this book - as a global figure. And especially using the diaries of his travels when he was in Africa, how Malcolm was becoming and positioning himself and understanding the relationship of the struggle of black people in America to that of the diaspora. And also connecting that and framing that within a spiritual context of Islam. And I think that's something that should get more notice as people begin to really delve into this book.

What's really interesting about the way Professor Marable unfolds Malcolm's life is the way he interweaves the global tradition of Islam throughout. And I think in this critical moment, as we look at, you know, our ongoing relationship with several Muslim countries and the way we're looking at the issues of - at Muslims in America, I think Malcolm's story is very critical to that.

In terms of his, Professor Marable's overall legacy, you know, reading this book for me is - kind of has a double meaning, because not only am I reading about Malcolm's past, but I'm being reminded of past conversations Manning and I would have about Malcolm. And he was an incredibly devoted scholar. He was, you know, committed to social justice.

He taught his students that your work in the academy should not be isolated from your work in the community. And I think, you know, he was the best of the progressive politics of W.E.B. Du Bois, along with the best of the institution-building of Booker T. Washington. He sought to leave sustainable institutions that could produce the kind of knowledge that would be in service to his community.

MARTIN: We've been speaking with Zaheer Ali, a doctoral student in history at Columbia University and one of the lead researchers who worked with the late professor Manning Marable on his biography, "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," which was just published this week. Manning Marable died this past Friday at the age of 60. He was the founding director of African-American studies at Columbia University, and since 2002 he was the director of Columbia Center for Contemporary Black History. Zaheer Ali, thank you so much for joining us once again.

Mr. ALI: Thank you so much.

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X Essay Questions

By alex haley, essay questions.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by jelo singson

How is the theme of perception discussed in the novel?

The theme of perception is central to narrative because the prejudice experienced by the black population is largely rooted in that: the perception of White Americans of African-Americans. This is particularly interesting because it is an autobiographical narrative written by an African-American human rights activist and Muslim minister during a time when the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak and racial tensions were at an all time high. The narrative presents two major perceptions of African-Americans by Whites in the US, both of which are formed by the author’s experiences growing up in America during the time of the Civil Rights Movement and during his indoctrination into Islam. The author presents the first perception wherein African-Americans are considered second class citizens and are denied access to opportunities to rise above their current status. The second perception is formed when the author undergoes his hadj and sees all manner of dark-skinned nationalities living in peace with various Caucasian races. He also notes the absence of these cohabiting nationalities as viewing themselves as either superior or inferior to the other. This experience tempers his previous vehemence towards Whites in America somewhat but doesn’t succeed in changing his stand on racial integration—a matter that the author sees as a futile activity.

What does the author compare the experience of growing up/having been born Black in America to?

The author likens the experience of being African-American in the US to being a child in the care of a manipulative parent. In a parent-child relationship a child’s dependence on their parent is the result of a child’s lack of capability to provide for himself/herself and is rooted in the parent’s love for the child. The author posits however that rather than a parent-child relationship based on love it is based on the desire to suppress the African-American people, much like an unloving, uncaring parent would create a system of dependency upon the care provided by them as a means of asserting dominance.

What does Fire symbolize in the novel?

Fire is a recurring image in the narrative and it is presented in both a positive and negative regard. The author recalls how his childhood home was burned down by white supremacists not too long after they had moved to another city. The author’s father also dies in a blaze. Fire in this context is seen as a destructive, harmful tool of fear and suppression in the hands of racist extremists. The author however also credits this fire as proof positive that the white supremacists view the black community as a threat because they are powerful and independent in their own regard—a force to be reckoned with, therefore a force to be put down.

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

The autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm comments on drunk white people sounding pretentious, offering him backhanded complements like, "You’re just as good as I am—I want you to know that.’”

Ella is Malcolm’s older step sister who lives in Boston and who takes care of Malcolm. Ella becomes Malcolm’s female role model. Even though at first Ella so skeptical regarding Malcolm’s new faith, she also become a Muslim and she follows her...

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Study Guide for The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X study guide contains biographies of Malcolm X and Alex Haley, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Autobiography of Malcolm X written by Alex Haley.

• Symbols of Malcolm X's Life
• The Influence of Malcolm X on Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Autobiography of Malcolm: The Story Behind the Man
• Reading in the "Prison" of Oppression: Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X

Lesson Plan for The Autobiography of Malcolm X

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Autobiography of Malcolm X

• Introduction
• Construction
• Legacy and influence

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The autobiography of Malcolm X : as told to Alex Haley - Malcolm X, Alex Haley

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